Special Post: Taran Talbott (Y12) London International Model United Nations 

On the 27th-28th of April, an 18-strong WA delegation attended London International Model United Nations (MUN) winning best overall delegation and beating out fee-paying schools including Harrow and Latymer! A whopping FOUR of our delegates from years 11 and 12 won awards in their committees.

Because of our success across committees, we also collectively won the “Best Delegation” award for highest cumulative number of awards from a single school! It is truly astounding that students from an inner-city state school, attending a conference of this scale for the very first time, who had to individually finance their own attendance at the conference were also the ones to come out victorious above schools such as Harrow and Latymer!

Our delegates were spread across seven committees, in which each of us represented a country and had to promote the agenda of our assigned nations in relation to the particular issue our assembly was debating. The sessions over the weekend consisted mostly of unmoderated lobbying between delegates, which engages a huge range of critical communication skills.

The school’s presence and achievements at this conference are truly unbelievable considering that at the beginning of this school year there was no lasting pedagogy of MUN present at WA. Through a lot of persistence from our dedicated Year 12 cohort, MUN after school on Tuesday has become almost institutionalised, and our success at the  conferences we have attended are testament to the passion that exists within our student body for debate and critical thinking.

We actively want more students to get involved, especially from younger years, so please keep an eye out for emails regarding upcoming opportunities. Our aim is to build Model UN at WA into something that far surpasses my, or anyone else’s, time at the school. I truly believe there are no downsides to taking part, and can’t stress how much MUN has given me in the brief time I have been doing it.

Taran Talbott (Y12)

IB Diploma student