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Background: UK government policy views collaboration with outstanding schools as a way of helping apparently less successful schools to close the attainment gap. However, there has been little debate about criteria for defning a school's success or failure. Moreover it is unclear which aspects of outstanding schools could readily transfer to other schools. These questions applied when EducAid, an NGO with schools for disadvantaged children in Sierra Leone, was asked to provide a programme of workshops for teachers in neighbouring schools. Aims: (i) To establish whether EducAid's results justifed agreeing to the request; (ii) To identify key features of EducAid schools that could be transferable to neighbouring schools; (iii) To propose key features of an evaluation. Methods: Collection of national and local data and analysis of key features of EducAid schools that could, and could not, transfer to other schools …