Students walk through the halls of The Royal Courts of Justice at the Bar National Mock Trial Competition 2012/13 National Final

We spent the first three Saturdays travelling around the country observing the local heats of  the Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition – I personally attended heats in Reading, Birmingham and Manchester. And on Saturday 23^rd March, we were at the national final of the Bar National Mock Trial Competition, which took place in the magnificent Royal Courts of Justice.

As a relative newbie to the Mock Trials Team and Citizenship Foundation (or ‘CF’ as the veterans call it), all this traveling was a very useful way for me to get sense, first hand, of what it is like to run or take part in a mock trial. It was also a great opportunity for me to meet, greet and build crucial relationships with the teachers, magistrates, lawyers, judges and court officials without whom the competitions would not be possible.

‘Mock Trials March’ (don’t worry, I haven’t ever actually called it that) has also given me some deeper insights into the value of the Mock Trial Competitions and how they fit in with the work of the Citizenship Foundation more generally.

One of the most obvious things I have learned from seeing the competitions up close and personal is just how much the students get from participating.

The principle aim of the competitions is to educate young people about the workings of the UK legal system and improve their confidence when it comes to navigating their way around it. This is for the simple reason that law pervades democratic life and so it is essential that individual citizens are able to engage with and understand the legal system.

The Magistrates’ and Bar Mock Trial competitions give students the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to do this.

But watching students – some as young as 12 – stand up in court and articulate themselves clearly, think analytically and on their feet, and respond imaginatively and creatively to each other’s arguments, made me recognise that the students were also gaining invaluable confidence and life skills in other areas.

The mock trial competitions are not only public legal education activities; they are enrichment activities too.

Another thing that the students get from participating is a certain kind of familiarity with courts of law, and ‘official’ settings more generally. Introducing young people to important civic spaces such as courts gives them a sense of these buildings’ place and purpose in wider society.

I spent three years studying in Manchester but, I’m slightly ashamed to say, only found out where the law courts are located when I visited the local heat of the Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial Competition there last month. You might say that this is inevitable and desirable: inevitable in the sense that university students very often have only a superficial knowledge of the cities they study in; and desirable because it suggests I didn’t get in trouble with the law whilst a student.

But, however I explain my own ignorance to myself, it is simply not good enough for young people generally to have little to no knowledge of the important civic institutions in their community, or understanding of what these institutions are for and how they work. The Mock Trial Competitions help to address this.

Perhaps the most striking thing I have observed during ‘Mock Trails March’ is the level of volunteer support that goes in to making the Mock Trial Competitions happen.

Everywhere I went I encountered an army of volunteers who gave up their Saturday (and often much more) because they are passionate about ensuring that young people understand the legal system. The most important of these are the many Local Organisers who coordinate the local and regional heats of the Mock Trial Competitions around the country, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them all for their incredible hard work.

In fact, it is fitting that a competition designed to furnish young people with the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need to be active participants in society benefits greatly from, and in fact relies on, the contributions of already active citizens. If the Citizenship Foundation helps provide the knowledge, skills and understanding, then these local volunteers provide the example.

The press, the government, think-tanks and research centres are concerned about young people in the UK… they are unemployed, they have few skills, they are in debt, they don’t care about their neighbours, they are less likely to support welfare and they think the NHS isn’t that great. This is evidenced in scary statistics. Then again, some of these young people are engaged, protesting government cuts to public services, demonstrating at power stations and volunteering in unprecedented numbers.

Last week, the Guardian ran a story called Generation Self, which explored the paradox that young people – historically more inclined to hold values on the political Left – are now more negative than ever towards the traditional institutions that symbolise those values.

In trying to explain this trend, James Ball and Tom Clark touch on several valuable insights: one is that young people, flummoxed and crushed by the paralysis engendered by their position in a society that has consistently favoured policies supporting older generations, have responded ‘not by imagining collective fight-back, but by plotting individual escape’.

