This paper explores the potential of networks as models for achieving change through participatory means in educational settings.  This is set against a backdrop of education systems which are encouraging greater individualism, for example through policies such as personalising learning and every child matters in the UK.  This, it is proposed, provides a tension between attempts to manage and change large educational systems, and personalised, individual participation in them encouraged by the strategies above.  Networks, it is suggested, provide flexible ways of bringing together members of education communities in ways which respect independence whilst satisfying a need for interdependence (Posch, 1994).  These forms of networks have been established in a number of countries and with a number of aspirations but this paper seeks to examine them as models for achieving change through participatory mechanisms.  This is achieved through an examination of relevant literature, exploring the views of scholars who have studied networks and participatory interventions such as Lierberman and Wood (2002), Wallerstein and Duran (2003) and Wohlsetter et al (2003).  The practical applications of these networks are then examined through three network case studies of educational networks in the United Kingdom.