After a long wait, the awards ceremony for the UK's Best Spanish Student 2019-20 was finally given the green light.

Having won UK Best Spanish Student in 2019-20, Ezinne and I went to the London Spanish High School Vicente Canada in Portobello to finally receive her certificate and coveted prize of a trip to Spain for 2 people and a bursary for further studies of Spanish in Spain.

The ceremony for this prestigious prize was organised by the Consejería de Educación in the UK, the Spanish Embassy and sponsored by the Castilla León Government. The guest speaker, Baroness Coussins, is a Crossbench Life Peer and Co-Chair of the APPG on Modern Languages and CIOL Vice-President that speaks in defence of MFL in Parliament.

Lady Coussins enlightened us with her speech on the vital need to promote languages in a post-Brexit, global Britain: “Speaking only English is as much of a disadvantage as speaking no English. It is a myth that English is enough, or that everyone speaks it. In fact, only 6% of the world’s population are native English speakers, and 75% speak no English at all”… “So unless the UK addresses its languages deficit, it will do serious damage to the competitiveness of British business and also to the employability of young people in a global labour market”

We have to thank Baroness Jean Coussins for her advocacy on behalf of all invested in languages education - who recognise its value and impact on the development of intercultural awareness and linguistic expertise.

Congratulations to Ezinne for achieving this impressive feat.