The Education Act (1998) is the key current policy in Irish Education. The act emphasises rights, roles and responsibilities of stake-holders, including parents, teachers and pupils in improving schools. Since 1998 the Department of Education and Skills has introduced various mechanisms to reflect an increased role for teachers and pupils in decision-making. The most effective of these has been school self-evaluation, distributed leadership and the concept of building trust through collaborative self-evaluation. It is timely to study the response of teachers and students to this more collaborative school environment. This pilot focuses on a rural second-level Irish school of approximately 600 students. Two interviews with teachers and two with students were administered. Findings reveal the school is proactive in involving students and teaching staff in decision-making, a source of social, personal and professional empowerment. However, student voice is limited or absent in curriculum and assessment. Overall, participation is a characteristic considered important by teachers and students. The practices and processes that embodied teachers’ and students’ values were genuine engagement and a sense of empowerment. Optimal levels of participation were not yet known. Questionnaires will be developed from this research and administered for ECER 2013 and administrators’ voices will be included.