This paper considers teaching staff preparing for new premises intended to facilitate enquiry learning. The existing school consists of self-contained classrooms and teachers mainly teach alone. In the new building there will be large, shared spaces, facilitating movement and different groupings of students and encouraging autonomy for students and teamwork for teachers. We worked with teachers and students to explore current experiences, and anticipations for the new building, centred on an ‘experimental week’ of enquiry learning that took place in an existing large space (a school hall). We have reported the perspective of the students elsewhere (Woolner et al, 2012) and in this paper we will explore the experiences of the teachers involved, particularly their ideas about the potential for changing practices. We met the teachers before and after the experimental week, observed the week and conducted interviews. The first day, using images and student statements to mediate discussions about teaching and learning, was intended to support staff in planning the experimental week. After the week, the team met groups of teachers and conducted individual interviews with some teachers mediated by photographs of the week. The tensions and stresses of attempting to make extensive changes to teaching practices were evident.