For those of you who have not yet subscribed, here is a copy of our September 2020 quarterly newsletter.

A Message from Our Director:

Teachers, parents and students alike will likely count returning to school this year as the strangest in living memory, given the myriad of restrictions still in place to combat Covid-19. While we hope everyone has made the best of the longer than usual summer break, the team at Leducate has been working full-steam ahead to get ready for this academic year. We’ve published numerous Leducate Explains articles, focussing on topics including how our laws are made and counterfeit goods. We’ve overhauled the way we deliver our core curriculum materials. Partnering with tl;dr, we have built a bespoke online learning environment that aims to provide a truly interactive Leducate experience either from home or the classroom. Plus, our latest illustrated materials on consent and healthy relationships will be available to our partner schools this academic year. Everyone at Leducate is excited to develop our Inspire and Aspire programmes in the coming months and we will keep building on the work we’ve already done to ensure that Leducate continues to deliver the richest experience to as many young people as possible.

⚖ Legal News ⚖

In Legal news this month, we’ve been reading all about new rules that will force venues and premises in England to have a system in place for recording the contact details of their customers, visitors and staff by law in the wake of rising coronavirus figures. We’ve also been checking out the implications of the possible reclassification of Extinction Rebellion as an organised crime group following their blockading of a major printworks. In politics, we’ve been keeping an eye on the resignation of Jonathan Jones, the Government's most senior lawyer, and the fledgling row over the international legal implications of the Internal Market Bill, as well as the ongoing UK review of the judicial review process. There’s a lot to be staying on top of!

📺 Looking for your next watch? 📺

Here at Leducate, Adam has been watching Official Secrets, a dramatisation of the story of Katherine Gun, the GCHQ translator prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for her part in leaking a top-secret memo sent by the United States National Security Agency. The memo sought to instruct the British Secret Intelligence Service to influence UN delegates in order to secure a Security Council resolution, legalising the coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003. The film explored the moral conflict that can sometimes form part of public service. It also highlighted the need to have access to high quality legal advice, both to hold the Government to account for the monumental decisions it takes, but also in preserving the freedoms of individual citizens. Lastly, it raised the vital role that Non-Governmental Organisations (in this case Liberty) play in ensuring that, through defending individual test-cases, our collective legal rights can be upheld. While not procedurally detailed, those with a legal interest will enjoy the underlying debate: Is it ever morally right to break the law?

✍️ Justice Diaries ✍️

We were excited to speak to criminal barrister Mohsin Zaidi for the sophomore edition of our Justice Diaries series. Mohsin has had a distinguished career so far, working as a barrister at criminal chambers 6KBW College Hill, at Linklaters and as Judicial Assistant to Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson at the Supreme Court. Published this summer, his memoir, A Dutiful Boy, focuses on his childhood growing up as a Pakistani gay man in working class Britain. So what’s he been up to during lockdown? Read his Justice Diary here.

🙌 Volunteers 🙌

Our volunteer of the month is Janet Wong. Janet has recently started volunteering for Leducate ahead of starting her training contract, and has been working with us amongst a plethora of other charitable organisations. This month, Janet has assisted us with our curriculum preparation for the new school term. She recently wrote this curriculum article, expanding on our classroom lesson on contracts, and assisted us with comprehensive research into the law surrounding counter-extremism, as part of Leducate's new module. We're very thankful for all of Janet's - and all our volunteer's - hard work.

📖 Back to school! 📖

Lastly, as schools go back this month to a very different academic year, we’re excited to get back to school too. This year, it’s our goal to have the Leducate curriculum in more schools across England and Wales, and we’re busily making this happen as we write. Whether it’s in person or online, we’re excited to get to know our new schools and get their young people up to speed on the fast moving legal world that they live in.