Public perceptions of mathematics in England are often of a remote inaccessible academic discipline, and disaffection with the subject is a widespread problem. Results from a multi-method study of post-16 students in vocational education in England show however how students' experiences of mathematics after their transition from school to vocational education can lead to changes in their beliefs, emotional responses and attitudes to mathematics. The construct of a personal image of mathematics provides a model to capture these changes and leads to an examination of the features of students' learning experiences that allow positive images of mathematics to develop. Negative images are often grounded in prior experiences of failure and disaffection at school but exposure to a mathematics curriculum with a focus on application rather than knowledge, in a different educational setting, helps students develop an alternative view of the subject to the common image in society. Experiences of a different teaching approach also contribute to these new images, whilst shifts in students' values make their new encounters with a more applied form of mathematics particularly relevant.