On Saturday 25th March the Royal Courts of Justice in London made space between the celebrity squabbling of Prince Harry, Elton John and the Daily Mail to host the National Finals of the Bar Mock Trial for this year.

Presdales, as winners of the Outer London heats, was represented by a team of Year 12 students: Adesola Jinadu-Adewale, Zoe Drewitt, Evelyn Youngman, Callum Tredgett, Matilda Endersbee, Jasmine Kelly, Rebecca Mansford, Ruby O’Neill, Seren Miller, Kim Pittaccio, Francesca Caira and Yu Qiong Chen who took it in turns to go head-to-head with other school teams from all over the UK (including from Scotland, Wales and N Ireland and numbering 22 schools in total) over 3 separate rounds.

After Round 1 we were all ready to go home, having come up against a highly talented side from the Wirral Grammar School for Girls, who later went on to be the eventual winners. But Round 2 and Round 3 saw spirited performances by Presdales “seeing off” lesser opposition in the shape of schools from Huddersfield and Norwich.

The ultimate team trophy still eludes us but we didn’t come away empty-handed as Evelyn Youngman won an individual award for “best defence witness”, awarded by none other than Sir Brian Leveson (High Court Judge of Leveson Inquiry fame).