During the Easter holidays 12 Royal Russell Students attended SAIMUN, the four day Model United Nations conference based in Dun Laoghaire near Dublin. It is a very well run International conference with over 100 delegations and this year only two schools came over from the UK. Despite some very large committees, which made being recognised very hard, our students again did very well. There were five or six Distinguished delegate awards in each committee and three of the Germany Delegation won one – Ivan, David and Georgia. Since most of the students were sixth form equivalent David and Georgia’s success was particularly impressive. Everyone else spoke at least once with Lilly and Ivan making really good opening speeches to the GA. The students also managed a quick trip into Dublin to celebrate Lilly’s birthday at the Bad Ass café in Temple Bar.

22 students attended the Haileybury MUN conference in March.  It was a tough conference with a very high standard of debating and Haileybury’s biggest yet,  with over 600 students from leading International andUKschools. Despite this a number of our students did really well. Hamza got his resolution debated and passed into the GA (although sadly there was not time to debate it) and Georgia, Sam and Jason also got their resolutions debated  – no mean achievement with over 160 resolutions approved and only about 40 reaching committee.

Haileybury give two or three highly commended delegate awards in each committee and two or three Distinguished delegate awards and then give 8 delegations the Distinguished delegation award. Royal Russell students won one of the Distinguished Delegation awards and 5 individual awards:

Highly Commended Delegates: Jason & Sam

Distinguished Delegate:  Tiggy, Sultan & Georgia

Distinguished delegation award: Pakistan(Jason, Tiggy, Sultan, Georgia, Sam & Michelle)

This year a record number of Royal Russell students attended the 2012 Haberdashers MUN conference in March with 27 students representing 5 different countries and 2 members of the press team. Our students again did very well with three students winning Highly Commended Delegate awards and three more the Distinguished Delegate award. Sultan did particularly well in the Security Council passing his resolution unanimously through the Council and taking the resolution, on long-term peace in Afghanistan to the GA where it again passed. The two and a half day conference ended with the students in the China delegation winning a Distinguished Delegation award. A fantastic achievement.

The following students won individual awards:

Highly Commended Delegate:

Connor
Alice
Jason

Distinguished Delegate:

Georgia
Sultan
Tiggy

Saturday 10 March saw two delegations of students from Royal Russell attend the City of London School MUN conference.  Located next to St Paul’s Cathedral on the banks of the Thames, this is a fantastic venue, and the quality of the conference and debate was equal to it.

Topics for debate included use of IMF funds for an EU bailout, finding a balance between appeasement and intervention in North Korea, and the conflict in Syria.

With two different conferences scheduled for this weekend, we decided to take the younger, less experienced students, to CLS meaning that we did not come away with the raft of prizes and awards that the more experienced Royal Russell students at the Haberdasher’s conference won, but it was an extremely beneficial learning experience, and one that was greatly enjoyed by all the participants.

On Friday 3 February, nine Royal Russell students headed to Lady Eleanor Holles school for their fourth annual MUN conference. Our students began well, quickly getting their resolutions supported in lobbying and five students managed to get their resolutions to approval panel that evening.

After an interesting talk by Lord Hannay, the former UK ambassador to the United Nations, Charlotte, Kat and Maria all delivered impressive opening speeches to the General Assembly.

On Saturday all the delegates, representingIraq,IndiaandSyriamanaged to speak in their committees. Sadly the snow came Saturday night and we were not able to attend the final day at the conference. However despite this Maria, who spoke so well in her committee, managed to win a Highly Commended delegate award – a fantastic achievement.

Sunday: 20 Royal Russell students head to The Hague via Gatwick and Amsterdam (and a visit to Ann Frank’s House and Museum) representing Iraq and UNHCHR at THIMUN 2012.

Monday: Lobbying was extremely successful for many delegates. Tiggy, Sultan and Georgia all got support and recognition as submitters and first speakers on their resolutions. Georgia, in her first THIMUN, managing to take charge of her lobbying group was a fantastic achievement.

Several delegates had seats for Opening Ceremony and enjoyed the Address of the Key Note Speaker, Dr Sylvia Earle, a world famous Oceanographer on the Importance of Protecting and Restoring the Word’s Oceans and Seas.

Tuesday: Committee Day

Sultan initially had his resolution (70 co-submitters) rejected by the Chair.  However undeterred he re-wrote it, re-submitted it and eventually got it debated on Thursday only to have it defeated by 3 votes. Charlotte, Alice, Darya and Georgia all gave Opening Speeches to their committees. Tiggy’s speech to his committee, when presenting his resolution on the Prevention of Further Degradation to Coral Reefs, was excellent, especially his answers to four/five probing questions.

Wednesday: Georgia was the first speaker on her resolution, which was really well received and she answered questions with assurity and confidence. It passed by 78 to 56. The afternoon was spent in Amsterdam after Delegation Photos.

Thursday: Comittees continued.
Darya and Connor had good days but rather frustrating for the others.
Delegation Dinner in the evening.

Friday:  Both Tiggy and Georgia had their resolutions placed in the Conference Resolution booklet – an outstanding achievement – and they both presented their resolutions to the Plenary Session of their committees – both passed. Fantastic!

A successful and enjoyable Conference!

Attended by:
Advisors:         Mr John Piggin and Ms Sandrine Calvet
Delegates: