Sixth Form students recently visited both the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Courts of Justice.
At a time of heightened political tension and constitutional complexity, our students were very excited to find themselves in the corridors of two key political and judicial institutions.
As they wandered through the ‘aye’ and ‘nay’ lobbies at the Houses of Parliament, they were struck by the size of the chambers and the intimate and adversarial nature of our political system.
Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon Central, spoke to the group about her role as Shadow Housing Minister and her work establishing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime.
Sarah’s vast knowledge on the current state of local and national politics, and her characteristically frank and open attitude, was enjoyed by our students as she fielded questions for 30 minutes.
The group explored Whitehall, where they considered the geography of our political system and the proximity of the legislative, executive and judiciary as expressed in the metonymic phrases ‘Westminster’ and ‘Whitehall’.
After lunch students were given an expert tour of the Royal Courts of Justice by Tim Wood, a court reporter for 35 years.
Iftekar Hussain, one of our budding lawyers, said: “Our visit to the Royal Courts of Justice gave us a behind the scenes insight into the most interesting parts of our legal system, including the effects of finance and the history of punishment”.
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