ABSTRACT
The transition that the Central South Wales Challenge set out to achieve can broadly be characterised as a movement from a bureaucratic and centralised approach to school improvement to a polycentric one led by networks of schools. Since devolution, Welsh education policy has gradually diverged from the other countries in the UK. Its particular approach has been a complex mix of collaboration and partnership working, with aspects of high-stakes accountability. Applying strategic lessons from City Challenge to Wales required a recognition that the histories and politics of competition and collaboration vary across contexts. Hub schools were relatively high-performing schools that were commissioned by the consortium to provide a wide range of professional learning and school improvement services for local schools. Peer enquiry was initially designed as a systematic process by which senior leaders in higher-achieving schools could support one another through a process of mutual investigation.
