Terms and Conditions: Adult Courses

Spark in the interests of the consumer has adapted its contract of enrollment and general conditions to coincide not only with all legal requirements needed under Spanish law but also to any general code of conduct outlined by the associations and organizations in which we are part of. Please note if you wish to see our privacy policy it is at the link provided.

***Although these terms and conditions may be translated in other languages we only guarantee that the English is the fully updated version. School Group programmes (usually these are provided with your quote) have their own additional terms and conditions.***

To Jump to specific conditions click on links provided: * Class * Accommodation * *Payment *Cancellation *General *Data Protection Information

Payment Terms and Conditions

• ***The below conditions apply to clients only for our Adult Courses + Teen Programmes and do not apply to partner companies or school parties or for summer camp enrolments.  Students who book with partner companies are subject to their terms and conditions.***
  • Payments in all cases are only accepted in euros €.  The sender is responsible for any currency conversion costs.
  • No programme is guaranteed until a 50% desposit has been paid. In case of any programme involving accommodation, all payment must be completed before the programme starts, unless otherwise agreed.
  • Payment can be made via:
    • Credit card.
    • Bank transfer (all transfer commission must be paid by the sender in this case the student).
    • Cash in Spark (ONLY if able to pay in person in Spark BEFORE the course starts)
  • Payment by Bank Transfer: As the person transferring the money, Students are responsible for bank charges.
    • For all transfers you must indicate to your bank that all transfer costs will be covered by you as the sender.
    • In the case that Spark was charged for the client transferring the money, Spark remains the right to request payment for the amount charged.
    • Bank Account Details:
      • Spark address: Calle de las Espadas 6, El Puerto de Santa Maria, 11500, Cadiz, España.
      • Bank address: Spark Languages S.L., Bankinter, Centro de Gestion Jerez, C/ Porvera 3, 11403 Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz, España.
      • IBAN: ES90 0128 7723 8201 0000 2184
      • BIC (Bank Identification Code): BKBKESMM
    • It is possible to request a payment plan but unless you request this it is taken for granted you are paying all in one go
    • No course or programme is guaranteed until you have completed full payment or made at least a 50% downpayment when you request a payment plan.
    • Spark will provide a full refund, minus any accrued costs, i.e. payment commissions, for any programme cancelled a month ahead of time.
    • Programmes cancelled less than one month before, will accrue a 25% cancellation cost and there is no refund for cancellations done less than one week before the start of programme.
    • In all cases full payment must be completed 2 weeks before the start of course, unless otherwise agreed with us.
    • To be entitled to a long term discount or special agreed discount (for example buying a batch amount of classes) ALL payment must be made prior to the start of the course, although it could be done through multiple payments in installations, as stated above.
    • Once your payment has been received (note this is when it arrives to our bank, if doing a bank transfer usually a few days after doing the transfer and sometimes more), we will send you an email confirming your booking dates within a working week and usually much quicker.
    • In the case that the available week or accommodation was not available, Spark would refund the payment in full if an alternative week or accommodation could not be arranged.
    • If bookings or payment had been done via a third party, rather than with Spark, any refund would be subject to their conditions and not those of Spark.
    • All prices are charged at the rate of the product on our English website sparkspanish.com at the moment of booking a course or, if buying via a third party, as their conditions in the moment of purchasing.

Cancellation Conditions Student:

• With a minimum of more than 30 days advance notice, the Centre will reimburse a student full payment less the registration and any commissions.  In case of accommodation, any reimbursement will depend on the costs we ourselves have assumed and conditions of renters.  Usually with Sparkville we would be able to reimburse most of the payment minus 10% fee, but other types of accommodation, will depend on conditions agreed with that supplier and usually there would be minimum 10% admin fee and sometimes more, depending on the type of accommodation.
• If a student bought their course via an agent or third party, the reimbursement would depend on the agent’s terms and conditions and not on ours.
• If notice is given with less than 20 days, then the student will be required to pay two weeks of the course and accommodation for which they signed up for.
• Students who start but do not finish their programme will not be reimbursed any course fees.
• Spark can not provide a refund for students failing to turn up for a course.  This includes factors which may not of been of the student’s causing i.e. flight cancellations, environment happenings (volcanic ash etc…). Students would have to contract their own insurance to cover for these types of unlikely occurrences.
• Individual courses need to be cancelled at least a full working day before the class. If a class is cancelled with less than a full working day’s notice, the student will be charged for that lesson as normal.
• In case of a cancellation of a DELE course, the same reimbursement guidelines apply as for the General Course, but the student will not be reimbursed for the any exam fee which they paid as Cervantes will not reimburse these.

