This is IES El Yelmo, our highschool
Welcome to our highschool IES El Yelmo, located in Cortijos Nuevos, a small and charming village surrounded by breathtaking mountains in the province of Jaén (Andalusia)
Our center is a public Secondary Education Institute (IES) of the Ministry of Education of the Government of Andalusia dedicated to Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) and Baccalaureate in an ideal rural environment. We develop a curriculum that encompasses the humanities, social sciences, health sciences and the scientific-technological branch. The ratio is low, which makes it easier to know the difficulties and capabilities of each of the members of this community and provide the educational response they demand. Quality teaching has been a main priority in our center since the 1988-89 academic year. In addition to students from the town of Cortijos Nuevos, we receive students from surrounding towns and villages: Hornos, El Pelón, El Majar, El Tranco, El Ojuelo, El Robledo, Carrasco, La Alberquilla, etc. with a total number of students that ranges between 115 to 130 students per academic year. They come from the Segura de la Sierra de Cortijos Nuevos Early Childhood and Primary Education School (CEIP) and the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Hornos CEIP, although during the course we also receive temporary students from families who come to the area to collect the olive and the late incorporation of some immigrant students, as has been the case in these last two years. Our students are between 12 and 18 years old, and although most of them achieve a degree in ESO, there is 10-15% who leave early. Our Center Plan explains the non-denominational nature and respect for all beliefs, free of any specific ideological or political tendency, promoting pluralism. It is therefore an open, free and democratic center, where students, mothers and fathers, teachers and society in general have a place and their relationships are one of collaboration, tolerance, and respect. Our Community is in favor of a supportive education, non-discriminatory based on sex, race, religion, ideology, sexual condition or any other differential fact, highlighting co-education in all its areas.
In addition to everything stated above, at IES El Yelmo we actively participate in the following plans and programs: Healthy Living Habits and Youth Plan in the educational field. Master Plan consisting of informative talks by the Civil Guard on topics of special importance to our students such as the dangers of social networks and cyberbullying, problems derived from alcohol and drug consumption, etc. Compensation Plan: Means of social inclusion. Our center has a high number of Roma students (15%) and some of them are at risk of social exclusion. Equality Plan for coeducation PROA (School Accompaniment Program) PROA+ Transform yourself Reader Project and School Library Plan Educational Digital Transformation Occupational Health and Occupational Health Plan Center Self-Protection Plan State Pact Against Gender Violence Andalusian Digital Assistant Student Program (ADA)
Our amazing environment
The highschool is located in the valley of Cortijos Nuevos, a municipality belonging to Segura de la Sierra, and within the natural environment of the Sierra de Segura. It is thus located in the Natural Park (PN) of the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas, which (since its declaration in 1986 and with an area of 209,920 hectares) represents the largest protected natural environment in the entire Spanish territory and the second at European level. The park is in turn under the umbrella of other protection figures of great relevance given its inclusion in the catalog of Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO since 1983, Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA, declared for containing some of habitats of community interest and some of the priority species defined in European legislation) since 1987, Area of Special Conservation (SAC) since 2017, as well as Site of Community Importance (SCI, for its significant contribution to the maintenance or reestablishment of the favorable conservation status of the types of natural habitats and the habitats of the species of community interest in their natural distribution area) since 2006. In the case of Segura de la Sierra, 92.19% of its territory is protected under this figure (LIC). Among the quality marks of the region, it is worth noting that it has the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, the Natural Park Brand, the Q for Quality and the Environmental Quality Management System. The territory of the Segura region belonging to the province of Jaén has an area of 1931 km² (the largest in the province), thus constituting 67.3% of the National Park (143,346 Ha of the 209,920 Ha of the Park), it has a population of 24,285 inhabitants (INE 2017) and a population density of 13.8 inhabitants/km², lower than the rest of the Jaen regions. Cortijos Nuevos has a population of 1,010 inhabitants.
Means of transportation: a challenge to overcome
The geological complexity and rugged orography that characterizes the natural enclave provide the environment with special climatic conditions, which allows the presence of an exceptional faunal and floristic wealth, highlighting a multitude of endemic species with restricted distribution that further raise the ecological interest of the region. In turn, the orography and protected natural spaces are among the main causes of the reduced percentage of useful agricultural area of the territory in comparison with other regions of the Autonomous Community and the province, as well as the village’s relative isolation and lack of regular means of public transport. The average time it takes for a resident of the region to access a transport service (taxi, bus, railway, port, airport or highway) is 89 minutes, rising to 97 minutes for the center of Cortijos Nuevos and 103 minutes in the case of Segura de la Sierra, which shows both the isolation of the region, recognized in all administrative areas, and the extraordinary difficulties that arise in this area for the local population, students and foreign visitors.