Much has been written in sociology of education about the particularity of an organisational and institutional ethos that can be found in every single school. Our study is based on comparative case studies of four schools which take part in the programme on educational territories of primary intervention ('Priority Intervention Educational Territories (TEIP)') (two schools each in the city area of Lissabon and Porto). The paper presents results indicating a territory effect schools seek to overcome by means of participation in local cooperative networks. Thus in the illusion or temptation of 'schools as islands' or 'schools as refuges' they provide a compensatory connection between a reality of departure (families in deprived areas) and a reality of arrival (low-qualification and de-qualifying jobs at the labour market related to structural unemployment). Based on their special practices those schools develop in territorial dynamics and implement new dynamics of empowerment of families and pupils by carrying out school within and outside of school.