British School of Barcelona

New BSB Food Truck in BSB Castelldefels

We would like to give a warm welcome to The British School of Barcelona to La Mundana, our brand new Food Truck at BSB Castelldefels Campus.

Our new Food Truck provides breakfast and a range of snacks to Secondary students every morning (from 8.30 to 8.50) and during break times as well as during lunchtime. It is also open to all Early Years and Primary families attending our weekly Stay & Plays on Fridays. After only two weeks running, it has already proved to be a great success!

It is managed by Ana and Alex, staff members of the Saned team, our catering company, who have extensive experience in providing a varied and balanced offer of delicious and nutritious products, such as:

Fruit, smoothies, snack bars before school to setting up people for the day
Snacks during break times
Supplements during lunch hours (fruit, yoghurt, smoothies, cookies, etc.)

Following our joint commitment to sustainability and climate awareness, all packaging, containers and utensils used in our Food Truck are 100% biodegradable, compostable and recyclable, using Greensource single-use catering solutions made of eco-responsible materials. For example, the smoothie cups are made entirely with sugar cane.

Don’t miss the opportunity to come and have a look when you are in school!

Related links:

Nutrition and School Menus

Six BSB Students Among the Best Performing Learners in Spain

We are thrilled to announce that six students from The British School of Barcelona have received prestigious awards from Cambridge Assessment International Education to acknowledge their outstanding performance in the June 2022 examination sessions. These awards reflect the talent and hard work of our students and acknowledge the dedication and commitment of both teachers and parents.

The following BSB award winners have attained the Highest Marks in Spain:

Ruslan: Top in Spain in IGCSE Chemistry
Harry: Top in Spain in IGCSE Geography
Aileen: Top in Spain in IGCSE Physics
Yihan: Top in Spain in AS Level Biology and in Chemistry
Daniela: Top in Spain award in AS Level Literature in English
Matteo: Top in Spain award in A Level Physics — It is worth mentioning that Matteo also attained the Highest Mark in Europe for Pearson Edexcel in A Level Further Mathematics

The Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards programme celebrates the success of students taking Cambridge examinations in over forty countries around the world. Cambridge places students at the centre of their international education programmes and qualifications which are inspired by the best in educational thinking.

Congratulations to all students for their hard work and a big thank you to everyone who has played a part in helping these students achieve this! These results add to the Pearson Edexcel awards that were recently released as well:

Jude: Highest Mark in Europe for Pearson Edexcel A Level Politics
Matteo: Highest Mark in Europe for Pearson Edexcel A Level Further Mathematics
Yike: Highest Mark in Europe for Pearson Edexcel IGCSE Chinese

BSB Alumni attaining Highest Marks in Europe speak to El País about their successful journey to Cambridge University (in Spanish)

Academic Results & University Destinations

BSB focuses on Continuing Professional Development on INSET Day

We have started the Spring term leaving behind another successful term, with record breaking growth, in terms of staff Continuing Professional Development and BSB Community engagement.

Our carefully designed CPD programme is an opportunity for our teaching and learning to continue to be the best it can be, and to allow us to keep us on track of the latest research and educational approaches, leading the way to build a culture where career-long learning is an expectation. With a clear focus on pupil outcomes and how best practice has a significant impact on student achievement, our programme is thoughtfully planned in terms of time, resources and desired results.

Our CPD programe at The British School of Barcelona includes several INSET Days throughout the year, which fulfill several purposes, including workshops from world’s leading researchers and practitioners showcasing trends, opportunities and challenges in developing professional learning for teachers, departmental planning time, lesson planning, appraisal review meetings and coaching. It is also an opportunity to update staff on school policies and to share best practices. This is often the only time that all staff can meet together for an extended time.

An example for this was Monday 9th January. Our after-Christmas INSET Day included a whole-school introduction into the new term by Executive Principal Jon Locke, followed by Dr Simon Camby, Group Education Director at Cognita Schools Group, presenting on the new Cognita framework and approach to Teaching and Learning.

Another highlight of the day was the third session of our BSB TeachMeets, where a range of teachers from across campuses and key stages present on a topic that is connected to some of the BSB Learning Habits our teaching and learning is based on. Starting back in September, these peer-to-peer meetings have become an excellent opportunity for teachers to share their knowledge and best practice, and for all in the audience to grow our professional capital. After having covered the Learning Habits of Curiosity, Imagination, Thinking, Attention and Determination in previous sessions, Monday’s had a focus on Organisation and Reflection. The feedback from these sessions is always very enthusiastic as it’s an opportunity for teachers to learn ideas, tricks/tips or approaches from others that can include in their lessons plan to build these learning habits in the classroom.

