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Teachers' expectations of students have been extensively studied for forty years. However, students' self-expectations and the expectations of parents are less well understood. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of student, teacher and parent expectations in relation to student achievement from the perspective of each group. Focus groups of teachers, parents and secondary school students were used to explore each group's perceptions of the roles each group's expectations played in relation to student achievement. All focus groups were audio-taped and then transcribed. Themes within the transcripts were identified and data coded accordingly. The results revealed important similarities and differences in the ideas of the various groups. For example, streaming was perceived as an important barrier to students' achievement of their self-expectations. Furthermore, the expectations of teachers were perceived as having pervasive effects on student outcomes, mostly because of the opportunity to learn that resulted from teachers' expectations.