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Guy Vincent (1933-2017) and researchers at the Groupe de recherche sur la socialisation [Research Group on Socialisation] (GRS), the laboratory he managed from its creation in 1975 until 1991, are credited with inventing the concept of the school form. This Article takes a long view of this sociological conceptualisation. The chronological approach begins in 1961, the year in which Guy Vincent obtained a university position and began a thesis under the supervision of Raymond Aron and was contacted to take part in Pierre Bourdieu’s first education surveys. It ends with the recognition of the importance of the concept of the school form in the renewal of the sociology of education, following the publication of L’école primaire en France [Primary school in France] in 1980. This concept involves an idea of history, of society and a definition of socialisation. The gradual construction of its originality is highlighted by examining in detail the many and cumulative intellectual influences. Its close links with the state of social sciences and debates in the field of education, particularly those surrounding the theories of reproduction, are also examined.