Over the last decade, in both the Netherlands and England, national policy-driven changes have increased schools' responsibility in initial teacher education. This research gathered teacher educators' stories of challenges experienced 'on the ground' in these school-university partnerships. The aim was to explore the reality of working within school-based teacher education partnerships rather than a comparative study between the two countries. Challenges were identified in guiding and assessing student-teachers; professionalism and well-being of student-teachers and teacher educators; collaborative working and quality assurance. The stories revealed complexities of working across institutional borders with multiple stakeholders. Many teacher educators sought their own solution rather than discussing the challenges with others in the partnership. Resolution was sometimes beyond their control and needed to be dealt with on a different partnership level. The stories provide authentic teacher educator voices for use as a professional learning tool in developing collaborative practices in initial teacher education partnerships.