Model United Nations (MUN) conferences aim to replicate the discussions and debates of UN committees, by involving students representing the views of different countries on a wide range of issues, and giving students the opportunity to research, present and argue a case in support of their allocated country's position.

Universities value participation in MUN highly because of the opportunities it provides to develop intercultural understanding, analytical thinking, negotiation and presentation skills and self-confidence, amongst other skills. Conferences involve a mixture of formal debate in both speech and writing, navigating the complex UN rules for procedure, informal lobbying and technical writing, while maintaining a role as the voice of a country whose beliefs and values do not necessarily reflect your own.

It was a privilege to accompany four Braintree Sixth Form students to our first experience of a Model United Nations conference on 26 and 27 February this year. At Felsted School, we joined delegations from another 19 schools from across the region, country and even elsewhere in Europe. About 60 countries were represented by a delegation in total, including at one point the newly created 'Republic of California', which in a final emergency debate had to defend its position in an imagined crisis following the assassination of Donald Trump and Mike Pence and a descent into political chaos for the USA. Verity Forster, Leah Roby Smith, Natacha Maurin and Lily Richards represented Braintree Sixth Form at the conference and were given the considerable challenge of representing South Sudan, the world's newest country. This was particularly daunting, given a current humanitarian crisis in the country, with fears of both famine and genocide very much in the news at the moment, the blame for which has been laid by many at the South Sudanese government's door. South Sudan also has a poor record on human rights, including LGBTQ rights, and as this was a theme of the conference, representing the South Sudanese perspective was particularly challenging.

However, once the conference started students were in their element. They contributed to debates, submitted amendments to resolutions, lobbied hard, formed alliances with other nations and both supported and challenged others. They enjoyed the written debates very much and, unlike North Korea, did not get banned from messaging for sending threats! This was our first conference and looking at Twitter afterwards, this appears to be a 'thing', so I would like to congratulate Leah, Lily, Natacha and Verity for their excellent contributions to the event - we were not sure in advance of what to expect from the experience, but it is safe to say that over the days of the conference confidence grew enormously, and the experience was engaging and fascinating for students at every level. We are now MUN addicts and will be looking to repeat the experience.

I spoke about the MUN to students in Years 7 - 11 this half term in an assembly about tolerance and mutual respect. The MUN is a fine example of the ways we can develop these values and I would urge any Year 11 students who are joining Year 12 next year to consider participating.