Lawyers in Schools Celebration Event 22 June 2010 Tuesday, 29th June 2010

On 22 June 2010 young people and legal organisations from the Citizenship Foundation’s Lawyers in Schools programme gathered in London to celebrate the success of the scheme. The event at Olswang’s offices welcomed students, legal professionals, teachers and MP’s to the celebration event and launch of this year’s Lawyers in Schools evaluation report. The report demonstrates the positive impact of the partnership on young people, businesses and the community. The Attorney General, the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve MP, closed the event saying that Lawyers in Schools ‘helps [students] to develop a legal capability by improving the skills needed to anticipate and avoid problems’.
The report for the 2009/10 academic year highlighted the benefits of the programme including improved relationship with the community (93 per cent), understanding of issues that affect young people (72 per cent) and staff development (71 per cent). Linda Zell, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Olswang commented, ‘Lawyers in Schools is a great scheme for the professional development of our volunteers and is a rewarding addition to our CR programme.’
Lawyers in Schools has been designed to support Public Legal Education and, through its interactive and engaging sessions, it aims to raise awareness among young people of the law and its processes. Robert Heslett, President of the Law Society said in his speech, ‘It’s so important to imbue in youngsters an understanding of what the rule of law means and how it carries through to their own rights and obligations…[Lawyers in Schools is a] leading, proven and established example of Public Legal Education.’
Secondary to the programme’s main aim of raising awareness and understanding of the law, is the fact that the programme raises young people’s aspirations and helps to open up access to the legal profession. By interacting with legal professionals, engaging in stimulating debates and having to think critically about legal situations that affect them, young people develop their employability skills.  The report shows that over 70 per cent of teachers noted an increase in students’ speaking and critical thinking skills, which are valuable skills for legal capability.
Teachers also reported that students’ aspirations had been raised (63 per cent) as a result of the programme. Pierce Boyle, a student from Haverstock School who gave a glowing speech at the event, commented, ‘the experience of working with real lawyers was an eye-opener and made the possibility of a career in law seem more real and achievable.’

To see a selection of photos from the event, please follow this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51397348@N07/sets/72157624258632849/

New Housing Law unit piloted in West Midlands Tuesday, 13th April 2010

Volunteer lawyers from Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council have been the first to pilot our new Housing Law unit with students at their partner school, Oldbury College of Sport in the West Midlands. Their thoughts and feedback from the session will be used to fine-tune the new unit before it is used by volunteers in other schools later this year. 

We are currently working on the first of three new units covering aspects of Family Law.  The first unit will shortly be piloted in a school later this month and will focus on issues relating to marriage and cohabitation, with units on the age of consent and parental responsibility planned for next year’s sessions.  

If you have any suggestions for activities or issues which could be dealt with in future Lawyers in Schools materials please get in touch with the team on lawyersinschools@citizenshipfoundation.org.uk

Slaughter and May doubles number of volunteers Wednesday, 3rd February 2010

Slaughter and May is the second most longstanding partner in Lawyers in Schools, having joined in 2004. For the past two years they have been working with Central Foundation Boys’ School in Islington, a partnership which has been so successful that over the last year Slaughter and May have more than doubled their numbers of volunteers (from 26 to 58) and have tripled the number of classes they work with.  The firm has also brought in lawyers from the legal department of a client (Standard Chartered Bank) to work on the project in collaboration with them.

We caught up with Jacquelyn Collins, Community Affairs Manager at Slaughter and May, to find out why she thought the scheme was going so well, and to see if she had any recruitment tips for other firms who also want to increase volunteer numbers.  This is what she had to say:

"Our pool of volunteers has grown a lot this year, mainly because we have both recruited new volunteers and retained a high proportion of our Lawyers in Schools volunteers from previous years.  The high number of 'repeat volunteers' demonstrates that our employees really enjoy taking part in these sessions.  And this was a great project to run in conjunction with client volunteers - we could be confident that participants would be well prepared and would be likely to enjoy the scheme.

There are three reasons why this scheme works well for us.  Firstly, the commitment required from volunteers is very clear, with sessions scheduled in advance and everybody able to see exactly how long they'll be away from the office.  This helps trainees to manage the expectations of their supervisors and makes it easier for busy associates to fit the sessions into their schedules.  Secondly, the volunteers receive excellent training from the Citizenship Foundation, helping to ensure that they are prepared for the challenges of working with secondary school students.  Finally, the modules are genuinely interesting to both the volunteers and the students.  This helps to ensure that everybody enjoys the sessions.

When we advertised the scheme we promoted both the scale of the commitment and the quality of the training.  In particular, we profiled the scheme as a good introduction to secondary school volunteering and this seems to have worked well - we've attracted trainees and associates who hadn't volunteered in any capacity before.  Of course, we now intend to involve them in other projects in the years to come!"