The timetable for the day included sessions to review safeguarding protocols and deliver up-to-date First Aid training for a number of staff members across professional areas in school.

The remainder of the day was spent in Departments, with specific areas which needed to be covered for the term ahead, including learning environments and classroom organisation.

BSB Alumni Studying at Cambridge Interviewed by El País

La Universidad de Cambridge, con más de ochocientos años de historia, se sitúa entre los mejores centros de educación superior del mundo. Entrar en ella es todo un reto, pero también un logro: de aproximadamente veintidós mil estudiantes que solicitaron matrícula este curso, solo el 16% obtuvo plaza. Además, el 20% de estudiantes de primer curso son internacionales, con representantes de ciento cuarenta países.

Following the recent release of the Outstanding Learner Awards issued by Pearson Edexcel that feature the Highest Marks achieved by a number of BSB students in a range of subjects every year, Spanish newspaper El País showed an interest to report on the journey of BSB Alumni who after sucessful application are now taking courses at Cambridge.

One of them is Matteo, former student at The British School of Barcelona who now studies Mathematics with Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. Matteo achieved the highest mark across Europe for Pearson Edexcel Further Mathematics A Level. ‘The application process is rather lengthy and includes a cover letter, an entrance exam, and an interview. The real work, however, is done before you apply, because you have to build your CV around what Cambridge likes’, he tells El País. ‘In my case, for example, I decided to apply when I was in Year 10, and from there I started reading maths books and taking part in competitions to show, in a tangible way, that I really like maths and that I’m passionate about them’.

The Cambridge academic model encourages independent study and personalised attention to students in tutor groups that bring together a small group of students several times a week. ‘As a humanities student, writing essays of around 1,500-2,000 words constitutes the vast majority of work, which involves extensive readinginto the question, research, and pulling ideas together’, says Jude, a Cambridge History and Political Science student who achieved the highest mark in Europe in his Political Science A Levels at BSB. ‘Contact hours are limited to a few lectures a week and twelve intensive supervisions in the eight week term where ideas in the essay are discussed to a high level and general feedback on the essays is given’.

Signing up in a degree at Cambridge University is a process that starts with UCAS. Applicants must complete an application form, which includes a letter of motivation and their Pre-University academic record, and choose up to five different universities. ‘Cambridge does not have a separate system or process, but it does have additional steps, as most degrees require a specific entrance exam and at least one interview’, explains Sam Twells, Admissions Manager for Europe at Cambridge. ‘Some degrees are very competitive and the test serves as a filter to decide who will go through to the interview stage’.

Claudia, a fourth-year Medicine student at Cambridge, who studied at BSB and achieved the Highest Mark in Spain in Biology A Levels, followed this process to the letter: after successfully passing the Biomedical Admission Test (BMAT), she underwent three interviews with five different teachers. ‘The BMAT was made up of three sections: one tested your cognitive skills, another tested your scientific knowledge, and the last was an essay’, she says. ‘In the interviews, I was asked complex questions where I had to explain my thought process to reach a conclusion’.

Part of this success comes down to our dedicated Futures and Careers team, who work with individuals from very early on to create their personal pathway. Students are guided through the different stages of the application process and provided with all the relevant school documentation to complete this. ‘University guidance and information about possible future study starts when students are around 15 years old, with visits from Universities to BSB and key input in tutor time and assemblies. When the students move into Pre-University, they receive weekly input and guidance on the university opportunities available to them and also on how to navigate the application processes. We have a dedicated Futures Team, whose job it is to provide this individual attention and they also organise the weekly visits from Universities from all around the world. Alongside this we run a special support group with an outside consultant for early applications to the top universities. This group will have specialist input on entrance exams and interview techniques as well as practice interviews and first-class guidance on putting together the crucial Personal Statement (cv). We are fortunate to have several parents in top academic positions who give excellent advice and we work with another outside agency to help get our top sports people scholarships at leading US universities’, states James Petrie, Headteacher of Secondary and Pre-University at BSB Castelldefels and BSB Nexus.

You can read the full article (in Spanish) here (opens article in El País newspaper)

BSB Students achieves Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards

Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards (official page)

BSB Alumni

BSB, Examination Centre for DELE Spanish Diploma

In October 2022, The British School of Barcelona signed a partnership agreement with Instituto Cervantes, thanks to which BSB has received the status as an Examination Centre for the DELE Spanish Diplomas for students. The DELE Certificates are official qualifications, accrediting a degree of competence and mastery of the Spanish language; the version for students is specifically designed for children aged between 11 and 17, so the areas, contexts and communicative situations in the test are adapted to their age.

