Students shine at Model United Nations Conference

Over the weekend, 12 Perse students from Years 11 to Upper Sixth attended the Model United Nations Conference, which was held at the City of London School for Boys, alongside 240 student delegates from 17 schools across the country.

The students were allocated the countries of Chad, Bahrain and Belarus, where they acted as UN ambassadors, representing on a number of different United Nations committees, including the Security Council and the Human Rights Committee. The conference gave the students the opportunity to witness the complexities of international policy making first-hand, whilst also allowing them to get to grips with state policy, cultures and ideas different to their own, in order to understand what it means to be a diplomat. The pupils had to master the debating procedures used by the United Nations and learn how to address fellow delegates on a range of issues.

Pupils also enjoyed a fascinating lecture from Professor Jack Spence from King’s College, London, who spoke on whether it is ever right to negotiate with terrorists.

Over the course of the day, three Perse students were awarded ‘highly commended delegate awards’ – Salvador Buse in the Lower Sixth who represented Bahrain on the Economic and Social Committee, Greg Stewart in the Upper Sixth who represented Chad on the Disarmament Committee and Hamza Wahid also in the Upper Sixth, who represented Chad on the Security Council.

It was a great achievement for three Perse students to win an award, as only 18 individual prizes were awarded during the conference. Well done!