Lawyers in Schools cited in schools ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted report Wednesday, 13th January 2010

The Charter School in Southwark recently became one of the first schools to be awarded an Ofsted grade of ‘Outstanding’ since the implementation of new inspection criteria in September 2009.

The glowing inspection report specifically pays tribute to “the use of groups of lawyers to work with students on the legal aspects of citizenship” as an example of the schools “innovative approaches” towards enriching the curriculum.

As David Sheppard, Head Teacher at The Charter School, noted: “a considerable element of the new criteria was how well schools have developed and worked with partnerships to create meaningful networks not only for pupils but also the wider community. We look forward to continuing and developing our relationship with SJ Berwin.”

SJ Berwin, a leading international law firm, has been partnered with The Charter School to deliver Lawyers in Schools for the past two years. We, at the Citizenship Foundation, are thrilled that the education-enriching experience of Lawyers in Schools is helping schools to meet official objectives and is being recognized as such by Ofsted.

Citizenship Foundation celebrates its 20th Birthday! Monday, 30th November 2009

In the 20 years since its establishment, the Citizenship Foundation has been an innovator in its field, making citizenship education accessible and relevant to hundreds of thousands of young people.

The Citizenship Foundation has progressed enormously since it was founded with the support of the Law Society Charity, among others. The work of the Foundation reaches approximately 60,000 young people a year, and we have continued to innovate ways of delivering citizenship education and opportunities for positive social engagement.

While proud of our achievements, we have no desire to rest on our laurels as we are brimming with ideas and enthusiasm for the future. Lawyers in Schools is already at the forefront of Public Legal Education in the UK, and as this area develops, we will continue to develop best practices for teaching the law to young people, pioneer new teaching models and activities, and bring our exciting project to ever more students nationally and internationally.

To celebrate our 20^th year we are publishing blogs and videos giving an insight into the thoughts of the Citizenship Foundation staff. To view these videos and participate in the discussions please click here.

Calling all lawyers in Norwich Monday, 28th September 2009

Norwich is hosting the launch of the Eastern region branch of ALLIES, a new initiative dedicated to enabling lawyers to share their skills and expertise with local schools, in particular by becoming school governors. All members of the legal profession are invited to attend, especially those interested in using their skills to give children the best possible start.

ALLIES and national charity School Governors’ One-Stop Shop will be hosting an event in central Norwich on 12th November, in the late afternoon. The venue and start time of the event will be confirmed soon. Guests will be able to find out how this initiative aims to give children the best possible start by supporting local schools and their staff.

Please contact: harleen.kainth@sgoss.org.uk if you have any queries.

For more information about the ALLIES project visit: www.sgoss.org.uk/allies.

To find out more about the School Governors’ One-Stop Shop visit: www.sgoss.org.uk.

This event is being run as part of National Pro Bono Week 2009, visit: www.probonouk.net.

A new school year begins! Thursday, 17th September 2009

At the start of September schools across the country opened their doors to another school year. Over at the Citizenship Foundation, the Lawyers in Schools team have been hard at work making preparations. 

For firms building on last year’s partnerships, this term will see us training all of the new volunteers; re-establishing contact with the schools; scheduling this year’s sessions and building relationship with new teachers where our previous contacts have moved roles.

With organisations that have joined the scheme over the summer - Stephenson Harwood and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council - we are helping with the recruitment of volunteers ahead of training them about how the programme works, using the materials and working with young people. We are also working with the new law firms and in-house counsels to assist them with identifying potential partner schools, establishing contacts with the chosen schools and scheduling in sessions.

This year promises to be very exciting – with new units (Housing Law and Family Law), a new Advisory Group, our new website, the new ‘International Lawyers in Schools’ opportunity, and last but not least: new law firms, in-house legal departments and schools.

We look forward to it!

“Lawyers in Schools increases students’ aspirations” say 91% of teachers Thursday, 17th September 2009

Lawyers in Schools carries out ongoing and comprehensive evaluation over the course of every year, with feedback collected from participating students, teachers and volunteers. During the summer holidays this information is collated into a report covering the scheme as a whole, and participating firms also receive a more detailed report evaluating their partnership specifically. This evaluation procedure enables us to ensure that the scheme meets the needs of its beneficiaries and stakeholders, and make improvements and adjustments where necessary.
 
The 2008/09 Evaluation Report is based on feedback from 1,159 student evaluation forms, 12 students who have participated in focus groups, 155 volunteer respondents and 24 teacher respondents to online evaluation questionnaires.
 
