Manchester students praised for work with schools

21 Jun 2012

A group of MA students from the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) at The University of Manchester have been praised for their work with 60 secondary schoolchildren.

The schools were taking part in a ‘Model United Nations’ project, run by Stockport Council's Ethnic Diversity Service and the Schools Linking Network.

The programme brings together students from Stockport schools allowing students to run a running of a mock General Assembly session which sought to find solutions to the global refugee crisis.

Each MA student was assigned a country-delegation made up of three younger students, all from different schools.

Over the course of a semester, during both face to face meetings and online, the students helped the schoolchildren  write position papers, coached them in public speaking and helped them with a range of team building exercises.

Their hard work culminated in a full day mock UN session held in the Council Chambers at Stockport town hall.

Stockport teachers praised Manchester’s students, including one from Reddich who wrote: "The MA students were a credit to themselves and Manchester University throughout this programme.

“I hope they all get tremendous credit and kudos for their involvement from their assessors. This has been a phenomenally enriching experience for our students, something they will remember for the rest of their lives."

Professor James Thompson, from HCRI,  said: “I would like to congratulate  our students and staff who provided such superb support for these students in what has been a fantastic programme.

“The programme was a fantastic opportunity for schoolchildren to think about  an important subject – but have fun at the same time.”