It would be easy to suggest that attitudes towards the welfare state have corroded across generations, influenced by the impact of recession, political wrangling, bad press and controversy. This corrosion might naturally have resulted in a new generation of young, independent hardliners.

But voting figures amongst young people would suggest that they are not interested in traditional politics anyway: only 44% of 18-24 years olds and 55% of 25–34 year-olds showed up to vote in the 2010 national elections. Issues of taxation, healthcare, benefits and so on are fought in this conventional political domain, only dominated by ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ politics within this sphere. If young people are not interested in the usual channels of political debate, then where are they shaping their ‘selfish’ opinions on the issues that are fought over within these usual channels?

According to Sam Bowman of the Adam Smith Institute, this move towards ‘selfishness’ amongst young people is caused by cosmopolitanism: being less interested in national boundaries due to the commonality of the internet, young people have come to feel less allegiance to their geographical location. “The NHS has been described as ‘the People’s Romance’: virtuous not because it’s the best, but because we’re all involved – it’s unifying. In another generation, that role might have belonged to the army. It makes sense in this modern world that people are becoming less interested in these national institutions.”

In fact, though young people are now unified through new systems and across global boundaries, in formative years we are all linked by something very particular to the community – school. The nation does not always need a war to unite itself (although it might seem so). A strong army stirs up national pride, social media opens windows on interests further afield, but school instils a sense of lived-in location, togetherness and cohesiveness.

Young people are ‘plotting individual escape’ not ‘imagining collective fightback’. And here is the key – young people are struggling to imagine collective action, or even the procedures involved living collectively because they have no food for their imaginations. Not only is school a place in which we learn why we ever left the wilderness and started interacting with other humans, it is also the grounds in which we consider and envision the ways in which we might ourselves interact with other communities.

Party politics might make the shocking surveys concerned with youth attitudes towards welfare seem like this is about young people becoming more Conservative; in fact what the attitudes show is that children are now growing up without the general knowledge about their positions in society, that form the basis of these opinions. They are individuals, working hard to stay afloat in a negative and pessimistic environment – concerned that they not be judged lazy or unlucky.

Not only does citizenship as a subject serve to bolster young people’s understandings of the institutions and procedures that build our collective place in society. More importantly, every subject that they encounter can help foster an element of democratic procedure – whether that’s in economics, learning about taxation policy; in science, considering ways in which governments fund research; food technology, learning about rights and responsibilities surrounding nutrition… Imagination is essential for young people to be able to conceive of their place in a difficult and over-communicated world.

As a teacher,  the Giving Nation Challenge has been so rewarding, every year I see all the students grow in confidence, understanding and ability before my eyes.

This year I saw the initial joy of participation in the challenge and then the sheer wonder at winning the competition. I experienced the sense of achievement and pride it gave us all; students, staff and parents.

The process of choosing the students who would go on the trip showed me all the humility, sensitivity and understanding which 13/14 year olds are capable of.  Preparing for the trip to India was informative and exciting for everyone involved and beyond.

India was quite simply life affirming as both a  teacher and as a human being.   It confirmed and taught me many things about myself, about young people and about the volunteering work people do.  It was for all 6 of us, myself and the 5 students, a journey.  The work of Raleigh International volunteers, charities and NGO’s  could never have been so clearly described or understood by reading books or watching videos.  The warmth, generosity and humanity of the Indian people we met was unforgettable. The planning and care which went into organising our trip was outstanding.

These trips, when the opportunity comes up are amazing, but even without the ultimate prize, Giving Nation Challenge will always be something students will find rewarding and worth doing. Thank you to everyone who was involved in making it possible and brilliant.  A big thank you goes to everyone involved at every level.

Why not grab a cup of tea and take 5 Minutes in India with our G-Nation prize winners

Previous Youth Budget participant James Ellis laughing in the face of competition

It’s the result of work by 1,400 14-18 year-olds across the UK, as part of our Paying for It programme of economic awareness education, supported by Aviva.

These young people are the voters of tomorrow. Can they do a better job than the Chancellor?

Tomorrow, young people will present the Youth Budget to David Gauke MP, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.

