Description: The paper is in two parts: the first examines the concept of 'excellence' and its prevalence in official discourse in the UK. The second part is a report of an empirical study which examines the extent to which young people feel themselves capable of excellence and motivated to achieve excellence. Methodology: The first part is a conceptual study of excellence, seeking to define the term in an educational context, to examine its links to Total Quality Management, to identify the way in which an emphasis on excellence can be seen, both currently and historically, as a response to 'crisis narratives' in official discourse, and to consider the extent to which the goal of 'excellence for all' is meaningful in an educational context. It explores the use of 'excellence' in the rhetoric of New Labour and analyses its role as a condensation symbol and keyword. The second part comprises initial findings from a study of 120 school students(aged 15-18) and their attitudes to excellence. The study is non-experimental hypothesis testing, based on Likert-scale questionnaires: Rosenberg SES; Shwarzer GSES; PALS, University of Michigan; and, a questionnaire specifically focused on attitudes to excellence (exam results). The study attempts to separate attitudes to excellence from other variables such as self esteem, self-efficacy, and goal orientation. The research also considers the potential influence of gender, previous exam success, social class, and socio-economic status on student attitudes to excellence. Conclusions: The conceptual paper suggests that only an ipsative understanding of excellence can make any sense in the 'excellence for all' agenda, that the term is an example of New Labour's double-coding: a 'condensation symbol', rich in connotative suggestions but lacking definition. The use of the term 'excellence' can be seen to be part of an essentially wrong-headed attempt to evaluate educational provision in the manner of the technical-bureaucratic approach of the private business sector.The empirical findings, work in progress, are expected to support the view that norm- or criterion-referenced senses of excellence are not seen as motivational by school students, but that an ipsative, self-referenced definition of excellence, could be.