Cancellation Conditions Spark:

• Spark reserves the right to modify or cancel totally or partially any course, activity or service provided and in this very unlikely event of happening, guarantees to inform the client immediately and offer them a full refund.  Cancelling a course is a very unlikely occurrence but possible reasons for cancellations or modification of programmes could be:
• Not reaching a minimum number of students which we believe is needed for the good or fun running of a course.
• Weather conditions and factors outside of our control.
• Travel and legal restrictions in Spain making it impossible to realize the service.
• In unlikely case of need due to covid regulations to cancel a course, students will be offered a full refund for any course that has NOT yet started, however in the event the course is already taking place the course will pass to an online format and continue as normal. One to one classes already started and evening course already started will be offered no refunds but as said the classes will take place as normal but via an online format.

Classes Terms and Conditions:

• At Spark we have a syllabus with 6 levels coinciding with the Common European Framework, although students should note, that due to being a small personal school, we will not have all levels running at one time which is why students should check their level and weeks to ensure they join the courses in the right weeks.  We have an online level test to ensure this. Our evening courses offer 3 class groups (broadly speaking: Elementary, intermediate and advanced) with students grouped into the level that best suits them.
• All students will be provided with a course book or photocopies, if the student wished to follow a book of their choice (i.e. in a one to one class), they must purchase this themselves.
• Spark takes running its Spanish courses very seriously and for this reason we ask students to have the attitude that attending class (which will always be great fun!) is not an optional thing but a requirement as we know missing class will have its effect on your learning and enjoyment of your stay with us.
• Our classes are conducted a 100% in Spanish, we ask students to respect this rule as much as possible and refrain from using their own language, or another language, in class as much as is possible.  Certain courses, for example the beginners and over 50s courses, will be more tolerant with this and one to one classes can follow more the lead of the student but we recommend to stick to the Spanish only rule.
• In case of individual classes, Spark must be warned with 2 work days of notice if they need to cancel a class, otherwise this class will be counted as a normal lesson. Please note this is working hours, for example: cancelling a class on Friday for Monday does not provide the 2 day margin, but doing so on Thursday does. This policy exists as otherwise there is not sufficient time to warn the teacher and amend their contracted hours. Of course some exceptions will be made on off cicumstances but we can guarantee this and ask students to respect there set one to one times.

Accommodation Terms and Conditions:

• Accommodation runs from the Sunday before the course to Saturday at the end of the course.  Arrival on Sunday is from after 16.00 and departure on the Saturday before 12.00 but early or late arrivals can normally be agreed.
  • Extra nights can be purchased from Spark before or after the course.  Check in times must be arranged ahead of time for these.  The Saturday night post (not before) the course  has a special rate, called flexi night.  Check out must be done before 10.30 on this day in order to allow time for cleaning of the room for new guests.
• Check ins and check outs are normally done self check in and check outs, full instructions will be provided on how to do this.
• Our reception hours are 10.30-13.30 and 15.45-19.15 September to June and 09-14.00 in July and August. The student residence has its own access and exit and all areas.
• All students staying in Spark accommodation are required to pay a 50€ deposit on arrival which will be returned to the student on departure, providing there is no damage to the accommodation and the keys are returned before leaving.  If students lose their keys, this amount to replace the keys would be taken from the deposit.
• Students will be fully responsible for any damage in any accommodation or building or damage to objects/machines which resulted from misuse or negligence.  If the damage amounted to more than 50€, the student would be charged for the amount above that of their 50€ deposit.  Students will not be held responsible for any breakages in the accommodation that result from general wear and tear but to ensure we are aware of what happened students must inform us of any breakage as soon as you can.
  • Students must clean up communal areas immediately after use.  This means if they cook dinner in Sparkville or in a flat that you must wash up afterwards.
  • Sparkville is a residence not a hotel or hostel, meaning students supply their own toiletries, towels etc… and are also responsible in their own room for their own cleaning and laundry (a communal coin operated washing machine is available).  The same applies to flat and homestay accommodation.  Bed linen is provided by Spark or our homestay families.  Students who stay for more than a week, will be required to pass over their dirty sheets and will receive a new set once a week at the weekend.
  • To ensure all students get the sleep they wish for, students are asked to be quiet during the usage of communal areas, in high season, July to October, this is  from 23.30 or 00.00 onwards and in low season 23.00 onwards.
  • Sparkville  has its own rooftop that can be used by students throughout the day and evening.  Usage after 00.00 must be done quietly, no night parties allowed as we desire to be respectful of our neighbours!
  • Spark provides free wifi connection in the Sparkville residence (we dont gurantee this in flats nor homestay), available via wifi.  Although it is un-usual that there are cuts in the service, Spark is not responsible for any interruptions as ultimately it is a free service.
  • Guests of students are permitted in the Sparkville residence during normal hours although they must be with the Spark student at all times and are not permitted in the building without a student.  Guests must also adhere to all normal residence rules outlined above.  Guests are not permitted to stay the night in a student’s room, unless prior agreement has been made with Spark directly.  The guest would be charged the standard daily rate for staying in a room if Spark had agreed this were possible.
  • Spark is not responsible for any student property that is lost or misplaced in the sparkville residence or in the classes.  Also students should bear in mind our spark insurance does not cover student property.  All spark rooms have their own key and we suggest you lock that when not in the room.
  • Accommodation Rules: Students must be aware that in all Spark accommodation (be it sharing with a family, in our residence or in a shared flat), many parts of the facilities are shared and because of this they must be respectful to other students or the host family at all times.  Students will be asked to bear in mind all common sense things they would do in their own home and apply them to their stay with us and especially bear in mind the following.

