Perhaps because of the context in terms of the country’s emergence from thirty years of conflict, one of the most influential approaches to leadership development in Northern Ireland has been that of invitational Leadership. Such an approach is based on setting a school’s vision on a firm platform of clearly articulated values and norms. When practised with intent, it leads to a form of distributed decision-making, and participation which embraces the whole spectrum of stakeholders. Such an approach affects the way in which meetings are organised, the style of school assemblies, and the operation of School Council among others. When well-established it pervades people, place, policies and processes in a myriad of small encounters. When fully embedded it changes not only daily experience but the whole school experience for students and teachers. The intent of this study is to determine the extent to which such an approach is found in one of Northern Ireland’s schools. In researching this it is our intention to generate new knowledge that addresses the research questions expressed in the symposium abstract The interviews, and questionnaires for the pilot study will be implemented and the findings reported to ECER 2013.