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Year 6 Visit The Royal Courts of Justice

This is what they had to say about their trip...

"Our year group were lucky enough to visit a real courtroom! We traveled from St Margarets station to Richmond where we got onto the District Line to Central London. 

When we arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice, we met our workshop leader, Ben. He led us to the courtroom we would be doing our mock trial in. We had to be silent and sensible to respect the workers and visitors.

It was a breathtaking room. The walls were lined with books. We were told all about the positions and roles of different people in the court and then moved into those positions to recreate the court scene. I was part of the jury, the people who decide whether the defendant is guilty or not. 

We also learnt about the different types of courts. Firstly, there are two different types of law - criminal law and civil law. Our court case was to do with criminal law, finding out whether the defendant was guilty of robbery. After collecting all of the evidence, the jury - the group of twelve people who decide guilty or not guilty - decided on not guilty." - Athena

"There are 101 courts in The Royal Courts of Justice and some of them are centuries old. There are 7 different types of courts in Britain for different types of serious crimes and they all work differently. The supreme court is the highest court where they make decisions that affect the whole country." - Benjamin  

"As it was a very old building, we were not allowed to take pictures. We went into court room 2. Out of 101 rooms, room 2 is one of the oldest that is still used. It had lots of books of previous cases. While in the room we did a role play (I was the defendant)." - Hannah 

"Carly Cooper and Kyreece Smith were our two characters who were in court. My role decided whether Carly was guilty or not. The twelve jurors decided that they did not commit the crime of stealing a phone from Kyreece Smith.

At the end, we learnt that this case really happened but their names were not really Kyreece and Carly. Ben took us back and took us back to the main entrance. While we were walking down the stairs, we could view some of the real outfits which they wear.As soon as we got down stairs we ate our lunch." - Seren

"My role was the foreperson of the jury.The only person who speaks to the juge is the foreperson. The foreperson is incharge and says if the suspect is guilty or not." - Olly 

"I think it is one of the most interesting school trips as you can see so many old books dating back to the 1800s. There is a lot of costumes from different eras of the profession of law." - Emil

"We went there because this term we are studying 'Holes' by Louis Sachar, and went there to get a better understanding of how Stanley (the main character) may have felt." - Alana