Felsted School hosted their annual Model United Nations conference with students as young as twelve from across the region debating, discussing and attempting to solve some of the world’s biggest dilemmas.
This conference encourages young people to think positively, and strategically about the relationships we hold with other nations, and inspires the next generation of potential United Nations Delegates. After the global pandemic, it was wonderful that Felsted could welcome back, and reunite so many schools and students.
15 state and independent schools, including Felsted Prep, attended together, with pupils representing different countries from across the globe, voicing the opinions of that country in order to bring about positive change! The conference covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from Women’s right to abortion to cyber security.
Subsequently, this was also the first formal MUN experience for many of the students chairs and thanks to the skillful training by both the Secretary Generals and Mr Pathak, Head of Government and Politics at Felsted, they handled their committees both sensitively and with increasing authority.
Felsted pupil and MUN Chair, Niamh L states “To experience MUN once again after a two year break from our international family was a complete joy!”
Felsted’s charity partner for the conference was The Flying Seagull Project. Ash Perrin, CEO delivered an inspirational and thought provoking keynote speech to the delegates, telling them how he visits refugee camps as a ‘clown’, providing fun and laughter to the children there. Flying Seagull are childhood conservationists. Millions of childhoods are being lost to poverty, isolation, conflict and forced displacement all over the world. This charity protects childhood happiness through sharing meaningful play experiences where children have a real sense of ownership and feel that they matter.
The second of the keynotes was delivered by BBC Reporter Thomas Sparrow, which was a live stream from Berlin. Thomas spoke about the dangers of disinformation (as opposed to misinformation) and the role of the media in securing a democracy.
Not only was his message very pertinent to the current events in Ukraine, it also resonated with the students, who often rely on social media for their information, encouraging them to fact check their sources and how to do so.
“The MUN conference was a great success.” comments Felsted Head of School and MUN Chair Kit M-J. The Senior students were excellent and after the Prep School’s performance it is safe to say the future of MUN looks bright! The resolutions were all very topical and these will probably be era defining challenges so getting a practice in now is more than worthwhile.”
Director of MUN at Felsted, Catriona James comments; “Overall I was delighted by the way the conference progressed. The debate in each of the committees was a little tentative to start with, but as time progressed and many inexperienced delegates familiarised themselves with the process, the discussion warmed up and issues were hotly debated.”
