SEK International School Ciudalcampo Head Speaks at IB Global Conference
SEK International School Ciudalcampo · 3 min read
SAN SEBASTIÁN DE LOS REYES, 5 November 2026. Cecilia Villavicencio, head of SEK International School Ciudalcampo, was a speaker at the International Baccalaureate (IB) Global Conference, held in Lyon, France, from 22 to 24 October. Together with Iván Martínez, director general of SEK International Schools, she led a workshop on school culture and leadership.
The conference brought together education professionals and school leaders from around the world to exchange experiences, explore new teaching practices and reflect on the challenges of international education, under the theme of shared learning and shared futures. Its programme included 120 sessions, with more than 1,800 educators, leadership team members and international specialists expected to attend.
The SEK session focused on leading school culture through governance, coexistence and a shared purpose. It looked at how educational leadership can strengthen school communities and bring institutional decisions, personal relationships and teaching priorities into line with one another.
Villavicencio and Martínez addressed one of the main challenges facing schools: how to keep a strong and coherent school culture in contexts marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. From the perspective of IB World Schools, the session argued for moving beyond fragmented approaches to school management towards leadership models that bring governance, coexistence, rules and teaching decisions together around a shared educational purpose.
The workshop was participatory. Attendees worked through dilemmas on governance, coexistence and institutional planning, analysed situations together and discussed how leadership decisions shape school culture, which practices support positive relationships and how to set criteria for consistent teaching decisions in times of change.
The approach treats leadership not only as a management role but as the ability to create coherence between what a school says, the decisions it takes and the daily experiences of its students, teachers and families. It draws on IB principles such as reflection, collaboration, critical thinking and shared responsibility.
The conference came during a busy autumn at the Ciudalcampo campus. Primary and 1st-year ESO students received their English, French and German certificates at a Language Certificates Ceremony, recognising exams taken at the end of the previous school year. The school also held a Foreign Universities Fair for students in 4th year of ESO and both years of Bachillerato, and a first-year Diploma Programme student, Emma, was selected to take part in the national session of the European Youth Parliament, alongside 90 other delegates from across Spain.
About SEK International School Ciudalcampo
SEK International School Ciudalcampo is a bilingual international school in San Sebastián de los Reyes, in a natural setting north of Madrid. It belongs to SEK Education Group and educates students from their first months through to Bachillerato.
The school teaches all three IB programmes, the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme and the Diploma Programme, integrated with the Spanish national curriculum, and is a member of Round Square. Learning is bilingual in English and Spanish, with French or German added from the fifth year of Primary, and older students choose between the IB Diploma and the Spanish Bachillerato.
What this means for families
For families in the north of Madrid, the head's role at an IB conference offers a view of how the school thinks about leadership, relationships and decision-making, all of which shape everyday life in the classroom. The autumn programme of language certificates, university guidance and student debate shows the same priorities at work.
Parents comparing schools in and around the capital can find more options among the best international schools in Madrid.
