Debate Hub Mooting

As we expand our oracy outreach work, we welcomed 180 pupils to take part in our inaugural mock court competition.

Our award-winning Debate Hub, funded by generous donors, is the cornerstone of our partnership work, with the aim of fostering high quality debating, discussion and public speaking at South Hampstead and many other schools across the UK.  As well as providing a fantastic array of resources for partner school teachers to build oracy skills for their own pupils, we host regular coaching sessions and competitions.  This term, we ran our first ever ‘mooting’ with pupils given three legal cases before arguing in the court of appeals to find their client innocent, or to defend the original decision of guilty.

180 students from 15 state and independent secondary schools took part in over 80 trials, with nearly 490 speeches, arguing cases about worker’s rights, prenuptial agreements, and a horrible accident at a trampoline park! What made this event particularly special was the expertise of our volunteer judges: real lawyers from the South Hampstead parent community, who kindly gave up their time to encourage, inspire and train the next generation of barristers and solicitors.  Our parent lawyers were impressed by the “brilliant South Hampstead team for the huge undertaking” and the calibre of pupil voice: “The energy in the courtroom was amazing!” Congratulations to the undefeated teams, which included one each from Ashmole Academy in Southgate and St Bede’s in Redhill, Surrey.

If you work for a law firm and would like to sponsor a future mooting event, please get in touch.