ABSTRACT
Primary schools varied from creative brilliance and impressive outcomes to those characterised by an unstructured lack of challenge. Secondary schools supported the proposals, as they would acquire an extra year group of pupils from the middle schools, as well as new buildings to support these. From the National Commission on Education came 'Success Against the Odds', a series of case studies of 11 UK schools where pupils demonstrating significant disadvantage had succeeded 'against the odds'. In this project, well-respected researchers forensically examined the factors that seemed to explain the schools' successes. In The All Souls Group, invited members from senior levels of the civil service, higher and further education, local authorities and schools meet three times a year to listen to and discuss with leading practitioners and theorists. By straddling issues from early years to higher education and demonstrating the connections across and between apparently separate components, people enlarge their sense of what they should be trying to achieve.
