British School of Barcelona

Why is Sleep Important During a Pandemic?

Sleep is a critical biological process, and the truth is that it’s always important. When confronting the Covid-19 pandemic, though, sleep becomes even more essential because of its wide-ranging benefits for physical and mental health.

Sleep empowers an effective immune system. Solid nightly rest strengthens our body’s defences, and studies have even found that lack of sleep can make some vaccines less effective.
Sleep heightens brain function. Our mind works better when we get a good night’s sleep, contributing to complex thinking, learning, memory, and decision-making. For adults and children adapting to work and school at home, good sleep can help them stay sharp.
Sleep enhances mood. Lack of sleep can make a person irritable, drag down their energy level, and cause or worsen feelings of depression.
Sleep improves mental health. Besides depression, studies have found that a lack of sleep is linked with mental health conditions like anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Experts agree that getting consistent, high-quality sleep improves virtually all aspects of health, which is why it is worthy of our attention during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our Guidelines to Sleeping Well During the Covid-19 Outbreak

In spite of the daunting challenges, there are a handful of steps that can promote better sleep during the Covid-19 pandemic.

If these efforts don’t pay off immediately, don’t give up. It can take time to stabilise your sleep, and you may find that you need to adapt these suggestions to best fit your specific situation.

1- Set Your Schedule and Routine

Establishing a routine can facilitate a sense of normalcy even in abnormal times. It’s easier for your mind and body to acclimate to a consistent sleep schedule, which is why health experts have long recommended avoiding major variation in your daily sleep times.

Sleep-specific aspects of your daily schedule should include:

Wake-Up Time: Set your alarm, bypass the snooze button, and have a fixed time to get every day started.
Wind-Down Time: This is an important time to relax and get ready for bed. It can involve things like light reading, stretching, and meditating along with preparations for bed like putting on pyjamas and brushing your teeth. Given the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s wise to give yourself extra wind-down time each night.
Bedtime: Pick a consistent time to actually turn out the lights and try to fall asleep.

In addition to time spent sleeping and getting ready for bed, it can be helpful to incorporate steady routines to provide time cues throughout the day, including:

Showering and getting dressed even if you aren’t leaving the house.
Eating meals at the same time each day.
Blocking off specific time periods for work and exercise.

2- Reserve Your Bed for Sleep

Sleep experts emphasise the importance of creating an association in your mind between your bed and sleep.

This means that working-from-home shouldn’t be working-from-bed. It also means avoiding bringing a laptop into bed to watch a movie or series.

On any given night, if you find that you’re having a hard time sleeping, don’t spend more than 20 minutes tossing and turning. Instead, get out of bed and do something relaxing in very low light, and then head back to bed to try to fall asleep.

Frequently changing your sheets, fluffing your pillows, and making your bed can keep your bed feeling fresh, creating a comfortable and inviting setting to doze off.

3- See the Light

Exposure to light plays a crucial role in helping our bodies regulate sleep in a healthy way. As you deal with disruptions to daily life, you may need to take steps so that light-based cues have a positive effect on your circadian rhythm.

If you can, spend some time outside in natural light. Even if the sun isn’t shining brightly, natural light still has positive effects on circadian rhythm. Many people find outdoor time is most beneficial in the morning, and as an added bonus, it’s an opportunity to get fresh air.
As much as possible, open windows and blinds to let light into your home during the day.
Be mindful of screen time. The blue light produced by electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, and computers, has been found to interfere with the body’s natural sleep-promoting processes. As much as possible, avoid using these devices for an hour before bed. You can also use device settings or special apps that reduce or filter blue light.

4- Be Careful with Naps

If you’re home all day, you may be tempted to take more naps. While a short power nap early in the afternoon can be useful to some people, it’s best to avoid long naps or naps later in the day that can hinder night-time sleep.

5- Stay Active

It’s easy to overlook exercise with everything happening in the world, but regular daily activity has numerous important benefits, including for sleep.

If you can go for a walk while maintaining a safe distance from other people, that’s a great option. If not, there is a wealth of resources online for all types and levels of exercise. Many gyms and yoga and dance studios are live-streaming free classes during this period of social distancing.

6- Practice Kindness and Foster Connection

It might not seem critical to your sleep, but kindness and connection can reduce stress and its harmful effects on mood and sleep.

Despite all the bad news that you may come across, try to find some positive stories, such as how people are supporting one another through the pandemic. You can use technology to stay in touch with friends and family so that you can maintain social connections despite the need for social distancing.

