Conclusions are summarised in relation to the three aims: to explore and describe the organisation of improvement capacity in local schools, to develop an understanding of this organisation as a practice and as a sensemaking process in local schools and to address support issues in relation to these results. We argue that the idea of drivers and the organisation of capacity develop historically through the practices of local schools and through the daily work of teachers, school leaders and students in a specific school. This history evolves through social life within the school organisation and materialises in teachers’ and school leaders’ relationships to each other, the organisation they have built, the capacity they embrace, the meaning they have given to it and the identities they have developed. Supporting advice on how to use the six school types in local improvement work is given. Finally, we suggest three guidelines for future school development: (1) a policy development from the basis of the local school history; (2) a balance between national governance and local autonomy and (3) state support for the development of school organisations.