This study focuses on the negotiation of environmental identity by ten New Zealand students as they progressed from late primary school to junior secondary school. Interviews with these students and their parents focussed on six theoretical perspective prominent in environmental education: significant life experiences, transformative learning, environmental literacy, values, action competence and environmental identity. Thirteen major themes emerged, which are discussed in terms of two overarching findings. Firstly, the deep-seated, composite and pivotal resonances between home and school influences in effective environmental education for sustainability (EEfS) learning are described, and suggestions are made for how this can be better taken into account. Secondly, a focus on the complex negotiation of the early teenage years suggests how promoting EEfS might occur more productively in secondary schools.