7- Utilise Relaxation Techniques

Finding ways to relax can be a potent tool in improving your sleep. Deep breathing, stretching, yoga, mindfulness meditation, calming music, and quiet reading are just a few examples of relaxation techniques that you can build into your routines. If you’re not sure where to get started, check out smartphone apps like Headspace and Calm that have programs designed for people new to meditation.

Another relaxation strategy during this pandemic is to avoid becoming overwhelmed by Covid-related news. For example, you can try techniques including:

Bookmarking one or two trusted news sites and visiting them only during a limited, pre-set amount of time each day.
Cutting down the total time that you spend scrolling on social media. If you want a hand in this effort, a number of apps can monitor and even block your time on social media sites or apps each day.
Scheduling phone or video calls with friends and family and agreeing in advance to focus on topics other than the pandemic.

8- Watch What You Eat and Drink

Keeping a healthy diet can promote good sleep. In particular, be cautious with the intake of alcohol and caffeine, especially later in the day, as both can disrupt the quantity and quality of your sleep.

9- Contact Your Doctor if Necessary

If you have severe or worsening sleep or other health problems, it is advisable to be in touch with your doctor. Many doctors are increasing availability via email or telemedicine to allow patients to discuss concerns without having to physically visit their office.

10- Consult trustworthy, reliable resources

From experts:

Quick Tips to Get Back to Sleep

Clinical psychologist Dr Bill Mitchell offers advice on getting back to sleep in this video for the Cognita community.

Watch video

Cognita Be Well Comments

Sleep during Covid-19

Read article

Sources: SleepFoundation.org and cognita.com

This is a Marathon, not a Sprint

The Importance of Self-Kindness

With all of us at home in stressful circumstances it is particularly important that we encourage ourselves in our efforts to manage the challenges.
Each of us will be trying to show kindness to the members of our family—but it is also important to show kindness towards oneself.

Generally there are two obstacles to treating ourselves kindly:

The commentary that runs in our heads telling us that we are falling short in so many ways
Our wish to do everything perfectly—to seem perfect oneself

We know that when we experience stress our bodies have evolved to respond by fighting back, running away, or freezing in place and hoping it passes us by. However, when we are faced with a so-called threat which comes from our own mind – our inner mental and emotional functioning – rather than an outside stressor, the ‘fight’ response can become self-criticism:

The ‘flight’ response becomes self-isolation
The ‘freeze’ response leads to us getting caught up in our own thoughts to the extent that we are notable to act and a tendency to become self-absorbed

The practice of self-compassion could be said to have three main elements:

Self-kindness: being gentle and understanding with ourselves
Recognizing our common humanity: feeling connected to others rather than isolated by our suffering and pain
Mindfulness: holding our experience with a balanced perspective, neither exaggerating our experience, nor avoiding it

These three elements of self-compassion can act as antidotes to the harmful effects of our stress response.

Self-kindness acts as an antidote to the fight response of self-criticism
Recognizing our common humanity is an antidote to the flight response of self-isolation
Mindfulness is an antidote to freezing, trapped in our fears and becoming self-absorbed

Self-kindness helps us work with our habit of self-criticism

We talk about ourselves to ourselves in a much harsher way than we would talk to anyone else. In fact, if we were to say out loud to someone else the kind of things, we say to ourselves we would probably be deeply shocked.

We push ourselves harder than we would push any work colleague, child or friend, and yet we still do not feel we are doing as well as we should. This can be because we carry memories from our childhood of being punished for getting things wrong with our parents or teachers, and this can leave us with a fear of being rejected in our adult life. This makes us try even harder to fit in and be good enough.

It’s really only when someone else tells us we are doing well, or praises something we’ve done, that for a moment we feel some ease. Then the next thing happens, and our self-criticism starts up again. It’s as if we do not believe in our own accomplishments unless another person confirms them for us.

