Hannah Marshall, Noah Smith, Taniel Diedricks, Spencer Menzies and Luke McGregor during their Jury Trial observation and visit to Manukau District Court.
They never taught this stuff when I was at school. Human rights at a Catholic boarding school, I think not, young Winter!
I have been assisting a year 13 Legal Studies course at Pukekohe High School and as part of that invited ‘visits’ to our Pukekohe court and an opportunity to see a Jury Trial during a visit to the BIG court at Manukau.
We had 20 of them sit in at Pukekohe and hope to plan more permanent visits next term. The first group of five keen law aspirants visited us at Manukau. Having toured, observed, and listened to our wonderful Soana Moala, Sanjay Patel, and Richard McIlraith, they left, I’m told, lit up and keen for law school next year. We ‘rock’ apparently!
The Chief Justice and O’Regan J (as chair of Huakina kia Tika) met with education officials on 27 June regarding the civics curriculum and the potential for collaboration on content regarding the role of the courts. It was agreed that students should leave school with an understanding of the fundamental institutions of our democratic society, which includes the courts — and the education officials agreed to work with the judiciary on developing courts-related civics content.
In the meantime here is a little bit about the brilliant NCEA course now being offered at Pukekohe. Sadly these courses do not gain NCEA credit for university entry. Nonetheless from our brief interaction, it is clear these students yearn for an understanding of our democracy and how it works.
