The legacy of the Carpe Vitam LfL project : helping schools to collaborate in a climate of competition.

Abstract

This paper provides an account of the way in which a group of schools in a single town in the UK have used the legacy of the Carpe Vitam project to aid them with their attempts to collaborate. The paper describes how the ‘tools for discourse’ that were developed through the Carpe Vitam project (for example a redesigned survey instrument, the portraiture strategy and the production of vignettes of innovative practice) have been used to further dialogue about leadership for learning across school boundaries. The schools’ move towards taking collective responsibility for educational outcomes in the community is seen in relation to a policy environment which, over time, has worked against collaboration.