Last 27th and 28th of January, CEM welcomed more than 300 students from almost 40 public schools in our country to participate in the II tournament of the VII CICAE-UCJC Pre-University Debate League.

This is the first European Pre-University Debate League to be held simultaneously in two languages, Spanish and English. It is a unique opportunity for students to train in public speaking and effective communication and, without a doubt, an opportunity to encourage critical thinking, socialisation and entrepreneurship.

The theme of this tournament was: Is education in Spain better than it was 20 years ago?

We experienced two very exciting days. Those in charge of welcoming all the participants on the opening day were Elena Cid, General Director of CICAE; Marta Pérez, Director of the European School of Madrid; and Marta González Novo, presenter of the programme Hoy por Hoy Madrid, on Cadena SER.

 

The students demonstrated their preparation in all the rounds. However, only 4 teams were able to reach the final:

In the English category Agora Madrid International School and King’s College Soto faced each other in the final in English with the latter being the winner of this category.
In the Spanish category, Colegios Los Sauces and Mirabal International School faced each other. It was Colegios Los Sauces who won the prize for best team in the Spanish category.

Congratulations to the winners and to all the students who worked so hard to defend their arguments and rebuttals with such professionalism!

“At each tournament, we have the opportunity to meet many different teams from all over Spain while participating in this league, so hosting this tournament is a source of pride to be able to present our school to so many teachers and students from different parts of the country. Both our students and the staff involved in the preparation are very excited about this opportunity we have had. We are sure that it allowed us to demonstrate how we put into practice fundamental pillars of our educational project, preparing students for the challenges of the future” Gloria Muñoz, Debate teacher at Colegio Europeo de Madrid.