Here is an exercise you can try to work with your inner critic

Source: How to cope with your family’s isolation
Podcast: Cultivating the compassionate mind by Paul Gilbert

This is a Marathon, not a Sprint

Top 10 Ideas and Advice when Exercising Outdoors

As children (and adults soon too) are able to do some sports outdoors after many weeks of confinement, we have asked the Mr Cross, Head of Sports of The British School of Barcelona, for some recommendations to stay safe and injury-free after such a long period of inactivity. This is his top 10 list of ideas & advice for children when exercising outdoors to maximise the enjoyment of this hour of freedom outside of the home:

Warm-up first!
5 minutes should be fine with a light pulse raiser, some mobility and dynamic stretches – It sounds a little silly but if you were to pull or tear a muscle then it would stop you from going out for a few days!
Plan out your route
Up to 1km from your house, so you know what and where you can go, to avoid any issues!
Plan some other activities that you could not do at home
Change it up, you were able to do the WOD´s and other forms of exercises at home (and still can), so it’s important that you change it up – Roller-Skating or cycling are great-but wear a helmet!
Drink before you go out
You cannot take snacks or drinks out so hydrate before and then after.
Keep the distance
Stick to the guidelines on social distancing.
Leave the dog
This is a time for you and your family to be out and about and engage with the environment once again. I am sure the dog has had plenty of walks!!!
Wash your hands
You may have touched or come into contract with items (walls / paths / barriers, etc) that need to be washed off. The guidance is clear, and you don’t want to bring anything back home.
Do a Sporty video or a Dance
Practice at home now, then select a favourite place, dance and record and then send it into us!
Exercise as you walk
You can do different exercises such as some lunges or squats or even skipping! Just don’t overdo it too soon – build up!
Smile – make some else’s day
It’s free and we have all missed seeing others in person. Whilst it’s not good to ´High 5´ someone, a smile will let them know you care about them and their health and wellbeing too.

And finally…

Remember that this is only an hour to enjoy with your families outdoors, so make the most of it and have fun!

BSB Be Well – Wellbeing resources for the whole family

Screen-Free Ideas: Creative Writing Competition

The department of English of The British School of Barcelona came up with a great idea to reduce the screen time of students during confinement. In a time when digital devices have become one the most powerful sources of social interaction and a most cherished tool for online learning as well as indoor entertainment, being able to unplug from technology is not only healthy but also fosters creativity.

To stimulate this screen-free creative energy among students, Ms Duarte, BSB Head of English in Secondary, and her team launched the “Creative Writing competition” for students in Years 7, 8 and 10 over two weeks. Students spent the first week planning their stories and writing them up on paper (away from the screens!), and over the second week, their works were peer-assessed before typing up their final piece.

With over 120 entrants, the competition has been a real success! And a real challenge for the jury, who highlighted the excellent control of language, the rich vocabulary, the originality of voice and approach, and the genuineness of ideas.

The Winners

Congratulations to Clara and Arnau in Year 7, to Rosa and Miguel in Year 8, and to Daniel and Paula in Year 10 (first and second prizes, respectively)

And thanks to all the participants!

Jury: Mr Petrie, Head of Secondary and Pre-University, Ms Kelly, Assistant Headteacher for Teaching and Learning and Ms Duarte, Head of English.

The Jury’s Statements

Year 7 – Fantasy Story: Clara (Y7C) and Arnau (Y7D)

The judges enjoyed being transported to an array of fantasy worlds this weekend.

From chocolate waterfalls to fairies and from sphinxes to submarines, the creativity of our Year 7 pupils never failed to impress.

We were impressed with your rich vocabulary and the way you are beginning to think like writers, making choices that create a range of effects for your readers.

After much debate, the winners are Clara and Arnau who both crafted fantasy worlds and characters which were highly original.

Congratulations Year 7 on such fantastic work!

Year 8 – Dystopian Story: Rosa (Y8E) and Miguel (Y8E)

Inspired by their study of dystopian fiction in English lessons, the Year 8 students produced a selection of outstanding short stories and made the judges’ job a really tricky one.

All the finalists displayed excellent control of language, included some wonderful description and included a fantastic grasp of what a dystopia might look like. It was a real pleasure to read such a range of creative responses.

In the end, the judges were won over by Rosa‘s originality of voice and approach, and her vivid descriptions and by Miguel´s individual take on the task and the atmosphere he succeeded in developing in his writing.

However, it really has to be said that all the entries were of a very high standard and the message from the judges to all of you is to keep on writing!

Year 10 – Poetry: Daniel (Y10A) and Paula (Y10A)

The judges were moved to both laughter and tears while reading through some truly inspirational Year 10 poetry that came through in a wide range of different structures and forms.

We were so impressed by the way every entry had embraced the challenge in such a brave and fearless way. Many of the entries grappled with challenging themes of identity and loss; often drawing on ideas from personal experiences and making the poetry raw and genuine.

