founded by Tim Woffenden. In 1985 SGS was honoured to represent the USSR at the 40th anniversary MUN conference held at Central Hall, Westminster, to celebrate the first United Nations General Assembly, which was held there. In 1990 the SGS delegation, led by ambassador Robert Hartley, won the best delegation award at The Hague MUN, the world's largest. The school has hosted a biennial Model United Nations (MUN) conference since March 2006. At 2008's conference, Labour MP and former home secretary David Blunkett was the school's guest speaker. At 2012's conference, Senior Liberal Democrat MP, Andrew Stunell was the guest speaker. Pupils have also attended MUN conferences in many locations, including Yale, Belfast, Edinburgh, Paris, Genoa, Bath and Cambridge. Expeditions The school runs a series of expeditions for Sixth Formers every two years to places such as Venezuela, Vietnam, Uganda, Namibia, Rwanda and in 2015 an expedition to Bolivia & Peru. In 2017, an expedition took 41 students to Borneo. Pupils participate in planning the trips and manage their own finances, accommodation, food and transportation. House System The school has four houses – Arden, Nicholson, Vernon, and Warren – into which all pupils are divided for the purposes of competitive sport and quizzes. Each year all four house compete for both the Fallow Shield (sporting success) and the Brown Cup (academic success). The houses encourage integration of all pupils into school life. Sport is not the only competitive activity for the houses, there is also chess and the competition of gaining the highest charitable amount. Origin of the Houses The four Houses were created initially in 1924 for competition in games and athletics with the undistinguished names of North, South, East and West. These were replaced in 1949 with rather more appropriate names of distinguished local families associated with the School in the past. Arden The Ardernes were an important county family deriving from Sir John de Arnerne who lived in the 18th century and who received a great estate within the Earldom of Chester. Subsequent marriages constantly added to the Arderne estate until they included a great part of Bredbury, Romiley, Werneth, Offerton, Stockport and Alvanley. Ralph Arderne helped to defend Manchester against the Royalists in the Civil War. John Ardern (who changed the spelling of the family name), an Old Stopfordian, went to St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1728 and later became High Sheriff of Cheshire and his