Some of the key findings from the evaluation report are:
• 98% of the students stated that they had learnt something new about the law during the sessions. All of the teachers mentioned that the students’ knowledge of the law had improved as a result of the scheme.
• Nine out of ten students found the area of law covered during the session interesting and 81% found the law they studied relevant to them.
• 95% of the students enjoyed taking part in the discussions. 94% felt able to express their opinions and 92% enjoyed listening to other people in their group.
• 97% of students found working with the lawyers useful and many teachers commented that both the students and teachers had really benefitted from having legal professionals to work with.
• 91% of teachers commented that the scheme increased students’ aspirations

To read the report in full, please click here.

Lawyers in Schools’ most successful year yet comes to a close Friday, 17th July 2009

All the schools participating in Lawyers in Schools this year are now on their summer holidays and off for a well-earned break.

In the 2008/09 academic year, 19 law firms and legal departments worked through Lawyers in Schools materials in 24 schools across the country. Over 300 legal volunteers have delivered sessions to over 1000 students – our biggest year to date!

We already have two new partners for next year (Stephenson Harwood and the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council's Legal Department) and look forward to bringing this valuable educational resource to an even greater number of schools.

Congratulations to everybody on another successful year!

Stephenson Harwood joins Lawyers in Schools! Tuesday, 30th June 2009

We would like to welcome international law firm Stephenson Harwood, which recently signed up to become the 21st partner organisation participating in Lawyers in Schools.

We are delighted to increase the number of law firms and in-house legal teams we work with, as this will enable more students to benefit from learning about everyday law, taking part in the activities and meeting lawyers. We look forward to working with the volunteers from Stephenson Harwood.

Stephenson Harwood has identified a few schools that they would like to work with and are looking forward to starting their scheme after the summer break.

Difficult decisions for Lawyers in Schools Celebration guests Wednesday, 1st July 2009

On 30^th June 2009, a group of 80 students, teachers, lawyers and other guests, including representatives from the Ministry of Justice and Law Society of England & Wales, converged on Linklaters’ London office for this year’s Lawyers in Schools Celebration Event. The afternoon recognised the achievements of the 1,000 students that took part in this year’s Lawyers in Schools sessions and thanked the many lawyer volunteers for their time and enthusiasm in running activities in schools across the UK.

 Reflecting back on the successes of the 10th year of Lawyers in Schools, it was appropriate that the event was held at Linklaters.  The international law firm has been supporting, and participating in, the programme since its inception in 1999 and volunteers from the firm continue to run the sessions with inner-city schools in Hackney, East London. 

 The past ten years have seen the programme grow from strength to strength and Linklaters are now joined by a network of 20 other law firms and in-house legal teams, each working with local schools to engage students across the country in a broad range of legal issues, including: Human Rights, Employment Law, the Powers of the Police and Downloading Music.

 As well as reflecting back on the programme’s successes, some of the programme’s exciting developments were unveiled at the event. After a preview of our soon-to-be-launched website, and the ‘premiere’ of our new Lawyers in Schools film, guests took part in an activity from the new Housing Law unit. 

 The activity focused on Social Housing and specifically the difficult decisions made by Housing Authorities when determining who is entitled to social housing and who is not. News had broken that very morning about the government’s reaction to the current housing crisis, with extra funding being provided to increase the number of social homes available to tackle the huge shortage. At a time when 1.7 million households are on social housing waiting lists and struggling with the current economic climate it is hard to imagine a time when competition for affordable social housing was greater. Guests stepped into the shoes of Housing Authority Officers and read through case studies that highlighted the difficulties faced when comparing the situations of different families and individuals who are competing against each other for limited social housing.  

 The activity generated some heated debates with a mixture of students, teachers and lawyers all making their arguments for why they felt Ester’s family were more deserving than Brian’s and what factors meant Jason should take priority over Yasmin.

 After revealing the actual rules that govern these decisions there were a few surprises for the group on how our case studies would have been treated by the current system.  For example, ‘Asylum Seekers at Front of Housing Queue’ headlines were laid to rest when it was revealed that Asylum Seekers are not entitled to social housing.  As the debate went on it was clear that making these difficult decisions on a daily basis was not something that any of us would like to do.

 As the day drew to a close it was obvious that the session had been a great success and illustrated exactly what the Lawyers in Schools sessions achieve.  You don’t need a law degree to have an opinion about the law. If you scratch the surface of even some of the most mundane legal rules there is usually a heated debate bubbling underneath that, given the opportunity to explore, most of us will have an opinion on. Lawyers in Schools creates exactly this opportunity – demystifying the law and highlighting how interesting, important and relevant it is to us all.

 If you would like more information about Lawyers in Schools and how you and your organisation might get involved please contact Ruth Cohen at the Citizenship Foundation on 020 7566 5038 or by email to ruth.cohen@citizenshipfoundation.org.uk.