The paper aims at exploring if and how success has been sustained over time in schools which were identified as successful five years ago. Three schools were selected for a revisit, and our sample included two combined schools (grade 1-10) and one upper secondary school (grade 11-13). In two schools the same principals were still in post, and in the third school there had recently been a change in principalship. Interviews with the principal and a group of teachers at each school were the major source of new data. Questions that guided our study: What structural and cultural changes can be identified within the schools compared to five years ago? What factors might help sustain success over time? Our findings showed that the learning centred approach we identified earlier had been sustained in the schools during the five years. All principals focused on multiple ways of influencing staff motivation, commitment and working conditions, teamwork was a vital characteristic, and they also reported on their struggle to sustain and promote equity and social justice. For the two schools with principals still in post we could hardly detect any change in preferred strategies, but for the third school with the new principal there was a significant change. Although his ethos was closely connected to that which existed at the school five years ago, his leadership approach and the agenda for school improvement were different. As such, the study provides an example of how principals have the power to set the tone and the agenda for school development even though leadership practice is an interactive process involving many people.