An interview with Luis Madrid

Luis Madrid is the Headmaster of Agora Lledó International School, a school that offers an ambitious and innovative educational programme, and which provides a benchmark for educational excellence in the province of Castellón. Luis Madrid has been a passionate advocate of the school and of exceptional-quality education for the past 10 years, and in a recent interview for El Mediterráneo newspaper, he briefly looks back over his career as the leader of international schools in Valencia, Ecuador, Chile and Costa Rica, and his involvement in other projects, including his time as an educational advisor for the Spanish embassy in Hungary. However, in this interview he focuses primarily on his work at Agora Lledó International School.

When asked about the key to Agora Lledó’s success, Luis Madrid observes that many factors have contributed to the school’s success but it all comes down to outstanding educational management and the hard work and excellent results achieved by the school’s students. Consistently impressive results in both the Spanish Selectividad and in the International Baccalaureate (IB), have positioned the school as the highest-ranking private school in the Valencian Community in terms of the Selectividad and the best school in Spain for their results in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. The school also achieved outstanding results in the 2018 PISA tests, and last year Agora Lledó was recognised as the best IB school in the International Baccalaureate Organisation’s European rankings.

During the interview Luis Madrid also spoke of his recent trip to Abu Dhabi, representing the province of Castellon at a global education conference in the UAE and confirming Agora Lledó’s place on the map of the world’s best schools. Luis Madrid spoke of how the process of internationalising the school and the school’s curriculum, and falling under the Globeducate umbrella (formerly NACE Schools), is helping to prepare every student for the great social, economic and environmental challenges of the future, for jobs that have yet to be created and, primarily, educating young people who can take charge of their own life path and who possess the confidence and skills to shape a better world. Luis highlights initiatives such as global online classrooms, and the school’s commitment to the international Eco-Schools programme and to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

With regard to academic news, Luis Madrid spoke about the implementation of the International Baccalaureate’s (IB) Primary Years Programme (PEP) at Agora Lledó, and the fact that the school is currently the only one in the Province, and one of only a few schools throughout Spain, authorised to offer this prestigious programme. The school is also aiming to incorporate the Middle Years Programme (MYP) at Secondary stage, meaning that Agora Lledó would become part of a very small group of schools in Spain that hold IB World School status, and which are able to offer IB programmes continuously from Early Years through to Pre-University level.

Read the article published in the printed edition of El Periódico Mediterráneo