This article outlines the "Inquiry Cycle" at Ilam School in New Zealand. It is underpinned by the main tenets of the New Zealand Curriculum "Teaching as Inquiry" statement. Ilam's cycle involves seven core elements that evolved over a two-year, whole-school journey focused on developing a meaningful localised curriculum framework, building a community of learners, and ensuring all professional development is a comprehensive, sustained, and intensive approach to improving teachers' and principals' effectiveness in raising student achievement. They are: (1) Teaching and learning goals; (2) Ariki Project Quality Learning Circles; (3) Moderation of students' work; (4) Learning Walks; (5) Specific quality professional development; (6) Classroom Observations, and (7) Effective Pedagogy Rubric. Successful programmes encourage the development of teachers' learning communities, provide ways for teachers to share their expertise and experience more systematically, and develop schools as learning organisations. The perceived positive outcomes of the "Ilam Macro-Level Teaching as Inquiry Cycle" confirm the value of this approach and offer further insight into how this could be structured. Such a structure might build on the ideas from the Ariki Project, where connections can be viewed between the principal's intents, teacher behaviour, and student outcomes.