Abstract
There is no more important goal for educators than enabling their students to develop the habit of enquiry and to embed a spirit of curiosity. Accomplishing this, as well as achieving high academic standards, is a task that seems to be beyond most jurisdictions, however well intentioned. For we are at a time in our educational history where there is a dominant culture of top down reform and external accountability. Nevertheless, David Hopkins and Wayne Craig did just this through using the ‘powerful learning’ framework they developed in the Northern Metropolitan Region of Victoria, Australia. In this contribution to the Education Today themed issue on “Understanding Achievement”, David and Wayne tell the story of how they achieved Curiosity and Powerful Learning for their students by working from the ‘inside – out’ and by building a systemic work culture that facilitated teacher leadership.