Joutes oratoires lycéennes – French debating competition for 6th Formers (regional heats February and final March 2025) – Institut français
The Joutes oratoires lycéennes is an annual French debating competition open to UK sixth formers. It involves hundreds of young French learners, all sharing the same interest in practicing languages in a creative and challenging way.
There are a series of regional heats, quarter and semi-finals, leading to the final in March 2025. Winning contestants are awarded prizes such as book tokens or cinema vouchers to discover further Francophone cultures.
Who is it for?
- The competition is open to all UK sixth formers studying French across the UK.
When will it happen?
The annual contest runs from February (regional heats) to March 2025 (final):
What is the activity?
The Joutes oratoires lycéennes is a French debating competition open to all sixth formers which gathers every year several hundreds of young French learners, all sharing the same interest in practicing languages in a creative and challenging way.
Regional heats are organised across the country and allow to identify regional winners. The quarter final, the semi-final and the national final are organised at the Institut français du Royaume-Uni during the Mois de la Francophonie and bring several months of regional heats to a close. What a great way to enhance one’s capacity of critical thinking as well as one’s knowledge and understanding of the French-speaking world!
Participating in the Joutes oratoires lycéennes enables sixth formers to gain confidence in speaking French and to address current and captivating topics such as the environment, decolonisation etc. Participants learn to develop control of the language system and build coherent arguments, directly in French, interacting with their fellow contestants on the spot.
They will also engage with French on a more daily basis, listening to the radio and coming up with idioms used by French speakers. In other words, they will become familiar with this language and have fun with it!
Please note that this contest is aimed at French learners, i.e. students who are not immersed in the language daily. Thus, students from French schools, French-speaking families or students who have been schooled a significant time in a French-speaking country cannot participate. However, it is left at the discretion of their teacher to decide whether their fluency allows them to participate or not. If they cannot take part in the contest itself, they can still be part of the adventure by helping their fellow students to prepare, by organising a mock contest in which they are a jury member, giving advice etc.
How do I get involved?
Schools should contact the regional heats coordinators, prepare your sixth formers, join the regional heats debates and if selected, join the national finals.
The Yorkshire and North East Co-ordinator is Lauren Houldridge at St Peter’s School in York, which is also where the regional finals will take place.
The competition is free to enter and remains free throughout its different stages: regional heats and national finals.
It is not possible for a school to be represented more than once in the regional heats. However, a teacher can organise heats inside their classroom and/or school so that everyone can participate and only send the best team to the regional finals.
Further information and links
- For more information about the competition, visit the competition website here, where you can download the presentation kit and watch a video of regional heats examples
Who is organising this?
The competition is organised by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni
Contact: education@institut-français.org.uk
