This paper reports on emergent findings from the research project, focusing on school autonomy and school leadership. Using a data set comprising of interviews with senior leaders in five case-study schools, we report on the complex territory of choice facing practitioners in modern England. The effect of ‘New Public Management’ on English education policy over the last 20 years has produced a complicated terrain which raises questions about the nature of decision making processes (Ball, 2008) and the degree of autonomy school leaders have in reality (Thrupp and Willmott, 2003). Our mapping of the policy landscape had revealed a complex situation in which there were many possible variations of school organisation and self-governance. Aware of the role of context in the practice of leadership (Bottery, 2006), we set out to study, in depth, cases that represented a variety of such forms of organisation. In particular, we wanted to learn from school leaders how working in this national policy setting had influenced or impacted on their work in leading their schools. We were interested to learn what they understood about autonomy and how policy initiatives had translated for them into opportunities or constraints. To what extent had they taken action and what had been the impact?