On December 10, international human rights day, three students from the Human Rights Law & Clinic module, Cynthia, Bilaal and Jenna, joined our Head of Department, Prof Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos, in a visit to Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC), one of the biggest sixth forms in the country, and took part in the delivery of a human rights workshop to students in the human rights law class there.

The workshop brought to the attention of the sixth form students the government’s recent proposals for the reform of the Human Rights Act. Jenna, Cynthia and Bilaal each presented on the impact of the Human Rights Act, taking the right to a fair trial as an illustration; they had worked on their presentation with their human rights law lecturer Dr Fatima Ahdash. They also facilitated group work and debate during the workshop, and answered student questions about preparing for A levels and life at University.

It was an empowering experience for our students to apply their learning, in a crucial area of Law and Politics, speaking to a young audience, hoping to inspire them, demonstrate to them that the transition from sixth form to University will give them excellent opportunities to be active learners, applying knowledge and skillsets they will have already begun to develop in their sixth form courses.

We were most grateful to BHASVIC for their wonderful hospitality, and for their most generous feedback — the workshop “fitted exactly with where we are in the course and was enormously relevant in the current climate”, commented Adam Robinson, BHASVIC’s A level lead in the course, before adding: “The students very much appreciated it as did I”.

For our Goldsmiths students, it was a unique pleasure and opportunity to visit the College and connect with the sixth form students, Prof Giannoulopoulos wrote back to BHASVIC.

This was our second visit to BHASVIC and we’re already looking forward to visiting wonderful Brighton again.