They will also discuss some arguments with an allocated MP, who will make the case for them to the rest of the group. The favourite will be voted on.

Arguments

Welfare

‘Reforming the benefit system is a waste of money. The best way to incentivise people into work is to slash benefits.’
Presented by Sheila Gilmore MP

Health

‘The cost to the NHS of alcohol alone is almost £3bn – to cut costs and improve health the government should deter people from leading unhealthy lifestyles.’
Presented by Teresa Pearce MP

Employment

‘Apprenticeship schemes are a strategy to raise employment figures; they do not improve people’s long-term prospects.’
Presented by James Morris MP

Environment

‘Climate change will cause long term damage in the UK. Flood defences are less of a priority than investment in climate change reduction.’
Presented by Rt Hon Tom Brake MP

The Youth Budget 2013 will be available online tomorrow: http://youthbudget.org.uk

‘Ten volunteers from McDermott Will & Emery had the pleasure to participate in Lawyers in Schools 2012/2013 programme and we all found the experience extremely rewarding. The programme provides an excellent opportunity to raise young people’s awareness and understanding of the law and important legal issues. The young people we worked with were enthusiastic, intelligent and always up for a challenge. Hearing their perspectives on pertinent and relevant issues really made me think about my opinions and provided us all with some interesting discussion on the way back to the office. It was also great to see an improvement in the confidence and skills of the young people throughout the programme. I would definitely recommend taking part in Lawyers in Schools to anyone who wishes to engage in a challenging and interesting project.

I can also definitely say that the programme had a very positive effect on team building and internal networking within our firm. In addition, the programme increased volunteers’ pride in the firm, played an important role in improving the firm’s relationship with the community and its profile and reputation as well as meeting its corporate responsibility objectives.’

We drove to Chamundi Hill and walked 400 steps, a third of the way up. It was beautiful, we could see the whole of Mysore and every single place we’ve all been!

Once at the top, there was the Chamundiswari temple. Women were singing as people were going in to worship, bearing coconuts with flowers to offer as a blessing by smashing them. There were also buffalos roaming around but unfortunately we did not see ANY of the infamous monkeys.  We visited the hustling, bustling Mysore market for the second time, everyone enjoyed the colourful market for the very last time. Our lunches were served on banana leaves (very sustainable!) but it didn’t make the food taste any less spicy! As we drove out of Mysore we waved out of the window to the lovely ICS volunteers we had met in the village, it was so great to see them again.

During dinner, Kaz (an ICS volunteer and group leader who we stayed with at the village) came to see us and we had a nice chat about the murals we painted for the school.

The next morning we woke up to breakfast with tea which didn’t have the usual 6 bags of sugar in it yet we still put 4 sugar cubes into it, we’re too used to it! As we drove off to the train station we listened to some traditional Indian music and were delighted by Manju singing along! We luckily had first class train tickets so we didn’t have to sit on the roof or hang on the doors. On the train people were selling currys and chai, we had some very sweet chai to make up for the sugar we’d missed out on in the morning. We had our last lunch in one of the station restaurants and our last dinner in the hotel we’re currently staying our final night at, Shreya’s residence. We all would definitely like to stay longer!

A few last words from everyone:

“Okay so we are coming to the end of our trip now, and I really don’t want it to end! It has been the most amazing experience; I can’t begin to explain how much I’ve enjoyed it! I’m going to come back to England with absolutely, millions of unforgettable memories, and I’m sure everyone else will too! I really don’t want to leave, but I can’t wait to see my family and friends and tell them all about the trip! I know it sounds cheesy but thank you to EVERYONE that made it possible.”Joanna

“It’s really sad that our trip is coming to an end. I have loved every second of it. Being in India has helped me become more independent. I have so many memories to share. I have loved the whole experience of being in India and I will never forget it. We have all grown in our friendships. Thank you to my family, Giving Nation, Raleigh and the school for making this trip possible. THANK YOU SO MUCH!” Annie

