Bring your school to Model UN

At a Model UN conference your students research a country's position on a real issue, defend it in speeches and negotiate a resolution with students from other schools. Because they argue for their country, not their own opinion, students practise defending views they do not share.

The UN supports Model UN: the General Assembly adopted resolution 77/336 on Model United Nations. The UN's Model UN pages offer a getting-started guide, sample documents and research resources for class.

You can register the delegation yourself. On the conference page, click Apply now and choose Faculty Advisor, the role for the teacher who brings the group. If the conference offers only Head Delegate, a student who leads the group registers it instead. If neither appears, the conference takes only individual applications.

Then add your students: share the delegation's invite link, invite students with a mymun account by name or email, or add a student by name, role and date of birth and manage their application yourself. Some conferences also ask for a signed parental consent form in the application: download their form, have a parent sign it and upload it.

If the conference takes payments on mymun, you can pay for the whole group in one checkout or let each student pay their own; each fee paid covers one member of your delegation. If you get stuck, look up delegations in the help center: it covers applying, adding students and paying.

Start with the level: a conference only for high school students keeps your students among peers their own age, while one open to all levels may seat them next to university students. Age limits apply to a student's age on the conference's first day, so a student who is too young today may still qualify.

Check the dates against exam weeks and the time you need for permission forms. Work out the cost per student: the delegate fee, travel, and a hotel if the conference is too far to go home each night. An online conference saves the travel. You can filter the high school conferences by month, price and country.

1. 1

   Start a school MUN club. A weekly club gives students a regular place to practise, with older students coaching new ones. You can also run MUN as an elective or a seminar course; read how teachers weighed all three at a teacher training day in Bavaria.

2. 2

   Hold practice debates in class. Run short debates on a topic everyone knows, with a speakers' list and a moderated caucus. The Model UN Masterclass has free lessons with exercises you can set as homework.

3. 3

   Teach country research. Once the conference sends country assignments, have each student find their country's votes and statements on the topic and its likely allies. Share the glossary so points, motions and votes are familiar before the first session.

4. 4

   Review position papers before the deadline. If the conference asks for position papers, set your own deadline a week before the conference's, read each draft and give feedback once. The position paper guide gives your students a structure to follow.

5. 5

   Run a mock session before the conference. A full rehearsal, with a student in the chair, opening speeches and a vote on a draft resolution, shows you who needs help with speaking and who with procedure.