Four BSB Nexus students from The British School of Barcelona recently took on a challenge: debating entirely in Catalan at the debate league hosted by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Competing against more than twenty local schools from across Catalonia, they joined over one hundred students in the 2026 Secondary and Baccalaureate Debate League, part of the Xarxa Vives d’Universitats, to tackle a thought-provoking question: ‘Are we facing a more sexist generation of young people?’

A Strong Performance
Despite being newcomers to the competition format, the BSB Nexus team won one of their three debates and finished third overall in points within their group. One particularly notable achievement was receiving the maximum score of 5 points for ‘mastery of the theme’ from one of the judges, a score no other team achieved, including the overall winners.

This recognition reflected the depth of research and preparation behind the team’s arguments, especially the thorough groundwork prepared as the judges highlighted the strength of the team’s arguments and presentations.

Debating with Purpose
Competing in Catalan alongside local schools gave the students a unique opportunity to apply their language skills in a real-world academic setting. Many of the participating local schools had been practising for months, some teams even rehearsing daily since September, making the level of oracy and debate technique particularly impressive.

For BSB Nexus students, it was an opportunity not only to compete but also to experience university debate culture, collaborate intensively as a team, and engage with an important social issue.

Student Voices
For the students, the experience went far beyond the results. What first seemed like ‘another school burden’ quickly became ‘a great experience in terms of our Catalan speaking skills, general communication and impressive teamwork’. Working together meant ‘proactively engaging in our forecasted debates’ and preparing by ‘reading about the topic, building strong arguments and working on possible counterarguments’.

Speaking in front of judges and other teams pushed them out of their comfort zones and brought ‘a great feeling of personal growth and adaptation’. Debating whether today’s youth are becoming more sexist was also ‘an extremely important opportunity to raise awareness and engage more in these topics which aren’t spoken about often enough’.

Ultimately, for our students, the Debate League showed that young people can ‘demonstrate and defend the ideas that really matter and can have an impact on the world’, and the students valued ‘the happiness of having participated and having done it together with my teammates’.

The ‘BSB Speaks’ Programme
At BSB, we see oracy as a key skill that helps students express ideas clearly, think critically and engage confidently with others.

‘BSB Speaks’ is our whole-school Oracy Programme, part of our School Development Plan, designed to strengthen students’ ability to communicate effectively through the spoken word.

Through activities such as debates, presentations and discussions, students practise essential oracy skills including structuring arguments, listening actively and responding thoughtfully.

Discover our range of Oracy opportunities in our ‘BSB Speaks’ Oracy Booklet here.