Instituto Cervantes is the official body for the promotion of the Spanish language and level accreditations, and its exams are internationally recognised and valid. The Spanish department at BSB has been at work for months now to include preparation for these exams in the academic curriculum and we have already integrated preparation for these exams into the Spanish B curriculum. Therefore, we offer our students —as well as external candidates— the possibility to sit A1 and double A2/B1 exams, and we hope our first candidates can sit the exam next May 2023.

DELE Diploma Certification

As well as being recognised worldwide and be valid for life, the DELE Diploma is the most common way of demonstrating the minimum language proficiency required in order to obtain a Spanish passport.

Looking Ahead

We are currently in negotiations to expand our offer and also offer exams for adults at B2, C1 and C2 level.

In addition, the whole team of the Spanish Department, along with the Catalan Department, are already working on a training programme for examiners.

Related links:

What is DELE for Students? (in Spanish)

Information about DELE A1 Exam for Students (in Spanish)

Information about DELE A2/B1 Exam for Students (in Spanish)

BSB sponsors 35th Torneo Internacional de la Inmaculada at Real Club de Polo de Barcelona

The British School of Barcelona will be one of the sponsors of the 35th Torneo Internacional de la Inmaculada taking place from 9th to 11th December 2022.

Thanks to our partnerhip with Real Club de Polo de Barcelona (RCPB) and after the successful participation of BSB in the CSIO Barcelona at the end of September, we are thrilled to announce that this will be our first sponsorship of a sports event at RCPB.

The Tournament of Inmaculada is the biggest hockey training event in Europe, gathering more than 1,300 young players aged between 7 and 14 from countries such as England, Belgium and Ireland, as well as from various parts of Spain (Madrid, Zaragoza, Bilbao, Gijón, Valencia and Santander). There will also be a strong presence of Catalan clubs.

The Tournament of Inmaculada is not only a sporting competition, it also joins the pleasure to play, the fair play and the will to educate. According to Gonzalo de Muller, Tournament Director: “The competition is not our only reason for being. The tournament represents and disseminates values of friendship, sportsmanship and solidarity. These are days to live new experiences, to get to know new cultures, to make new friends and to enjoy pure sport”.

As part of our sponsorship, BSB will be present at the Commercial Village of the event, a fantastic venue where families will have the opportunity to enjoy a series of entertainment activities, including our educational offer, and a large recreational and gastronomic options.

We hope that this will be an enjoyable experience for everyone attending!

About the Tournament

The Real Club de Polo de Barcelona facilities host 25 clubs and 106 teams, in addition to eight teams participating in the parahockey international competition. The Tournament of Inmaculada was born in 1987 with the aim of establishing contacts and friendship between the Club’s young players and players from other national and international sports clubs. Over the years, the tournament has grown unstoppably and has become the most important children’s hockey event on the international scene.

Related links:

Much more than Hockey (RCPB News)

Hockey Inmaculada official website

New partnership between BSB and historical Real Club de Polo de Barcelona

New partnership between BSB and prestigious Real Club Golf El Prat

New Partnership Between Club Tennis Barcino and BSB City

We are pleased to announce that The British School of Barcelona has signed a partnership with the historical Club Tennis Barcino to provide outstanding sports facilities to our BSB City students. Thanks to this agreement, BSB City offers the largest sports facilities in the urban centre of Barcelona.

BSB City is the newest campus of BSB. Located in Sarrià – Sant Gervasi, it is made up of two buildings: the Foundation Campus and the Main Campus, which cover all the educational stages – from Early Years to Pre-University.

Since the opening of the BSB City Foundation campus in 2021 for our youngest students, the school has quickly developed as a centre of excellence for early childhood education. September 2023 will see the opening of the BSB City Main Campus, which will extend the current BSB provision in Barcelona to 750 students up to 18 years of age.

Thanks to the agreement with the adjoining Club Tennis Barcino, BSB City students will benefit from more than 23,000 m² of stunning sport facilities, including:

An indoor gymnasium inside the school’s premises
A school’s outdoor multi sports area of nearly 1000 m² consisting of:
- A multi sports court for basketball, football, voleyball, tennis…
- A paddle court of shared use with the Club Tennis Barcino after school day
- A gardened playground with rubber flooring, equipped with a climbing wall and circuit-style play equipment
More than 22,000 m² sports facilities at the Club Tennis Barcino, including:
- A 25-metre heated pool with a retractable cover for swimming lessons during school hours
- An indoor multi sports centre for Physical Education during school day
- After-school use of other facilities of the Club, which include 11 tennis courts, 6 paddle courts (indoor and outdoor), 2 fronton courts (a clay and an artificial grass), 1 mini-tennis court, a table-tennis room, among others.

