The Felipe Segovia Symposium is an annual meeting organised by the Foundation where the entire teaching community from SEK Schools and Camilo José Cela University (UCJC) share and celebrate their best educational practices revolving around the ideas of our founder whose philosophy on education gave birth to the ordinances of our Group.
The 1st Felipe Segovia Symposium was held on 13 November 2015. School teachers and University lecturers, together with students studying Education at UCJC, were invited to this space for reflection and professional development where talent and experience were celebrated while learning about the most innovative initiatives that enhance our students’ learning experiences and are a hallmark of our Group.
This first year hinged on: “the student, the measure of the life and education at SEK Group”, the first point of the Group’s Ethos and at the core of its educational activity. The practices showcased at the event highlighted the role of the student as the driver of his or her own learning process.
The event was structured around three panels: ‘Learning Spaces’, ‘Teaching and learning: strategies’ and ‘Educational Innovation at the University’. The panels discussed different initiatives including creative spaces, maker spaces, teaching methods for maths and the SEK-Lab.
The following tools were used to extend participation to the entire SEK Educational Community: Streaming, the internal social networking tool Yammer, the social video network Wooze and the typical social media platforms Twitter and Facebook.
We put special emphasis on participation from the SEK Educational Community because we are all teachers and students, and as Felipe Segovia said: Teaching is something we learn to do every day
The Second Felipe Segovia Symposium took place on 11 November 2016. It was a meeting for the teaching community that introduced a number of pedagogical initiatives developed and promoted across the different learning spheres of the SEK International Schools and Camilo José Cela University.
During the second edition, the Felipe Segovia Symposium focused on the concept: SEK Education Group, a community for learning.
The first block of the symposium revolved around maker spaces with discussions about the “Maker Movement” and an introduction from Professor Stephen Heppell.
It showcased over 40 initiatives launched over the course of this and the previous academic year at SEK International Schools and Camilo José Cela University, in the block of workshops entitled ‘Best Practices’. In addition, it highlighted the conclusions from the Team A co-creation workshops and introduced the Junior Advisory Board, made up of 10 SEK International School students.
The event ended with the SEK Awards ceremony and a special tribute to Felipe Segovia Olmo, recently recognised for his educational work with the Grand Cross of Alfonso X, the Wise.
See photos of the symposium
The Third Symposium took place on 10 November 2017 in the classrooms of the SEK International School El Castillo and on the Camilo José Cela University campus.
The meeting offered the opportunity to showcase numerous education initiatives that are being carried out and developed in the different learning environments of SEK International Schools and Camilo José Cela University, bringing together 450 people at the UCJC campus and in the classrooms of SEK-El Castillo.
The event coincided with the 125th anniversary of the SEK Education Group and more than 80 teachers and lecturers actively participated in the 37 works that were presented.
The Fourth Felipe Segovia Symposium, organised by the Felipe Segovia Foundation, was held on 16 November 2018. The event’s central theme was “Learning Spaces” (spaces in all of their facets: spaces inside and outside of the classroom, in-person and virtual spaces, spaces in formal and informal contexts; in short, spaces as the third educator).
One of the main lines of modern educational innovation is related to transforming educational spaces, the third educator, along with the student and the teacher, in the development of the teaching-learning process.
The new century and the technological revolution mean we have to adapt, and academia cannot lag behind in this transformative movement. For that reason, since it was founded, SEK Education Group has been committed to being a forward-thinking institution and accepted what society has demanded of us, creating new spaces that guarantee the acquisition of new skills and abilities that are appropriate for this globalised world.
The concept of Learning Spaces was, therefore, the focus of the Fourth Felipe Segovia Symposium where the whole SEK community enjoyed sharing and learning about this educator that is fundamental for all of us.
During the meeting, our educational community from the Schools and the University shared their best learning practices, inspired by Felipe Segovia, a man whose vision of education set the coordinates for our Group.
On 29 November 2019, the Felipe Segovia Foundation organised the Fifth Felipe Segovia Symposium, which was held on the Villafranca campus and at the SEK International School El Castillo.
This edition was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the implementation of the ‘Intelligent Classroom’ Educational Model. During the symposium, staff from SEK Schools and from Camilo José Cela University School of Education and Health led several workshops related to this model and outlined the conclusions reached regarding its impact on students’ learning experiences.
Panel discussions were also held at the same time where participants reflected on the past, present, and future of the Intelligent Classroom.
Among the other activities that took place during the Fifth Felipe Segovia Symposium, there was a screening of the documentary ‘Intelligent Classroom’ which reflects on the relevance of this model.
The Sixth Felipe Segovia Symposium took place on 16 November 2020 and brought together more than 1,000 virtual participants comprising lecturers, teachers, students and families, among them more than 700 staff and students from SEK Education Group, to share, reflect and collaborate.
The Symposium was an opportunity for reflection and collaboration, where teachers worked together and co-designed practices through 23 strands, learning spaces where members of the Educational Community shared their professional findings. The result of these findings will be a micro-innovation which will be monitored during the academic year and included in a “playbook” so it can be shared with the entire SEK and UCJC teaching community.
