The Scottish Scuffle!

A group of 18 sixthformers from the Ursuline High School in Wimbledon, accompanied by 2 teachers enjoyed a weekend in Edinburgh in late March, to take part in the Bar Mock Trial Competition National Finals. The team, consisting of barristers, jurors, witnesses and court officials prepared court cases and go up to prosecute or defend against competing schools. The girls successfully won the London heats of the National Competition in December and went on to face more exceptional and talented teams from schools from all over the country.

The team worked extremely hard over the last few months; attending long sessions after school, observing trials, arranging meetings with barristers, learning about Scottish court proceedings, not to mention constructing legal cases for prosecution and defence and preparing witnesses for trial.

The competition took place on a Saturday morning at Parliament House, Parliament Square in Edinburgh. The team battled their legal wits against three different schools, and won one out of three trials. It served as a very close competition and the points awarded by the high/crown court judges reflected this. Adrian Colton, Leader of the Northern Ireland Circuit commented, “Regardless of who wins, the marks I’ve awarded are higher today than to winning teams”. Mrs. Moffat, group leader of the competition said, “The level of professionalism and dedication shown was superb! It is a privilege to work with these intelligent young people; seeing students going from little or no knowledge to being, in the words of one of the judges, ‘better than a professional lawyer’, is amazing."

For many of the girls, it was their first time visiting Scotland. It proved a very enjoyable weekend and also helped them learn more about going into a law career. One of the barristers taking part in the competition, Monica Selo said “It was a real insight for anyone who wants to study Law".

Congratulations to all the girls for all their hard work and effort, commitment and determination!