Around the globe governments are waking up to the fact that improvements in education cannot be secured by the action of educational policy makers and professionals alone. Schools are “inextricably linked to their communities” (Carrim and Shalem, 1999, p 16), and solutions lie not in unsustainable top-down reform but in securing commitment and partnership with the range of stakeholders that make up a community. The World Conference on Education for All issued a declaration that: New and revitalised partnerships at all levels will be necessary…. Genuine partnerships contribute to the planning, implementation, managing and evaluating of basic education programmes. When we speak of ‘an expanded vision and renewed commitment’, partnerships are at the heart of it. (Bray, 2000, p 6)