This October 13 students ARK 6th Form East Sussex attended Royal Russell School’s 32nd International Model United Nations 4 day residential conference. RRSIMUN is the second largest high-school/college level MUN conference in the country with over 700 students attending.

MUN is primarily dominated by private schools and as a consequence students from William Parker and Parkwood were the only students present who attend an academy. They were joined by other students from as far afield as Japan, USA, Italy and Finland. Attending a MUN conference can be a daunting experience, especially for first time delegates, but Jamie Hall (Year 10) and Jack McWilliams (Year 10) immediately emerged themselves into the MUN spirit.

Succeeding at MUN is not an easy feat, as students do not debate topics from their own perspectives but instead have to adopt a view point of a UN member state. Students are allocated countries and are required to conduct extensive research into their designated country’s viewpoints and cultural backgrounds.

Our students were representing the delegations of Jamaica, Cape Verde and Irag. In true MUN spirit our students worked together to produce outstanding opening speeches, with Jamaica and Iraq receiving the largest applause for their speeches. These were delivered by Joe Perry (Year 12) and Dylan Buckingham (Year 11). 

All students from William Parker submitted resolutions to be discussed in committee and all passed the approval panel with no difficulty. Each student was proactive in working with other delegates form different schools to merge their resolutions to produce a more concise and detailed example. Dylan Buckingham’s resolution was debated in committee, it passed with only two votes against. Jack Bloomfield (Year 10) and Matt both spoke in committee about nuclear non-profilieration and the illicit transfer of small arms from perspectives that were not warmly welcomed by other delegations!

Dylan’s resolution on ‘the question of preventative and cure of HIV and aids’ was debated in the General Assembly by 700 people. In the General Assembly our students did exceedingly well taking the floor several times and making points of information and points of order several times. Jamie Hall and Lewis Jarvis (Year 10) both spoke in the General Assembly by making points of information. Harry Ames (Year 10) received roaring applause when he concisely highlighted the dangers of ignoring the lessons of history.

William Parker has been participating in MUN for two and a half years and already our reputation and quality of debate has improved. Due to the outstanding performance of our students we have once again been invited to more conferences and our reputation among schools that participate in MUN is growing. We have received invites to Benenden, Haileybury, Haberdasher’s Boys, St Andrews (Dublin) and The Hague (UN headquarters).