The Specialist Schools Programme in England was predicated on the idea that designating a school with an identity centred around one subject specialism and providing additional funding for its development would raise standards in that specialism and across the school as a whole, as well as spreading excellence to other schools. This paper presents findings from an empirical study investigating one such specialism, the Specialist Language College (SLC), from the perspective of key stakeholders in both SLCs and non-SLCs. The study findings suggest that on designation as a Specialist School, strong impact is felt in terms of improved resources, information and communication technology (ICT) provision and most importantly on the status of languages in SLCs. The amount of contact and the impact of any contact between the SLCs and non-SLCs are reported as negligible, however, suggesting that aspects of the partnership aims of the specialist schools initiative are not being met. (Contains 3 tables.)