Late in 2020, children from St Francis Primary School in Bradford heard from two volunteers working in the legal sector. Having learnt about the justice system and the Civil Rights Movement in their class, the children were able to hear first-hand about the volunteers’ experiences in this area.
The 40 minute online session was hosted on a webinar platform and could easily have been arranged through Zoom or MS Teams. It involved just two different volunteers – a Deputy Director in HM Courts and Tribunal Services, and a Senior Lawyer in the government, who talked the children through the work they do day-to-day. Both volunteers explained that court isn’t usually how it appears on TV shows, and stressed to the children that being in the legal system isn’t just for people from a particular background or who look a certain way – everyone can do it, and there are different pathways to get there.
Children asked some fantastic questions: “What if two lawyers give different advice?”, “Is your job harder during lockdown?”, and “Why do they wear white wigs?!”. In fact there were so many questions from the children that the volunteers agreed to answer extra queries sent by the teacher via email after the session.