After much debate, the overall winner is Daniel with his poem ‘Burial’, and second place goes to Paula with her poem, ‘Shine’.

Congratulations!

Click the image to read the winning pieces

“Isolation” Photo Contest: A Visual Self-Reflection of COVID-19 Confinement

In March the Art department of The British School of Barcelona launched a photography competition for students in Years 7, 8 and 9 to turn our current situation into a source of creativity.

Based on the theme of ISOLATION, students were asked to think not only about the restrictions placed upon them due to this isolation, but also how they have overcome and embraced the situation:

Have they had to be more resourceful and creative in their day to day life?

Can they see beauty in their surroundings that they previously took for granted?

How has their relationship with their family and pets changed?

With an unprecedented number of 155 participants, all the entries can now be enjoyed by the wider audience as an online photo gallery. The remarkable response to the Art team’s call is testimony to the extraordinary visual creativity and artist skills displayed by our students.

The Winners

Jury: Mr Perrin, Head of Art, Mr Laud, Art teacher, and Mr Cicero, Art Teacher

See the Finalists

BSB Visual Arts Curriculum

10 Ways to Have Fun and Learn while Out on your Walk

As children under 14 are being allowed to go out for a one-hour walk a day since Sunday, the Forest School team of The British School of Barcelona have put together a super engaging Top Ten List of Ideas to make the most of our time outdoors!

Make a scavenger hunt
Write a list of things to look for, notice and find before you go out.
Sound hunt
Listen to the soundscape you hear outside. There are no aeroplanes. Can you hear more birds? Why is this? Does it change how you perceive distance?
Nature Rubbings
A fun way to talk about nature is to do some crayon rubbings on things that are outside.
Go on a bug/hunt
Keep your eyes peeled for sharp movement or flashes of colour in the leaves and on the ground.
Collect different shades of green
Spring is in full flow now. The leaves have many different fresh shades of green and shapes.
Collect and Dissect
Go out and collect acorns, spring flowers, and leaves, take photos and make a collage or bring the home and look inside them.
Gather “treasures” for an art project
Create land art.
Turn your walk into an obstacle course
Jump over those cracks in the sidewalk. Run a circle around the bench. Touch that tree. Run fast, STOP! These are all ways to turn a simple walk into a listening and tiring activity.
I spy with my little eye…
I spy the letter S. I spy something red. I spy something yellow. The possibilities are endless!
What does that sign mean?
As you walk past any type of sign, road sign or information sign, ask children what they think the sign might mean. This helps develop critical thinking skills as well as familiarize your kids with the world around them.

Final Tips:
Fun, Safety and Respect

However, the most important part of any walk is to have fun, while staying safe and respecting the temporary rules for being outside in the outdoor space we share with other families.

By Ms O’Connor and Ms Satchel, BSB Forest School Leaders

About Forest School

“Forest Schools are nature-based communities where trained practitioners nurture learner led exploration and discovery, nurturing meaningful experiences for positive lifelong impacts. Wellbeing is the foundation of our practise and through recognising the social, emotional and physical needs of participants we provide the guidance and facilitation for our time in nature.”

Forest Schools Education

The Benefits of BSB Forest School on Children’s Wellbeing

‘Forest School’ Programme Explained. By Richard Skrein

This Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Something we have been hearing since the middle of March is that this crisis is a marathon and not a sprint. We understand the meaning of the sentence, but do we really understand what this means for us and our reality? Brené Brown, a research professor who has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy, is giving us some advice in understanding how this crisis is affecting us and some strategies to put in place to help us through it.

When crisis hits, we have the adrenaline that kicks in and takes over, we get busy in helping, taking care of things, we are focused on what to do next and we don’t notice how our “normal” has disappeared and our life has changed for ever. When the adrenaline goes, people have gone back to their own lives and that is when we are faced with the abyss of the New Norm. A month into this crisis, the adrenaline is wearing off.

Settling the Ball

Our reality today is surrounded by new inputs creating a New Norm:

So how do we go about accepting our new norm and coming to terms with it? We need a new Mindshift moving from the adrenaline of the crisis that was moving us forward to something more sustainable. We can call this “Settling the ball”. A ball has been passed on to us at shoulder height which we cannot control with our legs anymore, we need to receive it, bring it down, position it strategically, read the field and make our next move. We need to create a new norm and grieve the old one at the same time, here are some things that may help:

During this time of Settling the Ball and looking for a new strategy when the adrenaline of the crisis has worn off, we may find ourselves with very low energy levels and we still need to finish our Marathon. These low energy levels are putting our relationships at risk.

