By Ella

The Reigate junior MUN conference recently took place on the 10th of May. The conference brought together 6 schools and most of the delegates present were completely new to MUN or had very little experience. The conference had many of the standard committee’s that you would see at your average conference, however, the names were changed to make it more simple for newcomers, as it was a beginner conference. The committees were: health, environment, human rights, disarmament and international dispute. It was a great conference to encourage people to get into MUN as while there were many who were anxious at the start, by the end, everyone had spoken and still wanted to speak more on the pressing issues debated. It was also more informal than your average conference and was a bit less intimidating than many other conferences, giving many a good understanding of how conferences run.

Every time Gordons goes to an MUN conference, it is incredible to see newcomers stepping up and speaking proudly about issues they feel strongly about. In MUN we see the future of politicians, speaking for our country on a global scale, and even if you are not interested in this career path, MUN can help you get out of your comfort zone and be more confident with public speaking which is great, as this is an important life skill. After a day of creating amendments, asking points of information and much more, we began to bring our conference to a close with a crisis! A cyber-attack had been launched in Europe and the Middle East, bringing down all digital devices. The perpetrators of these crimes were China and Russia, and Ukraine was the most affected. There were many clauses submitted to try and combat this crisis, some more questionable than others. For example, the Ukrainian government decided to get nuclear weapons from France to nuke Moscow, which was sadly rejected. Other ideas were proposed to place cyber bans on Russia and China, as well as removing both from their permanent positions on the security Council.

Finally, to end the day, awards were given to those who had stood out within their individual committee, speaking out lots and proposing great ideas to combat issues. Awards for highly commended delegates were awarded to Zaara Hafis and Matthew Bell (whose first conference this was, making it an even greater achievement). Awards for commended delegates were also awarded to William Alinson and Ella Mathews. This was a great result as it meant that Gordon’s students had won awards in 4/5 committees which was a big achievement. All other Gordons students who took part in the conference also did incredibly, with many getting special mentions for their comments and skill in their conference rooms, during the awards ceremony.