“Team of passionate educators”

Staff who believe in what they do are by far the best educators. This is why we view our staff as our key investors in our Spark project, meaning we make a big effort to guide and nurture them to provide the best quality of education and support to our students possible. Choosing Spark is a guarantee that you will encounter staff who not only care about what they do but also genuinely care about YOU.

Our Educational Director: Inge Hol

Inge is the Educational Mastermind behind what happens at Spark, the one who keep things ticking. She is the Educational Director of our Adult Spanish Courses and coordinates our school group programmes. She is originally Dutch but fluent in English and Spanish. Her great passion is passing on to students her own love for learning languages. Inge is one of the three founders of Spark. Inge is also a financial coach in addition to her Spark responsibilities and believes in developing staff and students in everyway possible. Read more about Inge on LinkedIn.

EMAIL INGE

Our man behind the scenes: Douglas Haines

Douglas is the General Manager at Spark. His role is to keep the admin and logistics ticking behind the scenes as well as doubling up as the in-house IT specialist. He also assists Inge with running of the different programmes and plays a big role in the professional development of the Spark team. Douglas is Scottish but has lived in Spain for long time and is is fluent in Spanish. His great passion is people development and team building, something that started from his role in running children summer camps. He is also the author of 100 steps to leadership and a life coach as well as SparkGM. Read about Douglas on LinkedIn.

EMAIL DOUGLAS

Our Receptionist and Spanish Teacher: Inés

Inés is the first face most people see when they come to Spark being the overall responsible of reception and day to day client attention of the Spanish and English Academies. She is also a fully qualified Spanish teacher and does many of the classes for the school groups and the English teachers. She is the communicator between parents and students for the English part of the academy, and she is the one who checks the reservations to ensure that the groups that visit Spain will have an unforgettable experience. Her great passion is teaching Spanish and sharing the beauty of her culture with the foreign visitors, but she is also very satisfied and happy with her other responsibilities and she constantly aims to improve. 

EMAIL INÉS

Our “Limpiasora”: Iris Arauz

Iris is the Spark cleaner of the communal areas of the residence and the classes.  However cleaning is not only her only role as she is also a profesora, loving to interact with the students and learn about their life and help them to practice their Spanish. For us she is la Mama de todos” because she looks out for everyone, both staff and students. not She is originally from Panama, but she has lived in El Puerto for quite a few years now! Her great passion is making others smile.

Profesora de Español: Mónica

Monica is always full of energy when teaching her classes. She is a fully qualified English and Spanish teacher. Her passion for teaching vibrates thoughout her classroom everytime. She is a also a qualified flamenco teacher and prepares flamenco lessons for the school groups on the Spark rooftop. You always know when she´s around by the loud sounds of flamenco shoes tapping on the rooftop!

Profesora de Español & Inglés: Laura 

Laura has been around Spark for a long time. She did a Spanish course at Spark in 2016 and in 2021 started working as one of the teachers. She loved teaching the kids, seeing them learn from other cultures, and giving them all the tools they needed for the future. El Puerto de Santa Maria has been like a second home for Laura since her family is from here and she spends many summers here too.

Other Teaching and Admin Staff

We have other teaching staff in Spark, both of Spanish and English. All of our teachers are fully qualified in teaching Spanish (or English) and all have experience teaching as a foreign language. We especially select our teachers not only on their qualifications and experience, but even more so for their desire to run dynamic and innovative classes that inspire our learners to achieve and follow up on their own learning both inside and outside the classroom.

Our English Teacher: Dylan 

Dylan is from the USA and moved to El Puerto de Santa Maria in 2010. He enjoyed seeing his pupils making significant progress in his classes. The reason he likes teaching is that he wants to help someone improve a skill they can use for the rest of their life. His favorite part about Spain is the weather compared to the harsh winter back home.

Our English Teacher: Jemma

Jemma is from the UK so teaching English comes naturally to her. As a native speaker, she also tries to teach some typical English phrases that you will not find in books so the kids also get a social level of English. Her favorite part about El Puerto de Santa Maria is the hidden beauty of the city and how welcoming the Spanish people are.

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