Bilingual and International
SEK Schools are the only schools in Spain authorised to teach the three IB®programmes. These programmes are taught alongside the national curriculum, in a common and recognised teaching framework for each programme, and offering a coherent structure in terms of objectives and values.
SEK GROUP AND THE IB®
- SEK Education Group spearheaded the implementation of International Baccalaureate programmes in Spain. The IB® Diploma Programme is taught in SEK Schools since 1977.
- SEK teaching staff take part and collaborate in training workshops and conventions organised by the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) around the world.
- The SEK Group is part of the International Baccalaureate Regional Heads Council for Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
- The SEK Group is an accredited provider of IB® training courses.
- Over 10,000 SEK students have taken the IB® Diploma Programme, attaining outstanding results.
The International Baccalaureate Organisation (IB) offers international teaching programmes to a community of prestigious schools worldwide. It was established in Geneva, location of its current headquarters, in 1968.
The mission of the IB programmes is to contribute toward the development of students’ intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills that are necessary to live, learn and work in an increasingly globalised world.
This community encompasses 800,000 students from 3 to 18 years of age and over 3,000 schools in 138 countries. Over 2,400 universities around the world recognise the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.
Accredited IB® Schools and the quality of their programmes undergo thorough and very strict assessment.
The Primary Years Programme (PYP) prepares students to actively take part in an ongoing, life-long journey of discovery and learning.
What is it?
It focuses on the students’ all-round development and in their capacity for inquiry and discovery, both in class and in the world that surrounds them.
Our schools teach the PYP in English.
Curricular model
The curriculum is structured around three interrelated aspects:
- What do we want to learn? – The written curriculum
- What is the best way of learning? – The teaching curriculum
- How do we know what we have learnt? – Curriculum assessment
The written curriculum
Children explore different areas in curricula subjects through six transdisciplinary subjects, transcending traditional subjects and creating connections:
- About us
- Where we find time and space
- How we express ourselves
- How the world works
- How we organise ourselves
- How we share the planet
This process enables students to understand important subjects, acquiring fundamental knowledge and skills and developing certain attitudes.
The teaching curriculum
The six transdisciplinary subjects help teachers to develop inquiry units to tackle important subjects. This method requires a high degree of effort on behalf of students.
Curriculum assessment
Assessment is a fundamental aspect of the work units, since it helps to reinforce learning and gives students the opportunity to reflect on what they know, what they understand and what they can do. Teachers’ assessment provides children with guidance, tools and an incentive to outdo themselves, improve their abilities and better understand how they learn.
Today’s society demands many changing demands for adolescents. Adolescence is a crucial stage in their personal, social, physical and intellectual development characterised by uncertainty and questioning oneself. The Middle Years Programme (MYP) is designed to help them to find their place in the world and imbue them with a positive attitude toward learning.
What is it?
For 11 to 16 year-old students, it provides them with a framework for academic development and to perceive and understand the connections between traditional disciplines and the real world, and therefore, to become critical and thoughtful.
The curriculum
The programme is made up of eight groups of subjects, integrated in five areas of interaction, comprising a framework for disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning.
Students study their mother tongue, a second foreign language (English), Humanities, Sciences, Mathematics, Arts, Physical Education and Technology. In the final year of the programme they are expected to hand in a personal project that allows them to showcase their knowledge and abilities acquired in the first year.
The programme’s ethos is expressed through three fundamental concepts that underpin and bolster each area of the curriculum.
- Intercultural awareness
- Holistic learning
- Communication
Assessment
Assessment is based on criteria, meaning that students’ are evaluated according to the same criteria for each group of subjects. However, in the first years of the programme, teachers may modify this criteria to adapt them to students’ ages.
Students are assessed through coursework set and marked by school teachers. In order to ensure that the same standards are applied to all students, this internal assessment are verified externally by examiners from the International Baccalaureate Organisation (through a process known as assessment follow up and moderation). In our case, as officially certified International Baccalaureate schools, the moderation takes place each year.
In order to live in the interconnected and globalised world of the 21st century they need to learn critical thinking and to acquire an international mentality. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB®) prepares students (from 16 to 19 years of age) to learn and understand this need.
What is it?
For young people from the age of 16 to 19, it is a rigorous and balanced two-year course that concludes with final exams. It is an excellent preparation for university and adult life, and is widely recognised by universities from around the world.
The curriculum
Students take six High Level or Standard Level subjects. They must choose one subject from each group from 1 to 5. Therefore, it ensure a broad grounding in languages, Social Sciences, Experimental Sciences and Mathematics. The sixth subject may be from Group 6 (Arts) or any of the other groups.
The programme also features three components making up a common core. These aim to broaden the students’ educational experience and encourage them to put their knowledge and understanding into practice.
- For their Extended Essay, students are required to carry out an independent research project based on in-depth study of a topic related to one of the subjects they have studied.
- The Theory of Knowledge course encourages students to think about the nature of knowledge through a critical analysis of the different forms of knowledge (perception, emotions, language and reason) and types of knowledge (scientific, artistic, mathematical and historic).
- In Creativity, Action and Service students actively participate in specific projects outside the classroom and learn from this experience. They can do activities that combine these three components or activities specific to each of them.
Assessment
At the end of the programme students take written exams, marked by external IB® examiners. Likewise, students do school coursework, assessed by teachers and subsequently reviewed by external moderators, or directly by external examiners.
The diploma is awarded to those students obtaining a score of over 24 points, provided they have attained a certain level of performance in the overall programme and they comply with Creativity, Action and Service requirements. The highest mark possible is a score of 45 points.
Our schools teach the Diploma Programme in Spanish and certain subjects in English.
SEK Education Group is a member of some of the most prestigious international educational bodies:
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE PROGRAMMES
It is a consultative UNESCO body. It was established in Geneva in the late 60s. Its solid programmes boast a high international prestige: Primary Years, Middle Years and those leading to attainment of the International Baccalaureate Diploma. Today, students from 610 leading schools in 83 countries on five continents are currently studying International Baccalaureate programmes.
WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
SEK Education Group is a member of this body, aware of the importance and transcendence of attention to early childhood.
The OMEP is an international non-governmental organisation that defend and promotes the rights of children (0-8 years of age) internationally. It enjoys a consultative status at UNESCO, UNICEF, ECOSOC, the European Commission with representation at meetings for these bodies.
Its main aims are:
- To encourage research on early childhood education.
- To dissemination documentation and information.
- Collaborate in teacher training.
- Support information and training for parents.
- Organise conventions, meetings, talks and seminars on all aspects of early childhood education.
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
Established in 1951. With headquarters in Geneva, the International School Association (ISA), fostered both the International Baccalaureate and the Middle Years Programme, taught at all SEK schools.
Its main objectives are:
- To promote international peace and understanding through education.
- Contribute to the development of member schools and organisations.
- To collaborate with international bodies, which it has a ongoing relationship with, to develop cultural, scientific and technical cooperation.
