We were delighted to welcome pupils from across the region to the Climate Model UN Conference 2023 at the Craig Centre for Performing Arts, in partnership with Aberdeen for a Fairer World MDEC.

On Friday 17th March 2023 nine schools from Moray, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City joined a cohort of Robert Gordon’s pupils to debate and discuss climate change and how countries can collaborate to help reverse the challenge. 

Mr Macpherson, Head of College opened the conference followed by our S5 pupils Eishah and James who chaired the debate, delivering key information and listening to all arguments. They encouraged and coached pupils along with their core team to enable them to get the very best out of the day. The pupils were also joined by Ashley and Jill from the local Co-op who donated fairtrade bananas as well as Neil Morrison (Trustee) of MDEC. 

Model UN Coordinator, Mrs Willetts shared: “It was lovely to see so many enthusiastic delegates at their first ever Model UN conference. Model UN teaches so many skills such as diplomacy, collaboration and negotiation whilst allowing pupils to develop a holistic worldview. I am delighted to have so many pupils who want to engage in geo-politics and are genuinely interested in being involved in big conversations. 

“The conference was aimed at younger pupils and they certainly rose to the challenge, successfully passing a full resolution together to tackle climate change. Some schools expressed a wish to set up their own Model UN Clubs and we are delighted to be able to support the co-curricular development of Model UN across the North East. I’m very proud of James and Eishah too who chaired with professionalism and enthusiasm.”

Thank you to David Innes (Chair of MDEC) and Cara Walkden (Trustee) who helped to organise the event. 
 

School	Area	Country and Results
Lossiemouth Academy	Moray	Malawi
The Gordon Schools, Huntly	Aberdeenshire	Brazil
Kemnay Academy	Aberdeenshire	Islamic Republic of Iran
Portlethen Academy	Aberdeenshire	Egypt Best Position Paper
Inverurie Academy	Aberdeenshire	Russian Federation
Bridge of Don Academy	Aberdeen City	China Most Controversial Delegate
Bucksburn Academy	Aberdeen City	Bangladesh Best Delegate (Christopher)
Robert Gordon’s College	Independent	New Zealand
Robert Gordon’s College	Independent	USA Best Clause
Albyn School	Independent	France Best Delegation Most likely to work in the UK (Michas)
International School of Aberdeen	Independent	UK Best Delegation