On Saturday 22nd March, eleven year 8 and 9 students took part in the annual Mock Trial Competition, organised by Young Citizens and created to give students an opportunity to gain first hand insight into the justice system.
Having been given a case to argue in court, one which is based on a real crime, students divide into prosecution and defence teams, choosing lawyers, defendants, witnesses, legal advisors and an usher, and compete against other schools. In order to do this, a lot of preparation work is done; our students gave up two lunchbreaks per week since January to prepare their case, writing questions and learning statements, which shows tremendous dedication.
The competition was held at Wolverhampton Crown Court, giving the students a real experience of a courtroom and its workings. Our defence team went first, with defence lawyers Tallulah and Evie, asking questions of our defendant Imogen and defence witness Jenna and then these witnesses being cross examined by students from Meole Brace school. Our usher, Emily, organised the movement and swearing in of witnesses within the court, as well as leading the magistrates in and out of the court room. On our magistrate bench was Freya, Emmie and Izzy, all of whom took notes during the trial and then retired to the magistrates’ room to consider their verdict with the evidence they had noted.
Our second round saw our prosecution team up against Jack Hunt school. Benedict and Jack led the questioning as our prosecution lawyers, questioning our prosecution witnesses of Tallulah and Darius as well as cross examining witnesses from the other school. Emily, in her role as legal advisor, assisted the magistrates in their deliberations and with the complexities of the case.
This team of students conducted themselves in an outstanding manner, remaining confident and eloquent in their dealings with the opposing schools. Both teams won their case, the prosecution team, through their probing questioning, saw the magistrates find the defendant guilty, whilst the defence team convinced the magistrates that the defendant was not guilty. Their hard work and tenacity paid off and the team came 3rd overall. I wanted to say a huge thank you to the students for all their extraordinary efforts and to their parents for coming to court and for transporting the pupils to and from school.