The 50/50 Rule

There is a Myth that the strong lasting relationships rely on the 50/50 rule. One partner brings 50% of the energy in the relationship and the other one the remaining 50%. In real life, the best relationships are based on when you are on 20% of energy level, your partner, loved one or friend will come up with the remaining 80% for you to be able to function at 100% as a family/unit. What if your partner is also at a 20% energy level? That’s when you have a 60% gap. So how do you communicate your family where you are and what we need to do in order to achieve this 100%? That’s where the Family Gap Plan comes in.

The Family Gap Plan

The Family Gap Plan is a plan you put together as a family or with your friends where you decide how to charge your energy and how to support each other in those difficult moments so that the family or unit functions well again without disputes like: “I worked so hard today, I am at 20% and I am expecting you to take over”, without even thinking how the other person may be. Are they also at 20% because they also had a busy day? Or even worse? So, here is the family gap plan of Brené and her family:

No harsh words
No nice words with harsh faces (that’s when you are telling your children nice calm words, but your face is showing how you really feel)
Say you are sorry
Accept apologies with “Thank you, I accept your apology”. Accepting an apology with “That is ok” is not good enough
More jokes

Have a family meeting and discuss where you are at your energy level and where everyone in the family is, acknowledge everyone’s position and come up with a family gap plan to help each other and make you function at a 100% as a family/unit. You are in this together!

Source: Brené Brown’s Podcast

Related Links:

Find resources about Wellbeing here:

Wellbeing and Pastoral Care at BSB

BSB Be Well during Confinement

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow our playlists for more wellbeing videos:

#BSBBeWell

#BSBWellbeing

#QuarantineThoughts

BSB Celebrates Dyslexia on Cognita “Share a Story Around the World” Launch Day

A group of Primary students from The British School of Barcelona have participated in the writing of “Lyla, Louis and the Magic Lift”, a unique book aimed at 10 and 11-year-olds, along with hundreds of students from 50 Cognita schools worldwide.

This is the second year that Cognita has run the grassroots “Share A Story Around the World“ project, a terrific example of cross-cultural cooperation with each school taking on a chapter before passing it on to the next team in other countries and continents. This year BSB has led the creative writing element of the project and started it off with the first chapter. According to Joe Woodhouse, coordinator of this edition and teacher at BSB Sitges, “We set the children a specific challenge this year; to write a story with ‘wellbeing’ at its heart. We wanted the main characters to have physical or cognitive differences which can often be seen as obstacles, and then radically change readers’ perceptions by making these differences the superpowers that helped the characters overcome the problems they faced.” Dyslexia has been the learning difference chosen by the students.

Dyslexia, Wellbeing and Learning Support

This choice making was not accidental. It endorses the global commitment of the Cognita educational group to the importance of the physical and emotional wellbeing of the students and the attention that BSB dedicates to individualised support to the student at all levels. Our staff includes a multidisciplinary team that offers personalised attention to students who learn at different paces or respond to specific learning needs. The objective of this programme is to provide tools that facilitate reading, writing or perception of order and sequence, among others, and be able to enhance its advantages.

Coinciding with the worldwide launch of the book on 5th March, BSB organised awareness workshops on dyslexia for parents and students in order to highlight the strengths that dyslexia can provide, such as spatial and visual thinking, creativity and imagination, innovation or critical thinking, all beneficial skills in careers such as architecture, engineering, communication and all those related to art. In this sense, Carol Coleman, Director of Student Services of BSB, explains that “We wanted to share what we see in the day to day of the school with students and parents, mainly that our students with dyslexia show traits that make them unique and this is where their “superpower” lies. It has been an incredibly positive experience to see how these students felt empowered as they became aware of their special abilities and shared experiences with their peers. As a result they decided to record a video to explain the way they access, present and process information, skills and concepts, and share it with the rest of the teachers and students of the school. It was also an opportunity for families to share the strategies they use at home and ask questions to other parents and the specialist staff from the school.”

About the book

The book, “Lyla, Louis and the Magic Lift”, is available to download for free (find links below) both in English (original language) and in the Spanish translated version. Both the translation and the illustrations have been carried out by students of Cognita schools. The team also had expert illustration advice from award-winning illustrator and author, Karin Littlewood.

