This paper describes some key characteristics of two secondary schools that were able to sustain benefits accrued from funded, externally facilitated literacy professional development intervention, during the year after facilitation had ceased. Characteristics that, together, signal a school with the potential to sustain gains in understanding about learning and literacy included the role of key people in building a critical mass community of practice, the theoretical and learner-focused nature of professional learning sessions built around an inquiry cycle, the use of intellectual resources focused more broadly on learning rather than literacy and the use of literacy data to facilitate evidence-based teaching.