Back in April, the school ran it’s first ever Model United Nations (Model UN) Conference to give students the opportunity to represent UN member states and debate real-world issues.
Following on from this, a second Model UN Conference was held, this time at Bedford Girls’ School with students from schools across Bedford gathered to take part. 
We spoke to Fourth Former Seth Baines, who kindly wrote his experience of the event:
After a small walk to Bedford Girls’ School, the conference began with an opening speech by the General Secretariat. They explained the basic goals of MUN; diplomacy and compromise. Soon it was time to divide into our respective committees – I ascended the stairs into the room designated for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with many nations’ flags, all familiar but some unexpected (Venezuela). The Chair started with some ice breakers and then all delegates were thrust into an unmoderated caucus, time allowed to move around the committee and gain supporters. The first proposal was nothing extreme as every person there was unsure, it proposed that western nations created more humanitarian corridors and passed with almost an absolute majority. More propositions (about five) followed and before we knew it, the meeting was adjourned for lunch. In this time, I had the chance to speak with my counterparts in other committees and learnt that in the crisis committee, Ukraine had been the target of nuclear strikes. Before I could react, lunch was finished, and we returned to our rooms. By now in the UNHCR, factions had formed. On one side a group wanted to fine Turkey, and on the other they wished to fine Germany. After a long unmoderated caucus, the last major proposition occurred, wishing to fine Turkey one billion Lira for the Armenian genocide, and after German intervention, the creation of the Kurdish state along with the complete arrest of all Turkish leadership. This debate felt like hours but, the vote passed with only Turkey, Russia and Pakistan disagreeing. The day ended with a closing speech from the General Secretariat and the Headmistress of Bedford Girls’ School. This was an amazing experience and, even though we made some mistakes (accidentally fining the British twenty-five trillion), everyone debated, and it even got heated sometimes. Given the chance I would definitely participate in MUN again.
Seth Baines, Delegate of Germany
