Everyone wants a high performing education system but how to secure it is a hotly debated. In the UK we structure for educational mediocrity and we achieve it. We assume that that only a minority of advantaged children can reach high levels of educational performance. Meanwhile our economic rivals are more ambitious. They focus not on ‘choosing who is capable of achieving what’ but rather ‘what do we need as a country and how can we secure it’. These systems achieve high performance for the many and the individual student from any background is empowered to achieve. We squander our talent, they foster theirs. Can we really afford to be so complacent? Room at the Top offers a new vision of how to achieve inclusive education for high performance.