<p>In Australia, urban vertical schools are relatively new and invite new aspirations for education. Aspirations are often represented in educational leadership literature and architecture in terms of a shared vision guiding decisions and creating alignment between an imagined school design and the realised educational experience. As well as providing coherence in local school design, aspirations are also understood as essential to human capability and wellbeing, and therefore school design. This paper analyses the way that aspirations guided the design of three recently opened vertical secondary schools in Australian capital cities. Thirteen leaders from the architecture, education, building and furniture design teams were interviewed. The resulting narrative analysis is presented as a collective case study of collaborative school design of new vertical schools. The analysis identified an overarching aspirational story for the vertical schools to express difference and to be understood in their difference, even though they emerged from pre-existing procurement and design standards. The narrative of difference encapsulates aspirational ideas, processes and actions that culminated in the vertical schools including leading collaboratively with different vision and values, learning in difference articulating innovation, and living in difference reflecting post-occupancy roles of aspirations. As well as contributing to the growing research about the potential and challenges of new vertical schools, this paper can inform educators and designers who are designing new schools or other aspirational educational spaces by guiding planning and professional development for the complexity of productive collaborations.</p>