Over the past fifteen years, a range of collaborative initiatives have been developed in England and the UK by central and local government, and by schools themselves, to improve the quality of educational provision. With the new emphasis on the development of teaching schools in England (DfE, 2010), since 2010 the UK’s coalition government has promoted the notion of high-performing schools leading and brokering collaboration with other schools, both to raise standards and train new teachers to create what has been termed a ‘self-improving school system’ (Hargreaves, 2011).  At the same time, the notion of school leaders as system leaders has been reinforced by the expansion of the national leaders of education (NLE) programme. NLEs are described as outstanding headteachers or principals who ‘use their skills and experience to support schools in challenging circumstances’ (NCSL, 2011).

This paper will draw on the growing evidence and theoretical bases that have developed around school to school collaboration and school and social networks and their intersections (e.g. Daly, 2010; Hadfield & Chapman, 2009) to explore this policy shift.  It will address the following research questions:

• Are there similarities in the issues faced by leaders developing school to school collaboration?
• What do leaders of current collaborations see as their key leadership challenges?
• To what extent is previous research on school collaborations relevant to current developments in England (and internationally)?

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