Although Scotland has always maintained a separate and independent approach to education, since devolution the countries of Scotland, England and Wales have developed increasingly divergent education policies. These have taken place against the backdrop of a national government of 'New Labour' and an increasing focus on improving standards for the UK as a whole. Key policy documents have been produced for each country featuring a clear agenda for change regarding the future direction of educational policy. These signal a desire for aspirational transformation within each country. This paper uses three of these key policy documents in the UK to highlight aspects of this increasing divergence. These are, for Scotland, Wales and England respectivelyo Ambitious, Excellent Schools: Our Agenda for Action (2004)o Learning Country Two: Delivering the Promise (2006) o Higher Standards, Better Schools for All: More Choice for Parents and Pupils (2005)The research reported in this paper reflects the authors' professional interest in the way the discourses of policy are expressed in each country, post-devolution. As the authors also have extensive 'lived' experience of education in England, Wales and Scotland, they are able to offer a distinctive understanding of the nuances of these policy divergences.We undertake close textual analysis of three key policy documents , using tools from the critical literacy field. This approach requires analysis at the micro level of words and is the main research instrument employed. it is supported by macro level evaluation of the orientation features of each text and a study of the visual images used. This multi-layered approach offers a reading of policy texts with the potential for valuable interpretations of the discourses of policy. The research method we use is based on the work of Hyatt (2005), which has been applied in education contexts. Hyatt's work is strongly influenced by theories on critical literacy developed by Luke (2004), Fairclough (2001), Jewett and Kress ( 2003), Street (2003) and others in the UK and Australia. It is recognised that work in this paradigm pays close attention to language as a representation of society and so is particularly suitable as a theoretical frame to examine how policy is being formed in post devolution UK. In working with Hyatt's critical literacy frame, we analyse a selection of words from each document. Our professional knowledge of the contexts of the three countries, as educators and researchers, informs this choice of words. Positive and negative value terms such as 'excellent', 'ambitious', 'unsatisfactory' and 'failing' are examined. Nation terms such as 'national', 'minority ethnic' and 'bilingual' are scrutinised, as is the use of inclusive/ exclusive words such as 'we', 'our, 'they' and 'their'. The proportions of occurrences of these words are identified: and some of the contexts where they occur are discussed. We also examine visual images, comparing the symbols, pictures and diagrams for each document in the three countries. Then we compare our findings across the three countries.Although the language used in policy documents may appear transparent, it perhaps should not be taken as 'read'. We find that although there are commonalties between the policy agendas of Scotland, England and Wales, importantly, there are 'telling' differences when they are 'read' closely and comparatively. In the document for England, for example, there is a balanced use of positive and negative value words, while the Scottish document makes little use of negative value words. The English document reflects greater acknowledgment of cultural diversity and international dimensions, while the Welsh and Scottish ones infrequently refer to these terms. Compared to the other two documents, the Welsh document shows a marked concern with nationhood.The implication of these findings is interesting. It is clear that each country is very concerned with its own educational agenda and that these take parallel foci when compared one with another. Our literary analysis reveals essentially national monologues, with respect to each other's policy, in the countries of England, Wales and Scotland. 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