On Saturday 28 November, a team of fourteen A Level Law students participated in the Regional round of the National Bar Mock Trial competition held at Guildford Crown Court. What is more- they won, retaining the title they’d first gained at Bournemouth Crown Court this time last year!

The event, organised by the Citizenship Foundation, is very prestigious and provides an excellent opportunity for students to observe first-hand how the legal system works. The students had been given two criminal cases to prepare in advance, and on the day, students played the roles of barristers, witnesses, other court staff and jurors and presented each case in front of a real robed judge!

The team had been divided into two sub teams, each taking on the preparation of one case.  After gaining a place in this over-subscribed competition, the students have spent the past few weeks working incredibly hard rehearsing, regularly staying behind after college and giving up a Saturday to prepare their questions, speeches and to perfect their legal arguments.

The competition itself involved three preliminary rounds where teams from six schools battled it out against each other. The two highest scoring teams, ourselves and Alton College, then went ‘head to head’ in the final.

One half of the team was given a robbery case to prepare. Testing questions and persuasive advocacy alongside measured delivery and an ability to think quickly on their feet were demonstrated by our barristers, Bethan Horsfield and Chloe Elms. Our witnesses were played by Oliver Stocks and Melissa Mitchell who provided thoroughly believable evidence and gave compelling performances from the witness stand. Emily Robins helped to run proceedings smoothly in court by swearing in the jury and reading aloud uncontested statements of witnesses.  As court usher, Jasmine Kett ensured that the judge was collected from chambers and the witnesses were escorted to the witness box and suitably sworn in.  

The other half of the team, were given the task of preparing the Defence case for a defendant accused of two crimes: theft and obtaining services dishonestly. Lana Milner, Fedrat Sadat and Rebecca Flynn prepared the case in advance, and on the day, the latter two acted as Defence Counsel whilst Chloe Hunter and Rochelle Wingett both acted as defence witnesses. Both barristers gave assured and commanding performances, especially when cross examining the opposing witnesses, exuding a calmness, yet real tenacity in their questioning. Our witnesses were very convincing and stuck to their stories in the face of rigorous cross examination from the Prosecution!

Lana Milner, Charlotte Harby, Charlotte Barrett and Mollie Jarrett acted as our jurors; all played a key role in deciding the guilt or innocence of the accused in each case.

In the final round, the whole team produced stunning performances in their respective roles. Our team was called to act for the Prosecution against Alton College, winners for the past three years. In fact, our team’s performances were so compelling that the jury returned a ‘Not Guilty’ verdict. This was particularly impressive as over half of the jury were drawn from our opposition!

Shortly after the jury had announced their verdict, His Honour Judge Critchlow announced the (more important) verdict: that The Sixth Form College Farnborough had won.

Rochelle Wingett dubbed the whole experience “rewarding” whilst Fedrat Sadat commented, "I absolutely loved the whole day! All the work we put in felt worth it when we heard that we had won!” These sentiments were echoed by Rebecca Flynn who said, “The day was so much fun but at the same time felt like a real court experience. All the hard work we put into the preparation was worth it!”

The Law teachers remarked, “Our students are rightly thrilled with their victory, and we are immensely proud of them, not just for their performances on the day but also for the commitment they’ve demonstrated in preparing so thoroughly for the competition, especially in such a busy and demanding term.”