Legal Studies

By Legal Studies teacher, Ms Adsett

It has been a big couple of weeks for Legal Studies students at Darwin High School. Students from all year levels have had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the law and see our legal system in action.

Through the Step Up Be Heard program run by the Parliamentary Education Office, Year 10 students in Week 8 had the opportunity to speak in the Legislative Assembly Chamber to debate a mock bill. The current Speaker, Mark Monaghan, attended on the day and spoke to students about the inner workings of Parliament and his role as the Speaker.

In Week 9, both the Year 10 and 11 Legal Studies students attended the Democracy Dash event, organised by the NT Electoral Commission. This competitive Amazing Race style event involved groups of students from various schools across the Territory running around the city center learning about democracy in action. Students learnt about the preferential voting system, their rights as young people in the workforce, and their consumer rights, just to name a few! A big congratulations to Tay, Jiv, Alexi, and Yiannis for coming first place and winning an awesome prize pack!

Even the Year 12s joined in on some fun amidst all their studying at the Supreme Court. They got to see the law in action as they observed a couple of sentencing hearings. As always, students found it incredibly interesting to see how the criminal justice system works, in addition to the role that lawyers and judges play in a court.

There is a lot to be learned in Legal Studies, and lots of opportunities for students to transfer what they have learned in the classroom to a real-world context.