PARENTS

Last weekend, a team of sixth form girls travelled to Edinburgh as the delegation from Gabon to represent MSJ at a Model United Nations conference. There were over 600 pupils participating from 48 schools around the world, including Cyprus, Iran and Turkey.

Girls debated as part of various committees which consisted of up to 50 pupils. Topics that were debated included ‘Who owns the world's fuel', ‘How can we prevent the increase of HIV/AIDS' and ‘Do women need the same rights as men?' Each team member did a fantastic job and argued either for or against different resolutions, sometimes standing at the front and defending and arguing their country's views.

This was our best ever performance at a MUN conference. MSJ was awarded ‘Highly Commended Delegation' which was a tribute to the hard work and rigorous debating performed by every girl on the team. Maria Goryaeva in the Health committee, Emma Leese in the Economic committee and Sophy Coombes-Roberts in the Disarmament committee were highly commended on their personal performance. Commended pupils included Mickie Koh in the Economic committee, Zoe Hutber in the Health committee and Naomi Hoggett in the Security Council. This was an amazing achievement and everyone who represented the school so well should be very proud of themselves.

Maria Goryaeva said ‘It's impossible to put this weekend into words -you really had to experience the tension of the debates, the beauty of Edinburgh and the fun of the ceilidh. Oh, and the satisfaction of beating Shrewsbury and Tudor Hall on some of the committees! All of this made my last MUN conference really special and I shall definitely miss it a lot next year!'