A TAVISTOCK College student was named best court reporter in a regional law competition held in Plymouth recently.
Lyndsay Jarman, who is 17, was awarded the prize in the Plymouth District National Mock Bar Trial Competition held in the city's magistrates court.
It was the first time Tavistock College has entered the competition — and they very narrowly missed going through to the national finals.
'They actually beat the team that got through, it was so very close,' said English teacher Wendy Roderick, who guided the students with fellow teachers John Stuart and Julie Horton.
'We were amazed by their professionalism — they worked so hard and it was wonderful for Lyndsay because she hopes to study journalism at university,' she said.
The Tavistock team of 15 students were the only one from the West Devon and Torridge constituency to enter the competition, which featured schools from all over the South West.
They were given four cases to study in July, and members of the team had to take on the role of jurors, lead prosecution and defence members and witnesses during a re-enactment of the court case.
The Tavistock team won three out of their four cases.
'The documents were huge — the lead defence and prosecution took them home over the summer to study.
'It was a fantastic experience and what made it even better for us is that our lead prosecutor Francesca West wants to study law,' said Ms Roderick.
'Some of the other team members have expressed an interest in law and we thought this was one way of showing them how court works — we also had the help of a barrister from Plymouth,' she said.
As a result of the Tavistock team's excellent results, the College has been contacted by the Law Society and further court visits are in the pipeline for the students.