To consider how processes of education governance linking the work of international organisations and national and regional policy-making in two contrasting policy environments affect policy enactment in schools, differences in mathematics teaching between English and German secondary schools were analysed using Bernstein's account of pedagogic practice. This allowed the opportunities for achievement provided to different groups of students to be identified. The findings suggest that, as a result of strong governance pressures, English higher achievers have more opportunities to make progress than lower achievers, a concern which is consistent with standardised assessment data. Despite policy changes, similarities in the teaching of higher and lower achieving students in Germany remain and these account, in part, for the narrower gap in achievement there.