Humanities News

Year 11 Legal Studies Excursion - County Court & Police Museum

On Wednesday 12th November we (the Year 11 Legal Studies class) headed to the County Court and the Police Museum. Arriving at the courts at 8:45am, we went through security to get inside the building. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session with Her Honour, Judge Harper, and her associate, who both worked in the Criminal Division. They both seemed wonderfully happy to be interviewed, possibly more excited than we were.

After our interview came a plea hearing. While I can’t go into details describing the case, what we mainly focused on was the processes to open the case for the particular day and the consideration of sentencing factors such as mitigating factors. This was a long process which unfortunately, we didn’t have time to sit through wholly.  The actual sentence hearing will be at the end of year.

At the police museum, we had some time to look around and explore. The museum was an interactive experience that allowed us to view, learn about and interact with a variety of historical police objects, including police uniforms, forensic evidence and technology, and police artefacts!

After the police museum, we headed to the Flagstaff Gardens to debrief and relax. We made predictions about the sentence we thought the perpetrator from the aforementioned plea hearing would get. This was riveting. 

Tara, Connor & Charlie

Year 11 

Year 10 Old Melbourne Gaol Excursion

On the 28th of November my class went to the Old Melbourne Gaol where we learned about the many famous prisoners that were held there and the history of the prison. It was interesting to be able to explore the prison and to learn about prison life. 

We also went to the Old Magistrates Court in which we acted out a court sentencing for a case of culpable driving. It was a really fun experience acting out what would happen in a court case as it showed us what we had been learning in class in real time. 

After lunch, we went on a walking tour to see civic landmarks including Parliament House and the General Gordon statue.

The whole day was a really fun experience. Seeing what we learned in class, it was interesting to see the differences in how prison life was handled back then and now, how the magistrate deals with cases such as culpable driving and finally the government buildings we have been learning about. 

Maddie Brooke

Year 10