At the beginning of the event, Stephen Heppell, Director of the Felipe Segovia Chair of Innovation for Learning at UCJC, spoke about how to achieve better learning experiences through sacrifice and motivation. He also took the opportunity to send a message to the community challenging us to always look for opportunities for play.
This edition also included a speech by Fernando Reimers, Director of Harvard’s Global Education Innovation Initiative and International Education Policy Programme, who, under the title ‘Educar para un Renacimiento’ (Educate for a Renaissance) praised the work done by SEK’s community of teachers and students.
I wish all teachers understood the greatness of their task and had a clear understanding of the responsibility they have taken on.”
Felipe Segovia Olmo (2009) La huella de un viajero. Ch 4. Page 197
The 7th Felipe Segovia Symposium will be held in a hybrid format on 26 November 2021 and will aim to offer continuity of the Professional Learning process for SEK and UCJC professionals.
The 7th Felipe Segovia Symposium will be based on the professional learning of SEK and UCJC professionals and more specifically on their profile.
Our purpose will be to explore and inquire about why and how students learn the skills that make up their profile and that of our professionals,
As in previous years, the symposium will be a professional learning space where professional inquiries will be shared, to promote the development of competencies in SEK and UCJC students.
Like last year, the different members of our community have been developing professional inquiries to make the SEK Schools Future Learning Model and the UCJC Extended Teaching-Learning Model a reality.
At the 7th Felipe Segovia Symposium we will continue to develop these professional inquiries, but looking at them through the lens of the development of SEK and UCJC competencies.
To see all the information on the Sympsium including agenda, pathways, virtual spaces, maps and galleries, please visit our website or download the app for iOS:
The aim of this new Symposium will be to share our teaching and learning experiences within the framework of the Global Education Forum Manifesto.
In October 2021, UCJC held the Global Education Forum 3rd Act with the aim of reflecting on the future of higher education. This event was organised around four key pillars that represent the foundations on which higher education must be built: Entrepreneurship, Well-being, Social Impact and Digitization.
The purpose of this event will be to share experiences related to the twelve points of our Manifesto, which you can learn about here.
As in previous editions, the Symposium will be a learning space showcasing presentations based on the main points that make up the Manifesto. Within each strand, between four and six presentations will be given, with the aim of generating discussion, team reflection and planning among the members of the strand. This year, in addition, all the speakers will share an explanatory video of their presentation prior to the event.
We encourage you to review all the content and conclusions of the GEF and the Manifesto. Shortly, we will send an invitation to those who wish to participate as speakers or moderators.
Our ethos includes, in the words of Don Felipe Segovia, SEK Education Group’s commitment to “the perfection of humanity and to improve a better society.”
The educational model and pedagogical principles are the groundwork for the different ways we pursue this commitment, but it is our competency profile that defines more exactly what this perfection is, hinging on five main aspects: Personal transformation, relational and organisational transformation, transformation for sustainability, knowledge transformation and learning for transformation.
We call them “transformations” because the ambition is to ensure that our educational work has an impact. An intentional, measurable, visible impact. An education that is relevant for learners in relation with themselves, with others and with the world. This competency model is our educational lodestone, it defines the kind of person we aspire to accompany and, ideally, perfect with our efforts.
The challenge for us as an educational institution and in our commitment to assessment is to be able to demonstrate that impact, beyond our intentions: through evidence of learning, rubrics, self-assessment or any other systematic way that allows us to measure for improvement.
Every day, in our classrooms and outside of them, there are multiple examples of how we ensure this objective. We call those projects, initiatives, curricular or co-curricular decisions “impactful learning experiences.”
The purpose of this 9th Symposium will be to identify these impactful learning experiences, present them and continue working on improving them.
As in previous editions, the Symposium will be one more space for learning among the IESEK community. Each work session will feature different experiences with the aim of generating discussion, team reflection and planning among strand members.
The 9th Symposium will be held in person and online and in both Spanish and English.
The 10th Felipe Segovia Symposium continues the conversation started at the Global Education Forum (GEF) held in May 2024. The event addressed Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications in the teaching-learning process, exploring its transformative role with the aim of reflecting on the future of education.
Our competency-based educational model is structured around five main transformations: Personal transformation, relational and organisational transformation, transformation for sustainability, knowledge transformation and learning for transformation. These transformations are already influenced by the use of Artificial Intelligence. Our goal is to ensure that our educational work in the use of AI also has an intentional, measurable and visible impact.
The learning experiences presented at the GEF and those that will be showcased at the Symposium will have in common the use of Artificial Intelligence as a key and transformative tool.
The purpose of this 10th Symposium is linked to our commitment to the possibilities and challenges of AI in our learning environments. To this end, we offer prior training initiatives for both teaching staff and administrative staff, we will share learning experiences from various fields, and we will promote reflections that encourage collaboration between schools and faculties.
The Symposium will be a great learning opportunity for the SEK Education Group community.
It will be held on 14 November 2024, in a hybrid format, both in-person and virtually, and the vehicular languages will be Spanish and English.
We look forward to seeing you all.
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