Source: Club Tennis Barcino, https://ctbarcino.cat/instalacions.php

About Club Tennis Barcino

The Club Tennis Barcino is a sports and social club for families. The Club is located in the heart of Sant Gervasi. It offers facilities over an area of 22,000 m² for the nearly 3,000 members of all ages.

Founded in 1928, it is one of the oldest and most well-established clubs in Barcelona. The aim of the club is to encourage sport as a way of encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle from an early age and to nurture the development of the values that can be learnt from playing sport. This philosophy fully coincides with the overarching values of physical wellbeing and mental health that underpin our BSB education.

About BSB City

The new BSB City campus includes first-class learning spaces designed to promote the development of 21st century skills, such as innovation, creativity, leadership and critical thinking, to prepare our students to be world ready. This is accomplished through a highly personalised curriculum based on students’ interests.

Following the success of our BSB Nexus Pre-University campus in Castelldefels, BSB City offers the International Baccalaureate (IB), a prestigious curriculum in which BSB students achieve a 100% pass rate and scores above the world average. This allows them access to the best universities in Spain and around the world.

The spectacular design of the BSB City Main Campus as a green and sustainable space will become an emblematic and differential building in Barcelona.

New partnership between BSB and historical Real Club de Polo de Barcelona

New partnership between BSB and prestigious Real Club Golf El Prat

BSB Celebrates of the Power of Dyslexic Thinking on Dyslexia Awareness Week

The British School of Barcelona celebrates Dyslexia Awareness Week to raise awareness of dyslexia in a positive way and to promote the inherent talent of dyslexic people.

Our understanding of dyslexia is undergoing an unprecedented shift in perspective. Gone is the stigmatisation of dyslexia as a barrier to learning — typically simplified into the difficulties a person manifests in reading and writing — to give way to the positive empowerment of the qualities that come with being dyslexic.

This redefinition of dyslexia as a rising power does not come about by chance. Dyslexia currently affects 1 in 5 people and, while it certainly presents a genetic difference in an individual’s ability to learn and process information, it is also true that dyslexic people have different abilities. Among their strengths, creativity, empathy, problem solving, and communication skills are some of the soft skills most present in these profiles.

Therein lies the paradigm shift: ‘Dyslexic people have the exact skills needed for today’s workplace,’ says Carol Coleman, BSB’s Director of Student Support.

Education: the Key to Unlock Dyslexic Thinking’s Full Potential

This new approach reveals the value of dyslexia and highlights why it should be a priority in schools. ‘Now more than ever, there is a need to reorient the way dyslexic ability is seen, to move away from traditional approaches and build on strengths to help students reach their full potential,’ explains Carol Coleman. ‘We don’t ignore the difficulties inherent to dyslexia, but there are so many more positive elements that far outweigh the difficulties. Traditionally the focus has been on dyslexic challenges, but this has changed — Imagine what we can achieve if we could not only support students with these difficulties, but also uncover the great abilities they possess! We are already seeing this at school with some of our dyslexic students and we are achieving excellent results,’ adds Carol Coleman.

To highlight the importance of this shift in the perception of dyslexia, this week BSB is celebrating ‘Dyslexia Awareness Week at BSB’ with a series of workshops and talks with students and families to share ideas and resources, as well as facilitating the exchange of experiences between people diagnosed with dyslexia, how it has influenced their academic and professional lives, and strategies for making the most of their valuable skills. ‘Detecting, supporting, and empowering dyslexic minds — as well as raising awareness and visibility of dyslexia in a positive way — are key to redirecting dyslexia towards creating talent that is perfectly suited to the changing labour world,’ concludes Carol Coleman.

Dyslexic Thinking: the New Professional Skill

The labour world is constantly changing. In the quest for greater efficiency, organisations are looking at the automation of various routine and transactional tasks as an opportunity, which will have a direct impact on organisational competences. This will lead to the replacement of processing and manual skills with analytical thinking and innovation, creative skills, or leadership and social influence.

In the context of this fast transformation, dyslexia could help organisations bridge the skills gap to respond to the rapid change and disruption we face. With enhanced cognitive abilities, such as visualisation and logical reasoning, as well as natural entrepreneurial traits, dyslexic people can bring a fresh and often intuitive perspective to form alternative points of views and solve problems creatively, according Made By Dyslexia, a global charity, which in its report ‘The Value of Dyslexia’ found that dyslexic thinking skills match the skills of the future identified by the World Economic Forum. Infojobs also indicates that some of the soft skills that companies are beginning to value are empathy (28%), creativity (19%), assertiveness (13%) and curiosity (10%).

