Oxford University Trip and Bar Mock Trial
On Wednesday 29th November, Mr McIver and I took a group of Year 12 students to spend the day at St. John’s College, Oxford. The day was full of useful advice and tips: the Oxbridge application process was explained in detail; current students at St. John’s College talked about their experience of being at Oxford University; and our students also began working on their UCAS personal statements. We were also treated to a free lunch in the beautifully decorated historic dining hall, and discovered that accommodation and food at Oxford University is actually no more expensive than at any other university (and may, in fact, be cheaper).
Once again, students were reminded of the importance of extending their ‘super curricular’ studies. This involves researching a particular topic of interest through: listening to podcasts; watching TED talks; reading articles or other helpful literature. This is important not just for applications to Oxbridge, but also to all universities.
It was a long day but an incredibly useful one!
Ms Gratton
Bar Mock Trial Heats
2nd December 2023
Snaresbrook Crown Court, London...
Hazelwick’s Bar Mock Trial team had an early start on Saturday 2nd December as they took the train to Snaresbrook Crown Court for the heats of this national law competition. The competition puts prosecution barristers and witnesses from one school against the defence from another, judged by a real Crown Court Judge and a jury from other schools. We were competing against 19 other schools.
In the first round, Anju Thangavelu and Charlie Fielder had the unenviable task of defending Max Newton (played by Eugene Lewis-Oladith) who was charged under section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, accused of accessing and deleting material from a laptop knowing he did not have authorisation to do so. Max stood his ground under cross-examination, as did Logan Hartnell (Dishita Nagpal). Adom Apiagyei was calm and authoritative as the Usher. Our lawyers worked a miracle with some great questioning and a striking closing speech which made a very simple point - Max had never been told his access was revoked! The jury was persuaded and Max was free.
Buoyed by that win, we then moved to prosecuting. Josh Robins and Ishaaq Auleear needed to convince the jury that Rowan Hynes was guilty of causing a public nuisance by being part of a protest that brought a local town to a standstill. They did a great job getting the key evidence from witnesses Robbie Richardson (Karishma Mathivathanan) and Riley Parker (Liabah Qureshi) and Lina Khene, our Clerk, carried out her duties well. Despite our best efforts, the jury was not convinced of Rowan’s guilt.
The final round saw us prosecuting Max Newton who by now we were sure was guilty of hacking into a laptop! Ellis Jenkins (Madie Beard) and Romy Parker (Sammra Javed) made a compelling case against Newton from their evidence. Cross-examination was strong of the defence witnesses but the closing speech of Josh gave the jury 8 hard-to-dispute-reasons why they should convict, which they duly did.
After a tense wait, the results were announced. We didn’t win and progress to the national final but we had an excellent day and have learned a huge amount about the law and how to formulate and present an argument. We were also extremely fortunate to have the help of real-life barrister Faisal Osman who gave up lots of his time to prepare us.
Bar Mock Team