As we approach the end of summer term there’s little let up in the amount of activity we’ve been delivering to schools and colleges across the region and we’ve been really pleased to give a year 10 student from Ecclesfield School the chance to be part of our team for a couple of weeks. Here’s their post about their experience supporting the final of our Mock Trial competition
“In the final week I was given an amazing opportunity to watch the final of the mock trial competition seeing two schools (Priory LSST Academy and Sheffield Girls’ High) compete against each other on a case about child soldiers. The experience allowed me to understand how a court trial is processed and how everything was organised and planned. This is essential for me because in the future I would like to study law. I couldn’t be more greatful to have been given this experience.
After being introduced to all the students, teachers and judges, the students went and had some time to have a final run through of their arguments. In the meantime I helped the student ambassadors and staff get the moot court (where the trial took place) organised, ready for everyone to arrive and begin the case. When they arrived it was intense from start to finish. The prosecution team began proving their argument and their witness was questioned by the defence. Then the defence started to prove their points and made the witness speechless which was the most intense part for me. This showed that they were clever and knew how to sell their argument better, which proved to the judge that they were determined to win.
The determination the defence team had was very impressive because you could tell that they had put quality effort into their speeches when planning and I think that it impressed the judge as well as everyone else in the court room. For this reason they (the team from Priory) won. However, the prosecution team was also determined to win but didn’t know how to sell their argument as well as the defence team did. At one point the prosecution team began trying to testify on behalf of the witness instead of questioning her. Luckily for the witness the defence team objected.
The uni runs this event every year and if you are thinking of taking a law course in college, uni or both I would highly recommend that you go to a mock trial or even take part if you haven’t already because it is such an amazing experience and I would love to go again.
Throughout all the 2 weeks it has been a great experience, I couldn’t be more thankful and I’m so glad to have been associated with such kind and welcoming people. Not only was it a great experience it has educated me as well. I am now more aware of how the uni works and what kind of courses the uni has to offer. The uni has about 433 courses in total. I was given all different types of activities to do and I enjoyed them all.”
