Last Saturday, four pupils travelled to the Richard Hale School in Hertford to participate in their inaugural Model United Nations Conference. Alex John-Vallee, Patrick Morrissey and Jack Parrot of Year 12 and Harrison Yates of Year 11 chose to represent Mexico and, in preparation for the conference, researched the country and their membership to the United Nations.
Each of the boys chose to join different committees; they then researched Mexico’s standpoints on the issues faced by each committee in order to find a resolution on behalf of Mexico. From the get-go, the pupils jumped headfirst into heated debates about current affairs in the UN. They had to follow UN protocol while debating and had to consider Mexico’s point-of-view when studying the impact on new country alliances.
After two sessions of 90-minute debates, all country delegates (about 120 pupils) met in the General Assembly for the most intense session of the day. Delegates were to debate the three chosen resolutions: Global Nuclear Disarmament, Facilitating Dialog between Palestine and Israel, and Facilitating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Again, the boys had to follow strict protocols when debating, counter debating, voting and note passing. The students were allowed to write notes to other countries asking them to clarify their viewpoints and help create new voting alliances to help get resolutions passed or blocked (These notes were couriered around the room by official note-runners and they were very busy). This session lasted 90 minutes and our students really embraced the spirit of the event.
