The challenges for education systems of student disaffection in working-class schools are well known, but the implications of high levels of student optimism in the absence of the resources needed to support academic success have been less often considered. Through examination of the school experiences post-compulsory learners in Australia, this paper seeks to identify some of the ways in which disadvantaged schools are able to command confidence and optimism from students. Analysis of the perspectives of students in schools catering to large numbers of second-generation Turkish-background students suggests that gender and ethnicity organise, make legible and obscure the production of educational disadvantage in these sites. I discuss the implications of strong confidence and faith in schools amongst students in light of contribution of this investment to a wider system of management and legitimisation of inequalities in schooling. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure, and 7 notes.)