“This will be an experience I will never forget. I wanted to thank the form (9Q) for giving us this amazing opportunity and we are so sad we couldn’t bring all of you with us. I am going to miss it here but looking forward to telling all the amazing stories to everyone. This has been so much fun and I have seen and experienced such amazing things.” Georgina

“Obviously, this has been an unforgettable experience! I have learnt so much about India and the work of Raleigh and I will definitely join one of Raleigh’s expeditions as soon as possible. It was weird to see India because, although I come from India, it was nothing like I expected. I can’t wait to come home but I would love for my whole family to come here so I could stay longer. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has made this possible: my family, especially my mum (who I miss very much), Giving Nation, Raleigh, Ms Nocivelli, Naomi, Shady, Manju, Cecilia, Georgina, Jo, Annie and, most of all, everyone in 9Q. I cannot begin to explain how much this has meant to me.” Jemma

“Firstly I’d like to thank every single one of you who has got us here; I won’t include everyone because there are too many people to thank! It’s very hard to sum up this whole experience in a few lines so I’ll just tell you that I have gained and given many things and I will never, ever forget this!”       Cecilia

School students take on the roles of barristers in the Bar National Mock Trial Competition

The jury has been discharged on the basis that they would not be able to come to a majority verdict.

In particular, much attention has been paid to the fact that the jury presented the judge with a list of 10 questions which Mr. Justice Sweeney said belied ‘absolutely fundamental deficits in understanding’.

The publication of these questions, the dismissal of the jury, and the resultant need for a re-trial has left some so worried that the public might lose faith in our longstanding and cherished jury system that they felt the need to defend it – despite that fact that such cases are extraordinarily rare.

This case has also led to some rather sneering mockery in the media concerning the apparent ignorance of the jurors and elementary nature of their questions. However, although some of the questions appear to be straightforward, appearances can sometimes be deceiving.

Take the much ridiculed question, ‘Can you define what is reasonable doubt?’ – to which the judge (rather unhelpfully, I think) responded ‘doubt that is reasonable’, adding ‘[t]hese are ordinary English words’. Surely the thinking behind this question, though, was that, when asked to shoulder the immense responsibility associated with judging the guilt or innocence of a fellow citizen, it is quite difficult to put your finger on exactly what ‘reasonable’ amounts to.

It is not so much that the jury didn’t know what the word meant, and more that they quite accurately perceived that ‘reasonable’ is a somewhat ambiguous term at the best of times, imbued with the idea of fittingness and good judgement. It was exercising this good judgement that the members of the jury in the Vicky Pryce case were having difficulty with.

Replacing the term ‘reasonable doubt’ with the word ‘sure’ is simply to elide all of these genuine complexities, because to be ‘sure’ about something is presumably to be comfortable that all of the remaining doubts (because doubts will remain) on the matter are not ‘reasonable’.

The more general point that this case reveals is the profundity of the juror’s role in our society. Not many things are as serious as deciding the guilt or innocence of a fellow citizen, with the possibility that they may lose their liberty, and the range and number of questions from the jury in the Vicky Pryce case, however elementary, highlight that they were keenly aware of this seriousness.

But given that we all recognise the importance of the office of juror and all adult citizens are potential occupiers of this office, we don’t spend anywhere near enough time thinking about how best to ensure that citizens – particularly young citizens – have the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to engage fully with our legal institutions.

It is our commitment to ensuring that all citizens have this knowledge that motivates the Citizenship Foundation’s work on legal literacy. Whether it be through the Lawyers in Schools programme or the mock trial competitions, one of which actually introduces young people to a jury trial, the Citizenship Foundation is determined that young people have access to the legal knowledge and understanding that they need to grow up in to be active and effective citizens.

If – for whatever reason – they don’t have this knowledge, we will only have ourselves to blame.

