Click on the parts of the flow chart below for a walk through of the stages that take place during a year in a typical Lawyers in Schools partnership.
Please note, the programme is fairly flexible and can begin at most points during the year.
Consultancy
- Citizenship Foundation provides consultancy to assist with the presentation of the programme to budget holders/partners/Board/etc, and to discuss how the programme could work within their organisation (e.g. time off policy, links to professional development).
Sign up
- Firm signs up to Lawyers in Schools - Service Agreement signed (between law firm and Citizenship Foundation), Memorandum of Understanding prepared (between law firm, school & Citizenship Foundation), and invoice issued.
Choosing a school
- Citizenship Foundation prepares a shortlist of schools, based on set criteria.
- Law Firm selects its school.
- Citizenship Foundation makes contact with school and ascertains an appropriate School Coordinator.
Law Firm Coordinator
- Law firm nominates a staff member to liaise with Citizenship Foundation, usually in a CSR or HR role.
Volunteers
- Citizenship Foundation assists law firm with recruitment of a minimum of 10 volunteers.
- Citizenship Foundation attends law firm to run a two hour training session, which includes: how the programme works, how to use the materials and tips for working with young people.
Sessions
- Citizenship Foundation liaises with the School & Law Firm Coordinators to schedule in six sessions at the school (each session usually lasts one hour).
- Approximately 4-5 volunteers attend each session and work with a class of Year 10 students (aged 14-15). The class is split into smaller groups and volunteers work with one group each; this enables the students to develop their confidence and communication skills.
- The teacher is always present to monitor discipline, and for child protection purposes.
- Volunteers run six sessions at the school (the Citizenship Foundation attends the first session to ensure everything runs smoothly).
- Each session covers a different topic (for a full list of topics, click here). The sessions are based on teaching resources designed by education experts and are provided by the Citizenship Foundation.
- At the end of each session, students fill out a brief evaluation form.
Final session
- At the end of the final session, the volunteers hand out to each student a certificate and a Young Citizen's Passport (a book, produced by the Citizenship Foundation, which explains, as simply as possible, the parts of the law that have most relevance to everyday life).
- After the final sessions, volunteers and teachers are asked to fill out brief online evaluation forms.
Celebration event
- Citizenship Foundation organises an annual Lawyers in Schools Celebration Event for all lawyers, teachers and students in the summer to recognise and celebrate the programme.
Evaluation survey
- Citizenship Foundation consolidates all the results from the student, volunteer and teacher evaluation forms and a comprehensive evaluation report is produced for each participating law firm which covers the scheme in general, as well as details of their particular partnership.