Clifton High School encourages a growth mindset in all their Senior School pupils and Sixth Form students to provide opportunities that reach beyond the GCSE and A level academic curriculums.
Whilst Clifton High School offers many avenues for pupils to strengthen their skills in developing into empathetic global citizens with an understanding of real-world issues, one co-curricular provision is through our ‘Model United Nations (MUN) Society’; a society of ambassadors seeking knowledge of complex topics that cover international affairs and global politics. For those GCSE pupils and A level students studying History, Geography, Economics, Politics and Sociology this is a particularly helpful club that broadens awareness of the subjects.
As a School, we believe that our student population should be nurtured in looking for alternative perspectives of worldwide challenges with the aim of developing knowledge, understanding, empathy and other key life skills. The Year 9 to Year 13 children who serve as members on our MUN committee, which is operated in line with the United Nations, represent a specific country and unite to reach agreements on contemporary issues.
During our recent weekly meetings, pupils have internally debated topics such as:
- The issue of free and fair elections in Northern Africa
- The issue of tackling climate change
- Managing the growing global population
- Deescalating tensions in the Middle East
- The issue of women’s rights in Iran
Beyond the remit of School and the Bristol catchment, we are active in our participation in well-respected conferences whereby Clifton High School MUN members connect with pupils from other schools around the country to debate issues, develop skills in negotiation and build upon their knowledge of contemporary issues.
During the weekend of 2nd - 3rd March 2024 our MUN members represented Ghana and Portugal at the Bath International School MUN Conference whereby 80 delegations were represented. Despite snow disrupting proceedings, our students demonstrated high levels of collaboration, debating skills and were incredibly well prepared and informed.
The debates included:
- Mitigating the effects of climate change
- The Israel-Palestine conflict,
- Water scarcity
- Nuclear fusion
The Emergency scenario was titled 'a nuclear emergency threatens the Indian subcontinent'.
- How to respond to an increasing global population
- Women’s rights in 1964
- Response to the Twin Towers attack in 2001
- The issue of ensuring free and fair elections in Zimbabwe in 1979
Additionally, the General Assembly at this conference involved our students representing U.S.A. in an emergency scenario - the country had split in half following their general election with half supporting the Republican party and the other half supporting the Democrat party. All our MUN members were a credit to Clifton High School and individually received highly commended and commended awards from the Conference.
Discover More
For those current Senior School pupils and Sixth Form students who would like to discover more about our MUN Society, please sign up through the SOCS platform and join us at 1.30pm every Tuesday in the Sixth Form Centre or contact Mrs Catharine Quirk-Marku, Head of Sociology and EPQ Coordinator, who is available to answer any questions via email: cquirkmarku@cliftonhigh.co.uk.
Further information on all our growth and development Co-Curricular Senior School clubs can be found here and Sixth Form clubs are linked here.
