18.06.25

On Saturday 14th June our Mock Trial students, Emily S, Emmy K, Harry E, Holly P, Joshua H, Lena W, Mia D, Nicola S, Oakley V-C, Thomas J, Toby P, Tyler R and William W, headed to Croydon to compete in the final national rounds of the competition. They had an early start, leaving school at 6:30. The trip was one of excitement and hope.

We started the day with a Q&A session, a magistrate spoke to the students enabling them to understand the job opportunities within the legal system, and the different pathways into the legal profession.

We then headed into our first round of the competition. We were up against Gunnersbury Catholic School and our students took to the prosecution first. We fought hard on a very difficult case but ultimately the defendant was found not guilty, however it wasn’t a straight forward win as a Magistrate on each team found the defendant guilty.

Our second round of the competition was against Waddeston Church of England School. This time we ran the case as defence. Our defence team were very good and argued the case well. This time it was down to the judging Magistrate to make the final decision as we had a split, the Waddeston Magistrates voted guilty and our magistrates voted not guilty. The presiding Magistrate had the deciding vote, not guilty.

Unfortunately, we did not place in the top three of the competition. However we did place 6th overall out of the 11 schools present – which is still an incredible achievement for our students.

The result did not dampen our teams spirit, it was wonderful listening to them all congratulate each other and say how proud they all are of getting to the London competition. It was also a great chance for them to meet students from all over the country, including Belfast, and interact with them. 

Overall, we are immensely proud of how our students performed in the competition and represented our school. We celebrated with a well-deserved, and much needed McDonalds at the services on the way home!

The students themselves gained a lot from this experience and will hopefully some will join us with next years group, taking on a mentor role, much as Angelica W from last years winning team did this year.