Features – Mock Court Trial

The Mock Court Case Trial provides pupils with the experience of dealing with a fictitious court case. We were given the opportunity to build up a case with the evidence provided to us and work against the opposing team. Each school entered two teams: a Defender and a Pursuer. For 6 weeks we attended different tutorials, each covering a different aspect of the case and court proceedings. Teams were allocated their own personal tutor, with additional guidance from medical experts and an accountant. This all builds up to the final where you go to court to plead your case in front of a real judge, clerk and the opposing team.

The court cases are run over two nights at the Court of Session, High Street. We were all invited to the awards ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday night where numerous awards were given to participants including the best lawyer and witness for the pursuers and defenders. The finale of the night was the announcement of the overall winner and we are delighted to announce that Craigroyston Community High School won the overall competition and was presented with a lovely Trophy.

Our experience in this project will help us in school and in the future as it has enabled us to build up new skills such as listening and processing information quickly. Also we have learned how to be combative in a positive way, our team building and social skills have improved and our questioning skills have improved.

The case allowed us to boost our confidence levels also allowing us to feel successful. Through building on our confidence we were able to feel confident and take pride in our achievement and celebrate it with our team, other participating schools and our own school. We hope that this project continues on through the school in the forthcoming years and gets recognition as it is non profitable. All lawyers, tutors, judges and medical experts were doing this out of their own time and we would like to thank them for the work they put in to help and guide us through the last 7 weeks.

Students are delighted as Craigroyston Community High School wins the overall competition and is presented with a lovely Trophy!