This paper explores the roles of student researchers in a collaborative enquiry aimed at improving equity across eight high schools in an English district characterised by high levels of disadvantage and cultural diversity. Teams of students are set up, including some who are vulnerable to marginalization, to identify and investigate issues of inequity in their schools. They then engage with staff and students in developing ways to respond. Importantly for the students, they also share their ideas and findings across the schools. University researchers support them in their investigations, as well as monitoring the issues of equity that students identify, their efforts to tackle them, and the implications of the issues that students and staff encounter in this process. These students are part of a larger study, now in its fourth year, comprising the network of schools. Like the students, teams of school staff also conduct and respond to enquiries into equity. For many of the participants, this has been a democratising experience, with staff of varying status finding a voice to express previously overlooked perspectives and often a sense of dissatisfaction about their schools. This has led many to feel a moral imperative to involve students in the process.