This article was originally presented at a seminar run by the Secondary Umbrella Group on the theme of "A Review of Labour's Achievement: Where next for secondary education?" It looks at the struggle of one secondary school and its local community to improve educational opportunities and life chances for its students. The author, a long-term governor at the school, uses the school's story as a lens through which to look at some of the major educational initiatives of New Labour's time in office. Without those initiatives, the school's story--and the lives of its students--would be very different. The school's fortunes have been fundamentally and positively affected by government policies, as they have also been shaped by the political policies of their Local Authority. Readers are left to determine for themselves which policies have offered most to the young people at the school.