This week pupils across the whole school marked Justice Week 2020 (24-28 February). Our Lower and Senior School joined tens of thousands of young people across England and Wales in the biggest public legal education event of its kind introducing the fundamentals of the Justice system in England and Wales via the Young Citizens’ Big Legal Lesson.
At the Senior School form time activities used the Big Legal Lesson classroom resources to explore the fundamentals of the rule of law, and the role of parliament, government and the justice system.
Pupils also considered what ‘justice’ actually means to them, the benefits of living in a society with a strong, established rule of law and the issues they believe could be better tackled by our justice system.
Justice week at the Lower School began with a whole school assembly to explore how much the girls already understood about the word ‘justice’ and to teach them how this links to their lives in school as well as in the wider world.
Our infant assembly focused on ‘Rosa Parks’ as the children listened to the story of a little girl who grew up with much inequality and had the courage and ambition as a young woman to change the world around her! They also discussed our school values to ensure they are ‘Ready to learn, Ready to contribute and Ready to help’.
Reception and Year 1 worked together learning about ‘Lady justice’. They also watched a film clip on BBC bite size where Judge Jenny was responsible for finding out who was telling the truth....Goldilocks or The Three Bears! They then discussed their own opinions and took a vote as to which fairy tale character was right. The Three Bears won the vote!
Year 2 enjoyed finding out a little more about our Parliament, including where and how our rules and laws are debated, and who is in charge! They were also asked to consider the concept of 'fairness', and were given a number of scenarios to ponder and discuss.
Following a visit from Judge Graham, Year 6 discussed times when they have said, “that’s not fair” and then came up with possible solutions to some of the situations they’d recalled and decided how things could have been made more fair. The girls went on to think about what justice means to them and they shared their ideas. Finally they suggested ways in which the world could become a fairer place.
Justice Week 2020 is themed around Public Legal Education, with the intention being that the week’s engagement will boost public understanding of the fundamentals of the justice system in England and Wales. Jointly co-ordinated by the The Bar Council, the Law Society and CILEx, it is a collaborative effort involving voluntary sector organisations, schools, universities, legal professionals, the media and anyone with an interest in justice.
