Working with schools

Another member uses his contacts as a retired teacher to organise most of our activities in the north of our area and he is responsible for the format we use for Open Days. The Schools’ work across the rest of our area is split between the other two members of our team, with one responsible for Primary Schools and the other for Secondary Schools. The latter is our computer expert – so she produces much of our presentation material and circulates it to our presenters.

Most MIC teams start out with schools, and this is still the bulk of our work. We are involved with 80% of the primary schools in our area and the majority of senior schools and colleges. We accompany local law students on court visits, run workshops for sixth formers and organise three or four Open Days each year for around 1500 Year 10 pupils in our two court houses. These Open Days are fixed the minute we are given the dates when there are no courts operating because of legal adviser training days. 80 – 100 pupils an hour fill two court rooms, visit the cells, and take part in a sentencing exercise. All the work we do with schools and adults is based on role play, and most schools receive a pre-presentation pack from us prior to our visit. We use parts of the MIC power point presentation but encourage our presenters to try to draw as much information from the pupils as possible. We want the presentations to be fun – for us as well as the audience! Although our emphasis in these school activities is educational, senior pupils and college students are now in our target market for recruitment, and that in itself provides interesting discussions.