Heritage High School Spring Newsletter 2018 Term 4 | Page 4

Court Rise! Heritage Students Go Wild for Charity! Ms Newton LRC Manager Ms Newton , LRC Manager th On 15th March 2014 a group of Year 8 and Year 9 students took part in the local heats of the Magistrates Court Mock Trial Competition. The Mock Trial took place in real court rooms at the Magistrates Court in Mansfield. The trial was based on a real case (with the names and dates changed) in which the defendant was accused of handling stolen goods. This was because she had bought a bicycle from some people in her local area which turned out to be stolen property. On 14 February students held a fundraising day to raise money for the Chesterfield branch of the RSPCA. A number of staff and students from the school have pets that were rescued by the RSPCA before they became part of their family and students thought that it would be good to support this charity as they receive no government funding. It costs a thousand pounds a day to keep a branch of the RSPCA open. If we could raise this sum and donate it to our local RSPCA branch it would be a really positive thing to do for vulnerable animals in the local area. To raise money we held a non-uniform dress-up day. Students could wear animal costumes or blue clothing for a donation of £1. Some staff also came in costume and the students had a lot of fun trying to guess which staff member was behind the Minnie Mouse head! In addition to the „dress up day‟ some students held their own fundraising events to raise money. The Heritage Craft Club had been busy making Valentine‟s cards and gifts to sell in the weeks before Valentine‟s Day and raised over £60 for the RSPCA by selling these items. Thank you to Jessica Ince, Jac Wilkinson, Dana Hunt and Katie Carrington for running the stall in the week leading up to Valentine‟s Day. The Craft Club students also ran a raffle for a teddy bear and Jessica Tang, Bobby-May Goodwin and Vienna Hunter ran a „guess the name of the Donkey‟ competition. The animal theme of these events made them an excellent way to raise funds and between them they raised over £70! Olivia Palmer, Dellan Oke, Lucy McGregor and Bethany James baked their own cookies and cakes to sell. Many of the items for sale had a blue theme to fit in with the colour theme of the day. The Minion and Cookie Monster cakes were especially popular. All the items sold out within ten minutes of going on sale and the girls raised £108 with their bake sale. At lunch time we held a costume parade for all of the students who had come in costume. Students had come in a wide range of fabulous animal costumes and it was hard to choose an overall winner. The Heads of House chose a finalist each and the overall winner was chosen through a clap-o-meter. The winning students were a group of six girls: Amelia Allison, Rebecca Colley, Kelsey Wall, Sophie Marson, Alice Brown and Shannon Storey, who had come as bright pink flamingos! Second place went to Jessica Nash, who had dressed as a leopard with creative face paint detail, and third place went to Brandon Rothery who had dressed as a Tolkien Tiger (an excellent reward for having to cope with claws on the ends of his fingers all day!). Some students had worked hard to choreograph their own dances to perform before and after the parade to encourage students to put donations in the buckets as they entered and left the hall. The dances were extremely entertaining and well performed and students were encouraged to donate over £60 in loose change thanks to the girls‟ efforts. Well done to: Courtney Dexter, Morgan Andrews, Hannah Jenkinson, Kimberly Palmer, Bethany Groves, Bethany Mycroft, Beverley Nzima and Georgie McGregor for your fantastic performances. Overall the students raised £936.70. This is extremely close to the £1,000 target. We will hold craft sales and bake sales to raise more money over Mother‟s Day and Easter and will donate the money to the RSPCA in April. Along with the money we will also deliver donations of animal food, treats and toys that the students and staff donated during the fundraising day. A huge thank you to all of the students and staff who worked so hard to make this a fun event. It was extremely successful and the money will be put to good use, helping to recue animals in the local area and give them a chance of a new life and a new home. The team worked in two groups; the Defence and the Prosecution. It was the job of the prosecution team to prove that the defendant had known that the bicycle was stolen when she bought it. The prosecution lawyers were Eve Draycott and Hannah Findley. The prosecution witnesses were a local resident who had seen the bike being sold in his local area, played by Lucas Crapper, and the local police constable who had arrested the defendant, played by Kayleigh Ingleby. It was the job of the defence lawyers to prove that the defendant, played by Jessica Ince, did not know that the bike was stolen when she bought it and therefore should not be charged with handling stolen goods. The defence lawyers were played by Charlie Massey and Dellan Oke. The defence witness was the defendant‟s employer, played by Jac Wilkinson, who described the defendant as an honest and trustworthy employee. In court the lawyers from both sides questioned the witnesses who supported their case to give them the opportunity to say what they saw and heard. This is called the „examination in chief‟. The witnesses had to answer the questions clearly and accurately using evidence from their witness statements, without making any mistakes or adding any new evidence. The lawyers also cross examined the witnesses brought in by the opposing side. This involved asking the witnesses questions that were difficult to answer to make them look unreliable in court. It was important for the witnesses to stay in character throughout the Mock Trial and the students in the witness roles did an excellent job of answering all of the questions they were presented with on the day. When it was time for them to give evidence they were led to the witness stand by the Usher, played by Connor McInnes. It was Connor‟s job to make sure that order was kept in court and to deal with any problems that arose during the trial. The students in the lawyer roles were extremely formidable when performing the cross examination on the witnesses from the other schools and did an excellent job of highlighting the flaws and inconsistencies in the opposition‟s witness statements. Pancake Day Races Mr Emment, Guidance Manager To celebrate Pancake Day, on Shrove Tuesday, 4th March many students and members of staff entered into the Heritage Pancake races at brunch and lunch time. Outstanding was Dane Smith who managed 49 flips of a pancake in 30 seconds. Crème eggs and Sport Relief wrist bands were the prizes for the numerous winners. The verdict of the case was decided by a team of magistrates. The magistrates from Heritage were: David Glasswell, Jake Dolby and Megan Brown. It was their job to take notes on what they heard in court and then discuss the case before deciding on the verdict. It was important that the magistrates stayed focused throughout the trial and that they took detailed notes so that they did not miss any vital information. Before the magistrates retired to discuss the case they heard from the Legal Advisor, played by Olivia Palmer, whose job it is to summarise the case for the magistrates and make it clear to them what the defendant was being charged with and which laws the defendant was being charged under. The legal advisor also made it clear to the magistrates that to bring a guilty verdict they must believe „beyond all reasonable doubt‟ that the defendant deliberately bought stolen property. In the first round the defendant was found „not guilty‟ and in the second round she was found to be „guilty‟ which shows how important it is that vital evidence is heard in court (as both cases were based on the same evidence!). The competition judges were working magistrates. They judged the schools based on their accuracy, confidence, knowledge of court procedures and team work skills. The students worked really hard preparing for the competition and performed brilliantly on the day. The overall scores were so close that the judges did three recounts before announcing the winning school. The Heritage team came second but were only one point behind the winning school! We would like to wish the winning school, Newbold, the best of luck in the next round of the competition.