Humanities News

Year 11 Legal Studies Court Excursion

The Year 11 Legal Studies class embarked on an educational excursion to the Brisbane District Court. The purpose of this outing was to augment their understanding of the concept of "Beyond Reasonable Doubt" and to conduct research pertinent to their forthcoming FA2 assignment, which focuses on Punishment and Sentencing. Below are firsthand accounts provided by students regarding their experiences during the excursion.

Charlie Garton, 11 Gilroy

On Friday 26 April, our class took part in an excursion to the Brisbane District and Supreme Courthouse. Listening in on fascinating cases and speaking directly to experienced Judges, such as Judge Nathan Jarro, a Marist College Ashgrove Old Boy, the class learnt some valuable information that will be relevant for our upcoming assignment. It was a fun and eye-opening day as well as some bonding for the class. Overall, it was a great day full of learning and new experiences, Thanks to Ms Taylor and Mrs Franklin for organising, as well as Mr Walton and Ms Fitzgerald for Supervising.

Benjamin Wex, 11 Ridley

To assist with our Legal Studies assessments in Unit 2, we in the Year 11 Legal Studies class went on an excursion to the Queensland Supreme and District Courts in Brisbane CBD. Our journey began at 8:00am for an early departure. We were accompanied by our teacher for this term, Ms Franklin, as well as Mr Walton and pre-service teacher Ms Brooke Fitzgerald. We were introduced to one of the supreme court librarians, Kirsten Murray, who would be taking us for a session later in the day to go through research strategies for our assignment. Kirsten led us upstairs where we would be meeting Judge Nathan Jarro, a Marist College Ashgrove Old Boy and Queenslands only Indigenous District Court Judge. 

Before our meeting, we were able to view the courtroom where he would be sentencing people later in the day. It struck most of us how different the courtroom was to our expectations, much of which was formed from portrayals on TV. Judge Jarro told us about his work and about his cases later in the day, as well as the process for sentencing. After our meeting, we were provided with a list of the cases which we could go to, as is our rights as member of the public. We saw three district court sentencings, one by the Honourable Judge Lourey KC and two by the aforementioned Honourable Judge Nathan Jarro. After lunch, Kirsten went through many research techniques that would be useful for our assignment, as well as potential topics to talk about. 

Overall, our trip to the courts was an eye-opening experience to this fundamental part of our democracy which we always assume happens but differently from our expectations. Particularly with our meeting with Judge Jarro, some of us would have expected some sort of grandeur from him, but instead we were met with a very normal person who was in the same position as us during his time at Marist College Ashgrove.