Dyslexic people therefore have a number of natural strengths that make them well suited to fill this skill gap. This has been recognised by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, which now offers its more than 774 million members the possibility of incorporating dyslexic thinking as an additional skill when completing their profile and which companies can select as an asset when looking for candidates. Large companies such as Microsoft and Meta are actively looking for people with dyslexia in their recruitment processes.

A Change of Mindset Is Possible

The change of mindset in schools has already begun to materialise. New York City has already trained its entire teaching staff, no less than 100,000 professionals, in key aspects of dyslexia in education, such as the challenges faced by students with dyslexia, specialised strategies and solutions, as well as technological tools. In the same vein, BSB has committed to follow suit by training its entire teaching staff by June 2024.

Related links:

BSB Student Support

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

BSB Students achieves Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards

We are thrilled to announce that three students from The British School of Barcelona have received the prestigious Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards (OPLA) from Pearson School Qualifications to acknowledge their outstanding performance in the GCSE and A Level June examination series. With exams taking place in 2022, we’re delighted that the Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards have resumed after a hiatus due to examinations not running during the pandemic.

The following BSB students have achieved the highest marks across Europe:

Jude attained the Highest Mark in Europe for Pearson Edexcel GCE Advanced Level Politics
Matteo attained the Highest Mark in Europe for Pearson Edexcel GCE Advanced Level Further Mathematics
Yike attained the Highest Mark in Europe for Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Chinese

The Outstanding Pearson Learner Awards are presented to the learners with the highest marks and highest grades in their subject in each exam series. By winning one of these awards, a learner has competed against thousands of other learners who have taken the same subject in their country and globally.

This is an incredible achievement of our students and is a reflection of the enormous talent in BSB, not only amongst learners but also within the teaching body. They are also an inspiration to all of our students.

OPLA 2022 recipient schools

BSB awarded for Operational Excellence and Parental Satisfaction

Last week the annual Cognita Europe Leadership Summit in London brought together around 140 leaders from the 52 schools that the international education group has in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. During this two-day Conference our BSB Senior Leadership Team had the opportunity to connect with leaders from other European schools, discuss our strategic direction as a group, and reflect about what makes an outstanding holistic education and how to continue shaping a culture of wellbeing, support and challenge for our students.

This was also an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the schools who have gone above and beyond. We are very proud to announce that The British School of Barcelona was presented with two of the Cognita Awards: one for ‘Operational Excellence’ and one for the ‘School Most Loved by Parents’.

The ‘Operational Excellence’ Award recognises our mindset of continuous improvement, underpinned by learning and feedback, in a working environment with optimal and efficient people structures that are fit for future purpose and an understood framework of policies, processes, and procedures that support improved operational performance.

Dominik Anke, Senior Business Manager at BSB, dedicated the ‘Operational Excellence’ award to the Admin departments at school: Admissions, HR, Finance, Communications, IT, Front Desk & Back Office, Facilities & Operations: ‘To achieve these results, you need people who are accountable in every area; people who are decisive, visionary and dedicated; people who take responsibility, plan, organise, implement, lead, roll up their sleeves and deal with problems; people who are an example for their teams to follow, just like the members of our team are. We know there is still a long way to go, but this award is a recognition of all those who voted for BSB for making things work. Congratulations!’

The ‘School Most Loved by Parents’ award acknowledges our excellent outcomes in last year’s Voice of Parent, with a record number of nearly 60% parents grading us as 9 or 10. Our parents’ satisfaction level rose to our highest ever level, with a NPS (Net Promoter Score) of 49.9, which was 9.5 points higher than the previous year. The top 5 areas where comments were positive were: Teaching and Learning; Happy environment or child happy at school; Quality and attitude of staff; Academic standards or quality of education; and General good/pleased with School.

cognita-awards-european-summit-2022 (10)

Jon Locke, Executive Principal at BSB, said that ‘Over the past few years, we have been on a journey of continual development at BSB. Standards across the board have risen enormously and the quality of what happens in our classrooms is genuinely outstanding. I am delighted that parents have recognised our efforts and the progress we have made, but we know we will always have areas to further improve. In this regard we will continue to listen to parents’ opinions and views in order to identify our priorities.’

These awards are a real inspiration for everyone at BSB and motivate us to keep on improving day by day. We would like to congratulate all the Cognita schools also achieving awards and thank the Cognita team for providing this opportunity to engage collectively into achieving our common purpose to create an inspiring world of education that empowers individuals to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.