Based on observational data, this paper draws upon the work of both Goffman and Butler to investigate the ways in which high achieving pupils in our sample ‘perform’ their gendered selves in the context of the classroom environment. This paper will look at the complex ways in which multiple ‘selves’ are simultaneously performed in interaction to different viewers  - to teachers and to peers. It is suggested that such multiple performances of self are intended both to present a version of self that the teacher will interpret as embodying the ‘good’ pupil, and that the actor’s peers will interpret as embodying qualities of the ‘popular’ pupil. Some pupils seem to be more successful than others in being able to maintain such performances, and in having such performances judged as ‘authentic’ by others.   Butler’s work will be drawn upon to explore the gendered dimensions of such performances, and the tensions and contradictions between such gendered notions of the ‘good’ and ‘popular’ pupil. The relative ‘success’ and ‘failure’ of  particular performances will be analysed in relation to wider discourses around gender, class, and ethnicity that infuse these performances of self.