Part 2 - Giving Evidence - Witness Familiarisation Reviews

Although very knowledgeable with years of experience, the trainer referred to the handouts the whole time. No independent slides had been created by the trainer (which previous trainers from units 3 and 4 had done) This would have helped to provide interest through the use of practical examples experienced by herself. Sharing of such experiences/examples of past cases helps the course be more engaging and memorable. I found the course hard to follow as we kept flitting from one course book to another on the screen. Also the page numbers didn't match. Day 2 was more interesting when we watched clips of witnesses speaking at hearings from previous cases. This helped cement the learnings provided and I feel we would have benefitted more from this. The time we spent doing role play in the coroners court was also very useful and enjoyable. As with all the assignments this assignment is very long and the questions are difficult to understand as to what is actually required when completing your answer.

More visual aids would have been nice as it was a lot of sitting and listening, although Geraint was very knowledgeable in the subject. The end practice session was a lot easier for those on the 2 day course to understand as they knew the scenario and had written the statement, so it would have been nice to have a preface to this for those only on the 1 day course. Additionally, it would have been nice to have given others to think of cross-examination questions after an example or 2, so we could think of ways that we can prepare in the future.

Good overall course which met my objectives