Bar Mock Competition - November 2024

On Saturday 30 November our Bar Mock team travelled to Oxford Crown Court for the Bar Mock Trail Competition. Many of the Year 10 students on the team had experienced the challenge of the Magistrates competition last year and they were all buzzing with anticipation.

The competition provides an opportunity for students to participate in a mock trial, providing an educational experience to remember. It allows them to gain insight into the justice system and aspects of a criminal trial, whilst also taking place in a real court in front of real judges. The members of the team play a range of trial-based roles – both prosecution and defence barristers, witnesses, defendant, court clerk, usher and jury members. The team rehearses by practising against each other, but on the day, they compete against the opposing counsel from a different school/college.

The students worked hard on learning their statements and being ready for any possible question posed under duress, with the barristers required to write opening and closing speeches along with a range of questions to put the witnesses and defendant on the spot. Both our court clerk and usher need to know the systems and routines of a real court, with jury members required to listen carefully to only the evidence raised on the day and not form their judgement based on their overall knowledge of the case ahead of the competition. The students experience two different cases so have two sets of statements and evidence to learn.

It was great to watch the team support each other throughout the day, helping one another practise and offering words of encouragement. They all showed such motivation and focus, and we were immensely proud as we watched them go into battle. The competition is for students aged 14-18 years old, but the reality is that most of the teams are made up of 6th form students with many of those already studying law. We were delighted at the impressed surprise when the teams learnt our students were ‘only’ Year 10 – both staff and students from several colleges commented on the high skill set of our team and their ability was evident throughout the day – with them gaining the verdict in each of their cases. In the end, the team were placed third overall and we consider it a real privilege that we got to watch them as they went into action against opposing counsel; we could not be prouder.

Our team members are: Charlotte S, Lauren M, Juliet F, Andrew N, Isabelle W, Robert H, Laith B, Lawrie W, Jas L, Maya H, Hannah W, Ethan A, Thomas B, Amelie T