Last Saturday the Woodroffe School Bar Mock Trial team won the Plymouth heat of the Bar Mock Trial competition to go through to the national final in Cardiff. This competition is run each year by the Citizenship Foundation to give students an insight into how the Criminal Justice system works. It is a practical and challenging way for students to gain experience of the legal process as well as enhancing their public speaking, analytical and team working skills. The students take on the role of barristers, witnesses, court staff and jurors, and their performances are judged by real judges and senior barristers.
The Woodroffe victory was the epitome of successful team work with all fifteen sixth form students supporting one another. The two cases the team prosecuted and defended were: theft and fraud of an elderly citizen in case one and domestic abuse in case two. Both the prosecuting and defence barristers were highly commended by the judges for their opening and closing speeches. The witnesses all knew their statements so well that they had no problems when they were cross examined by the opposing teams, while the Court Clerk and Usher ensured that the whole court room procedure ran smoothly.
It was wonderful to see how nerves could be overcome to deliver such powerful performances.