Central Foundation Girls’ School and Central Foundation Boys’ School

The AI Talk Event, 19th March 2024

Report from two year 8 students from Central Foundation Girls’ School:

We attended an event called the AI Talk Event hosted by our school trustee Avril Calder at Central Foundation Girls School. 60 lucky students were selected from across the year 8 cohort to attend. The event was set up in the auditorium, with the use of iPads. There were 2 guest speakers, Mike Cheney from Mutiverse and Anton Angione Head of Emerging Technologies & Security at his own company. 

Mike Cheney the first guest speaker spoke about how AI can support with homework and how to break down difficult information. He also spoke about how AI can affect us all in the future and the AI Jumpstart Programme which both Central Foundation Girls School and Central Foundation Boys School will be taking part in.

The second speaker Anton Angione addressed ethical issues raised by AI and the impact of using poor/biased data. We found it interesting that even though he is an expert in the field of AI that he prefers pen and paper over technology, due to data being collected about him.

We learnt from this talk that AI is slowly becoming more and more common in our daily lives, with computers, projectors, phones existing and being used in our day-to-day life. It is more frequent to see people using it, providing entertainment, social connectivity, helping to learn and support young people's education as well. 

The speakers embedded interactive activities which we all participated in including an AI test quiz done on the iPad and a secret 4-digit code number hidden in the slides. Exciting part was there were prizes to be won.

It was a good talk event where we managed to learn a lot more about AI, and got to also participate and compete against year 12 boys from Central Foundation Boys School.

A year 12 student from CFBS told us:

I felt that the talks provided key insights about the current state of artificial intelligence; we were enlightened by two experts, each with their own viewpoints so we could understand the good and the bad of AI's future in our society.

Central Foundation Girls’ School

Year 12 ‘A’ Level Law - Magistrates Presentation by Avril Calder, CFSL Trustee

9th February 2024

Students at Central Foundation Girls’ School studying Law heard a presentation by a former Magistrate and Trustee of the Foundation, Avril Calder, on the appointment, role and part played in the judiciary by Magistrates. The role of the Magistracy is part of the ‘A’ level syllabus, so it was a particular pleasure to Mrs Calder to be able to add some real life experience to their understanding. An evaluation of the talk is captured by the comments below as well as one or two photographs of the occasion.

Feedback from students:

The recent visit was a very valuable experience for both students and staff alike, it provided us with a unique opportunity to gain firsthand insight into the workings of the legal system through interactive discussions, students had the change to learn about the role of magistrates and the importance of upholding the rule of law and the procedures involved in the court proceedings. Posted by HA

I think it was really helpful as Ms Calder provided a lot of information that improved by understanding. Posted by AA

For me, it was really interesting to hear about the life of a magistrate from someone with actual experience as one. Ms Calder was a delight to have in the classroom today! Posted by NNA-N

Ms Calder was brilliant! It was so enjoyable to learn the process of sentencing someone and it really helped me to remember the aggravating and mitigating factors. Posted by SB

It was a great insight to what the role of a magistrate entails and the challenges that it can propose. Posted by SMB

I really enjoyed hearing Ms Calder’s experience as a magistrate and admired her confidence. She gave me and my law class a lovely talk and would absolutely love if she visited again. I’d love to hear more of her great stories. Posted by AI

I thought the session was really interesting and insightful as we got a personal touch of what it’s like being a Magistrate, thanks to our guest speaker, Ms Calder. It was really cool to hear what cases she’s dealt with during her time of being one and the challenges she’s faced, as well as the times she enjoyed and learnt a lot from. Posted by SK

Avril Calder was an informative, lovely speaker. She happily answered every single question in depth, told us about her personal experience as a magistrate and gave us an insight into what life as a magistrate and the process of becoming one is like. Posted by ZM

I really enjoyed Ms Calder’s trip as she helped me solidify my knowledge on Magistrates, whilst sharing fun and interesting events in which she participated in alongside her time as a Magistrate. Posted by AM

Ms Calder’s visit was very useful and interesting. She answered all our questions in a lot of detail and made sure we understood through out the session. I really enjoyed listening to her experiences as a Magistrate and have been inspired by her. Posted by HSN

The session was very insightful, though we didn’t get to speak to who was supposed to come Avril was nice and answered all of the questions that we had very well! Posted by MR

Personally, the session with Ms Calder helped me gain an insight of being a magistrate. It showed me the importance of having magistrates in the legal system, it was aspiring how she voluntarily took upon it her self to take this role in order to give back to her community. Ms Calder is such an approachable and kind person, she was open to answering our great questions and gave us the utmost perfect answers each time. I was very grateful to be part of such a great session, from which I took an abundance of knowledge. After this session, I will be proudly able to answer an eight mark question on the role of magistrates. Posted by TN

Ms Calder was very sweet and polite whilst delivering the presentation on lay magistrates. She was able to answer all our questions and even went above and beyond to make sure we understood everything. The session was very interesting and even inspiring for many. Posted by SS

Ms Calder’s visit was an amazing experience and helped to strengthen my knowledge on the role of magistrates after studying the topic. I especially enjoyed how we were able to ask engaging questions and get detailed answers from an experienced magistrate. Posted by HAS

Ms Calder’s visit was very interesting. She was very informative about her career as a Magistrate and her other successes. It was inspiring, as her achievement helped in creating the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrate. As a student who aspires to do International Law, it gave me an idea of what international associations do for juveniles and families. She also informed us about the district judges and how much they earned. Thank you Ms Calder! Posted by NS

Ms Calder’s session was very good, she was funny and easily described her role and made the session very interesting. Posted by SS

I thought Mrs Calder’s session was very informative and helpful towards our Magistrates topic. I liked how we got real insight on what its like being a Magistrate and I enjoyed hearing Mrs Calder’s experiences. Posted by ZS

My thoughts on the magistrate’s session were that it was very informative and interesting. I got to learn a lot more about the role of lay magistrates and all of my queries were answered in a lot of detail. Ms Calder was lovely and her session really helped with my understand on the topic of lay magistrates more. Overall the session was really interesting and helpful. Posted by NS

 Magistrate’s visit to Central Foundation Boys’ School

December 2023

Shortly before Christmas, Mr G. Dowler spoke to Year 12 ‘A’ level Law students for ninety minutes. The talk was divided into two parts, one describing the role and responsibilities of a Magistrate and the other taking students through and interactive sentencing exercise. Below are some of the comments showing appreciation of the talk.

We really enjoyed the visit from the Magistrate. We had lots of questions answered such as them not always sitting as three, they can in fact sit as two.

The test they take to become a Magistrate seemed interesting as they are asked questions regarding different criminal scenarios and having to rank them in order of seriousness.

We were given a task where we had to look at the online sentencing guidelines magistrates use to decide punishment. Thereafter, we were given a criminal scenario where a crime had been committed.

We had to consider any aggravating and mitigating factors that would influence the outcome of sentence which is something we have learned in class and were able to put into action again.

The activity was very informative allowing us to understand what it is like to be a magistrate and how they reach conclusions. The visit also gave us a greater insight to the justice system by hearing about some cases the magistrate had sat in on.