Video

Watch the video recorded by the BSB Sitges students and discover the story behind this inspiring project:

Book downloads

Lyla, Louis and the Magic Lift – English version

Lyla, Louis y el Ascensor Mágico – Spanish version

BSB Sitges Begins the “Share a Story Around the World” 2019 edition (June 2019)

BSB and Cognita Schools Share a Story Around the World for World Book Day (March 2019)

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BSB Ranked among the Best International Schools in Spain

We are proud to announce that The British School of Barcelona has been included again in the list of The Best International Schools in Spain by the prestigious national newspaper “El Mundo”.

The newspaper’s annual ranking has singled out BSB among the best 30 international schools in Spain, among only four selected in the whole of Catalonia. This is a recognition of the outstanding performance of our school.

“El Mundo” ranks schools with an overall score based on 27 specific criteria which assess over a thousand centres in terms of their educational model, facilities and resources. This means that several quality-assurance indicators have been taken into account when evaluating BSB, including the provision of an all-through education, official examinations results and university entrance, accreditations & inspection reports, quality standards, teaching staff, languages taught, ICT and Science resources, provision of learning support, sports facilities, co-curricular and after-school activities, medical service, nutrition and school transport, among others.

This distinction is the result of the continuous improvements being made in all areas of the school, and credit to the commitment of our excellent staff, the contributions of the entire school community and the continuous support of the Cognita Schools Group, whose educational model (#CognitaWay) incorporates everything we do and all that we hope to achieve at BSB for the benefit of our students.

Other four Cognita schools in Spain have also been shortlisted in this ranking: Three share our status as Best International Schools in Spain, namely Hastings School and The English Montessori School (TEMS) in Madrid, and El Limonar International School Murcia, whilst our third school in Madrid, Colegio Europeo de Madrid (CEM), has qualified as one of the 30 Remarkable Schools in Spain, ranking in the upper half of the list.

Please visit these links for more information:

The Best International Schools – El Mundo

View Full List (pdf)

The British School of Barcelona

Hastings School

The English Montessori School

El Limonar International School Murcia

The Remarkable Schools in Spain – El Mundo

Colegio Europeo de Madrid (CEM)

The 27 criteria – El Mundo

Tim Willcox, Renowned British Journalist for the BBC, Keynote Speaker at BSB Nexus

Tim Willcox, a renowned BBC journalist, was the keynote guest speaker at the presentation organised by The British School of Barcelona on Friday 14th February for Pre-University students. The goal of this session was to give students a first-hand look at the profile of a professional in the Journalism and Media industry, the profession’s reality and its new requirements for the digital age.

This event was part of the school’s Careers and Futures Guidance programme, which aims to prepare students to be able to choose the best university and degree to match their interests and talents, with all the information needed about career opportunities, thus creating a connection between their education and the job market.

Willcox talked about his lengthy professional experience, reviewing the most notable situations he has had to report throughout the years, to over 40 Pre-University students interested in the Journalism, Media, Political Sciences and History sectors at BSB Nexus, BSB Pre-University campus. Through different scenarios, the BBC reporter shared with the students the essential skills required to face the complex process of communication: “In this profession, the most important thing is to tell a story that conveys individual real experiences. This is why we need to get to the heart of the story, structure it and condense it, without losing its essence, to make it clear to a wider audience.”

He also talked about what the media is going through right now, with the rise in popularity of new technologies and social media as new channels and sources of information, which have implied a substantial change in both how people consume and create contents, and redefined the profile of communicators, tools and media to meet the demands of the new trends. “It is an exciting career, often stressful, where you have to work fast, sometimes in uncomfortable situations, and need to know how to adapt yourself and work as a team; this is crucial”, he added.

The session provided very relevant, first-hand information about a career in constant change, and was both inspiring and instructive for those students willing to explore this career as a professional choice.

Careers and Futures Guidance Programme
The Careers and Futures Guidance programme is part of the Pre-University curriculum of BSB Nexus, the new Pre-University campus for 16-to-18-year-old students in Castelldefels.

Led by a University and Careers Counsellor specialised in career opportunities and the correspondence with university degrees and both national and international destinations, the programme is specifically designed to help students make informed decisions about their professional future, including an individualised mentoring service and a wide range of activities throughout the year where prominent speakers, professionals from different sectors and experts from universities all around the world participate. It also includes an Annual University Fair with over 40 international and local universities, among others.