After breakfast we set off for a local farm which was a 45 minute walk away, it was really hot! When we finally got there we were greeted by the owner’s assistants who took us around all the sustainable development technology, it was really interesting. The owner of the farm was one of the professors at the  NIE Crest university, where we went on Monday.  We all went to look around the farm and saw BIG tree houses, they were amazing.  We also saw rain water harvesting, bio gas, solar powered fencing and a mud house, it was great to see some of the technology we saw at NIE Crest in action. It was really helpful having Manju (one of our Raleigh leaders) there to translate for us. The language of this area is Kanada.

On the way back we stopped to get a coconut water drink, they were amazing and really refreshing. Also we stopped for vegetables and fruits for lunch. After a very long 45 minute walk we arrived back to field base and made lunch, tuna and sweetcorn pasta, it was so yummy.

After lunch we painted some educational boards to give to the school in Hosavidahundi! We painted 3 boards, one with pictures of how to wash your hands, one with some useful English phrases and one with the words to a song we taught them (A Sailor Went to Sea).

Next we packed to get ready to go to the Hotel tomorrow morning, it was really sad. I don’t want to leave field base. We then went to the logs (logistics) room and bought lots of Raleigh T-Shirts, some of money from this will help to fund future volunteers. We had another great day today!

The “Venn Diagram” empowers the community through giving them a better understanding of the resources in and around the village. The diagram also helped the villagers and volunteers form closer relationships as they will be staying there for 10 weeks building sanitation units and running health camps.

Through watching the volunteers work with the villagers we gained communication skills, helped give us a better understanding of community development, how important it is for communities to explore their challenges and how they will combat them.

In the afternoon, once we’d finished the “Venn diagram”, we had some refreshing watermelon and chai (tea) with the younger and older villagers and volunteers. After some relaxing, we split and joined with a couple of volunteers and went to the villager’s homes, helping the volunteers with surveys about health and sanitation. Then we had some lovely Indian food (a little too spicy for some!). Annie and I had our intricate henna done by a local girl whilst the rest had their beautiful designs done by another local woman. As we drove off we left the village behind and said goodbye to the volunteers and all the brilliant relationships we have made.

Currently, there are 583 people living in the village. The village has one main street with four other streets of houses. The primary industry in and around the village is cotton farming. For every 100kg of cotton, workers receive a gross income of 5000 rupees (£65). Workers in the field can expect to earn around 100 rupees a day (£1.20) for 7-8 hours work.

We began by helping the volunteers finishing a social map of the village. The map was a great way for the village, both literate and illiterate, to understand the resources in their village and it also meant the volunteers could see how well residents knew the village, the resources they had and the population. This was the first time the villagers got together to visualise Hosavidahundi.

We were invited into the home of Gita who cooked us a lovely lunch.

Then the 38 children in the school welcomed us with songs, dances and drama. It was very humbling to see that the children had put in so much work to welcome us. Some of the children sang songs in Kanada (the language of the region) and some sang songs in English. They danced and even wrote a short play for us! When they had finished, we used the remaining half and hour to teach them some English nursery rhymes. The school was very different to QE Girls!

The children finished school at 4 and, after hours of piggy back rides and running around, Cecilia started a holi, a traditional festival where people through powdered paint at each other.

After setting up our beds in the school hall, we took our saris down to some of the villagers houses who put them on for us and we walked down to the school grounds for some dancing and dinner.

Throughout the day, we learnt about Raleigh’s work in India and met their project partner MYKAPS. MYKAPS delivers grass roots community development work throughout South India.

Overall, we had the most amazing time and it was a truly unforgettable experience.

Speak soon, bye x

* ICS is a development programme that brings together young people aged 18-25 to fight poverty and make a difference where it is needed most. ICS is funded by the Department for International Development and currently works in 28 developing countries across the world. By 2015 it aims to recruit and train 7,000 UK young people and 7,000 young people from developing countries, who will go on to become active citizens who are passionate about and involved in community-based volunteering.  Raleigh ICS is currently delivered in India and Nicaragua and we’ll be starting in Tanzania this summer.  ICS is delivered by a consortium of respected development organisations, led by VSO, working with Restless Development, International Service, Raleigh International, Tearfund and Progression.