By definition, a partnership is an agreement between organizations or people to work together. The Model United Nations partnership has given pupils a much richer and meaningful experience than if the schools had participated in isolation, enabling them to engage with current affairs and enhance their skills for the future, perhaps even a career in diplomacy or politics.
Bradfield had already developed a successful partnership with Kennet through a shared vision to deliver an outstanding CCF provision. Kennet lacked the physical resources, space and equipment, but had motivated pupils wanting join Bradfield’s unit to make it an exciting and dynamic offer. The CCF is thriving with a recent session seeing the pupils take on the Bradfield assault course, working so well together an outsider would assume they were all from the same school.
In Year 10, Seb enjoyed the CCF sessions but his real passion was for diplomacy and international relations and he was keen to reinvigorate Bradfield’s Model United Nations (MUN). He managed to encourage between 50-100 pupils participating each year with 10-20 really engaging and benefiting. He reached out to Kennet to see if they were interested in joining forces again and extended the invitation to Theale Green and other local schools.
My aim was to drive participation further so that there would be a large enough core group across the schools, that was enthusiastic to discuss local, national and global issues.
Seb Pease (G 20-25)
Small classes at Theale Green School meant running a MUN on their own was not possible. Their pupils taking part are studying History and Politics and are considering these and Law as degree courses. One pupil we spoke to said he had a genuine interest in current affairs outside of his subject curriculum and it was difficult to access ways to engage this, but MUN gives him an opportunity to discover a greater insight into what is happening in the world
Ben, a teacher at Kennet described the benefit of the MUN initiative to his pupils ‘the platform to interact with real world situations and not just from a Western centric viewpoint.
THE MODEL UNITED NATIONS PROGRAMME HAS GIVEN OUR PUPILS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP IMPORTANT STRATEGIC SKILLS INCLUDING HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY AND FORMAT IDEAS. IT ISN’T SOMETHING YOU GET TO EXPERIENCE IN MANY STATE SCHOOLS
Ben, Kennet School Teacher
Students consider a wide range of topics when preparing for a MUN conference. These are topical and thought provoking as well as relevant, for example debating the use of AI in warfare. It is also fun; imaging you are Donald Trump, Xi Jinping or Giorgia Meloni faced with a global crisis and trying to negotiate with other world powers to achieve a resolution is exciting and gives participants a chance to explore issues from new perspectives and craft arguments both orally and in writing.
Earlier in the academic year, the joint delegation from the three schools attended their first conference in Oxford, but without Seb. “I took the hard decision not to go to the Oxford conference as spaces were limited due to us participating as a combined team as one country, not competing against each other as usually happens with partner schools when they get to events. I felt it was important for legacy reasons to give Lower 6th pupils the opportunity to ensure they got the experience to encourage and compel them to continue with the partnership in the Upper 6th. It was worth missing out as they did come back inspired by their experience and hungry to take up the challenge and lead next year.”
In fact, they have done better than waiting until next year, as at the end of the summer term at the MUN conference at Abingdon the partnership group represented not one but four countries: Russia, Haiti, Burkina Faso and Turkey.
Throughout the process pupils from all the schools have developed their understanding of international relations alongside each other, as well as making lots of new friends.
IT WAS SUCH A PLEASURE TO SEE THEIR WORK BEING RECOGNISED WITH MULTIPLE AWARD WINNERS. WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO CONTINUING THE PARTNERSHIP IN THE NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR
jo foad, head of partnerships
As for Seb, now studying Economics, Public Policy and Maths at Duke University in the US.
His ultimate goal would be to hold an MUN alumni and student event in the future to really cement the partnership and keep it going to offer participants opportunities to discuss, debate and connect for many years to come in support of their own career development and those of the pupils who follow them.
If you are interested in participating MUN alumni and student event, please email bradfieldsociety@bradfieldcollege.org.uk
