By Mrs Barber (Head of Business and Economics) and Mrs Greenwood (Head of Philosophy and Religion)

Over the weekend 30 students took part in the CAMMUN conference held at the Stephen Perse Foundation in Cambridge. The event was attended by 19 schools, from 15 countries and over 238 delegates – a wonderful experience. All the BGS delegates deserve praise for their mature approach to researching their topics and participating in the debate, as well as their fantastic behaviour over the weekend. A special mention to our chairs (Mia Krnic and Manal Husain from Upper Sixth and Danae Karavaggelis, Aadya Betadpur and Sonia Erwig from Year 11) who ran their committees superbly. The awards ceremony at the end of the conference reinforced how well the students had done with both Ella Allen and Ariadna Whittle-Queral (Upper Sixth) winning Best Delegate in their committees and Sophie Wesson (Upper Sixth) and Mitali Misra (Year 11) getting Honourable Mentions. A big thank you to Mrs Sadler for joining us on this trip.

Danae Karavaggelis (Year 11): “CAMMUN was a transformative experience and I enjoyed chairing for the first time at this conference. My committee was great and it was a pleasure to see them all grow in confidence throughout the weekend. The focus of the conference was on, ‘Mitigating growing barriers to navigate through a fractured diplomatic climate’ and we debated many topics in this area, trying to find resolutions that worked for all the countries and their unique opinions. The secretariat was great at successfully organising this huge event and I’m looking forward to attending again next year.” 

Sonia Erwig (Year 11): “I immensely enjoyed chairing at Model United Nations, it was a great experience and I was able to meet delegates from all around the world. I was delighted by not only the collaborative spirit my delegates showed but also by the impressive growth and confidence everyone in my committee exhibited throughout this experience. Model United Nations teaches so many valuable skills including diplomacy, public speaking and communication so I’m always delighted by an opportunity to go to a conference.” 

Ella Allen (Upper Sixth): “CAMMUN2024 will be my last MUN conference in school and was an amazing experience. The debate in my committee was interesting and engaging and I think it was also quite productive. It was really rewarding to receive the best delegate and a wonderful way to finish my MUN experience in school.”