Six
of our pupils from 4º ESO and 1º Bachillerato have participated in
the Madrid regional session of the European Youth Parliament España
(EYPE). The event saw our school's début in the competition, alongside other prestigious schools from the Madrid area: Hastings,
King's College, Liceo Europeo, Ramon y Cajal, San Patricio, SEK and
Virgen de Europa.
One
of the most impressive things about it is that the whole operation is
organised by young people, not adults. The organising committee are
participants from previous years, all in their late teens or early
20s. In the week following the regional session, the jury of the
organising committee decides on the three strongest schools overall,
and these progress to the national round with their three
best-performing students, to be held later on in the year.
 |
| Our pupils in action - congratulations to Álvaro, Ángeles, Jaime, Leticia, Marieta and Víctor on a fine job! |
The
EYPE involves working in a team with pupils from other schools to
propose a new law and try to convince the rest of the parliament to
pass it. In order to successfully do this, the participants must do
detailed research to become experts on their topic, work well as a
team in their different committees to formulate the law resolution,
and then use their public speaking and debating skills to convince
enough members to approve their proposal. Additionally, the personal
qualities of respect and also helping and listening were vital to
enjoy and get the most from this session.
The participating pupils are separated into different committees, each
dealing with a different topic (for example, the economy, gender
equality, climate change and constitutional affairs). Each school had
to divide its pupils between the committees, therefore ensuring that
the participants did not know the other members of their group. The
Saturday involves teambuilding and 'ice-breaker' activities, as well
as team work to produce the law proposal. Sunday is the day of the
General Assembly, the parliament in which the pupils interact and try
to get their law proposals passed.
As
various members of the organising committee rightly said in the
closing ceremony, this is an event which promotes
our pupils' use and appreciation of freedom of speech, intercultural
exchange and dialogue: all things we need more, not less, of in
today's complicated world. On an individual level the message was
clearly not to stop here but to push on, turn this weekend into a
long-term learning experience, and above all, not to limit yourself
in life.
For
the pupils and teachers involved it proved to be an intense and
interesting experience, and one we will be very happy to repeat next
year, having learned so much from our début. Our pupils did a great
job both in their preparation and participation. Here you can listen
to a chat with two of our participants, Víctor and Ángeles, about
their experiences:
And
finally, you can enjoy the official video made by the EYPE media
team, showing clips taken from throughout the weekend's activities:
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