Mock Trial Competition winners!
On 17 May, our students competed against schools from the Wirral, Merseyside, Manchester and Yorkshire to win the regional heat of ‘The Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition’, held at Burnley Magistrates Court. They will now represent the north west of England in the national finals at the Royal Court of Justice in London on Saturday 15 June.
This is a national competition that has been held in various courts around the country. Each pupil is given a role within the judiciary system i.e. Magistrate, Defence Lawyers, Prosecution Lawyers, Witnesses, etc, with a preconceived trail fully acting out in court. The objective is to bring the trial to what they believe would be the outcome through learning scripts, ledgers, improvising and communicating this difficult task to a wider public audience. The Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition has been running since 1994 and annually involves over 4,000 students from over 270 schools and 1,700 legal professional volunteers across over 40 magistrates’ courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The students who took part, all in years 8 and 9 were: Will Turner, Charlotte Wallace, Joel Crowther, George Dillon, Luca Flowers, Charlie Collins, Ruby Baxendale, Gabriel Hellowell, Jakub Adamczewski, Barnaby Moore and Leila Ismail. Working with our Head of Drama, Mr Baxendale, and with expert guidance from a real life judge. A huge well done to all of them!