Educational Psychology Assessments for SEK Madrid Students

The Institución Educativa SEK is the longest-established private education group in Spain, founded in 1892 as the oldest secular school in the country.

The group now operates eight schools across Spain, Ireland, and France and runs its own university in Madrid, Camilo José Cela University, founded in 1998. SEK is the only Spanish education group authorised to deliver all three International Baccalaureate programmes (PYP, MYP, and DP), and SEK El Castillo was the first school in Spain to offer the IB, beginning in 1977.

SEK operates three campuses in Madrid. SEK Ciudalcampo sits in San Sebastián de los Reyes, north of Madrid, and hosts the SEK-Real Madrid Foundation Football Academy where students who play football competitively train with coaches connected to Real Madrid alongside their academic programme.

SEK El Castillo sits in Villanueva de la Cañada, west of Madrid, and operates the most comprehensive boarding programme in the SEK network.

SEK Santa Isabel sits in central Madrid near Retiro Park and runs the IB Primary Years Programme, with students transitioning to Ciudalcampo or El Castillo for the Middle Years and Diploma Programmes.

Annual tuition sits in the premium tier, with primary fees typically EUR 12,000 to EUR 18,000 and Sixth Form fees in the EUR 17,000 to EUR 25,000 range depending on campus and year. Across the SEK group, four to eight graduates per year achieve the maximum IB Diploma score of 45 points, and approximately 20 per cent of graduates score 40 or above. 

When to Commission a Psychoeducational Assessment

When parents or teachers at SEK Ciudalcampo or SEK El Castillo suspect learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, anxiety, autism spectrum profiles, executive function difficulties, processing speed difficulties, or working memory weaknesses, the first place to start is a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment.

A single-condition screen is not enough. A dyslexia-only screen tells the family whether dyslexia is present and stops. A screen for any single named condition does the same. It does not capture the ADHD that often co-occurs with dyslexia, the anxiety that often co-occurs with both, or the executive function profile that shapes how the student experiences all of them.

For an SEK student in particular, the IB Continuum produces a multi-dimensional academic demand from PYP through MYP into the IB Diploma Programme. The IB Inclusive Access Arrangements process requires diagnostic documentation that captures the full functional picture across cognitive, academic, attention, executive function, and emotional functioning domains, not a single diagnostic label. A comprehensive assessment delivers that picture; a single screen does not.

What a Global Education Testing Assessment Delivers

Global Education Testing (Madrid) has worked with many SEK Madrid students over the years. The comprehensive psychoeducational and neurodevelopmental assessment is delivered by HCPC-registered educational psychologists via secure video link, with the full process running over 21 days from initial enquiry to delivery of the written report.

The assessment examines cognitive abilities, working memory, processing speed, academic achievement in reading, spelling, written expression, and mathematics, attention regulation, executive functioning, emotional wellbeing, behavioural and social functioning, and learning differences across the full clinical range.

The 20 to 30 page diagnostic report is anchored in DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 criteria, written in English, and structured to satisfy the IB Inclusive Access Arrangements process for IB Diploma examinations, the College Board for SAT, ACT, AP, and PSAT accommodations, Spanish university entrance through EvAU, and university learning support services across the destinations SEK graduates reach. The report travels with the student across the SEK network in Spain, Ireland, and France and forward into university.

The accommodations the report can unlock include extra time in examinations, supervised rest breaks, a separate examination room, the use of a word processor, a reader, a scribe, modified paper formats, a prompter for students with attention difficulties, and permission to take medication during examinations.