Bringing your creativity to law through the Street Law project

On Friday 13th of January, while I was sat on the bus to Edinburgh, I was unsure what to expect. I had signed up to the Street Law training weekend following some research into the Law Society of Scotland’s project.

The programme worked with local schools across Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow, to deliver legal education lessons and I really liked the idea of being involved. Mainly because it is something which I hadn’t experienced at school but would have been beneficial as I started to think about law at university.

However, I had never been a part of something like this before, so before starting I was very nervous. To my delight, these nerves disappeared almost as soon as the training weekend started. I immediately met other students who were in the exact same position as myself and we got to work on all things Street Law!

Over the course of three days, we were taught the Street Law methodology through actively participating in lessons. These were interactive, interesting, and fun, covering a range of different topics. We looked at lessons on Human Rights, Criminal Law and Employment Law and it gave a real sense of what the Street Law programme is set to achieve and how to conduct lessons in schools. On Sunday (our final training day), we then had to conduct our very own lesson. It was great to see so many different takes on Street Law and I was proud of my own lesson and the confidence I gained delivering it. I was also really impressed with the group’s creativity whilst centering the lessons around a strong legal idea.

I am looking forward to going into the schools and putting into practice what we learnt over the training weekend. The programme aims to make law more accessible for young people from all communities and the training weekend showed me how I can approach local schools in Dundee. I have a different perspective and view of the law, and I am looking forward to hearing pupils’ critical and evaluative discussion on legal topics.

Not only has Street Law showed me I have a creative side, but I have also become much more confident in my public speaking and presentation skills. To anyone thinking of getting involved with Street Law, I really encourage you! I left the training weekend much more confident in myself and motivated to spread the Street Law message to schools in my local area.

Mollie Castle
3rd Year LLB student at the University of Dundee 

Our Street Law training weekend runs annually in January with LLB students from across Scotland taking part. You can find out more about Street Law here.