General Terms and Conditions

• As stated above although we have our http://www.sparkspanish.com web in multiple languages, we can ultimately only guarantee the information on our website is 100% updated in English so if any clash in interpretation ever exists the terms and conditions are based on the information provided in English on our website.
• Although it is an extremely unlikely occurrence, students must be aware that any change of law in Spain or policy change by a third party providing us with a service could affect some terms and conditions in this document.  In this case we would inform the student immediately and if the change were significant, we would give the student the possibility of receiving a full refund from us for the programme part affected.  As stated this is not a likely occurrence.
• Any refunds given will never include the refunding of any bank costs the student may have accrued.
• Students must bear in mind there are of course additional “common sense” terms and conditions affecting all areas above, especially things like accommodation and class, that students are expected to adhere to as they would in any environment.
• With our adult programmes, Spark is not responsible for the supervision nor the conduct of students in their free time, nor are we legally responsible to provide any support (legal or medical) with any non Spark programme matter, although of course we will do our best to support our students with whatever we can help them with but ultimately we are not responsible. nor required to do so.
• Spark is not responsible for providing any medical insurance for the students.  This is entirely the student’s own responsibility.  EU students should be covered by inter-community agreements but students should check this in their home countries and bring relevant documents with them.  We advise non EU students to take out their own medical insurance before coming to Spain and in some countries cases this may be a requirement for getting a visa.
• Spark is not responsible for organizing visas for students getting into the country which is their own responsibility.  Spark will supply on request any evidence needed that the student is studying and staying with us at Spark.
• EU students do not require a visa to enter Spain and have complete freedom of movement and length of stay. Also many other countries do not either but please check this with your relevant authorities.
• Countries which are part of the Schengan agreement either do not require a visa or have an easy to get visa.  The schengan agreement normally requires students to already have a returnee flight booked before entering into Spain but please check this specifics with your own embassy.
• In general Spain has very good agreements with most countries and getting a visa is quite straight forward.  More info on visas is available here.
• Students have the responsibility to:
  • To make payments within the terms and conditions stated or otherwise agreed.
  • Pass on to Spark any required document for running our programmes or services.  This could include Spanish level test, copies of passports or visas in some nationalities case.
  • To obey the laws and customs of Spain and adhere and adapt to these accordingly.
  • Inform Spark of any medical issue that we may need to be aware of in order to run our programmes safely.

Data Protection Information

• Please note the information provided below is a summary of full data protection information provided in Spanish on our aviso legal page.
• Coinciding with the L.O. 15/1999 de Data Protection for individuals, Spark Languages S.L. reminds the user that personal data will be stored in Spark database and third party storage (mailchimp/formstack/freshbooks/zendesk), along the preferences selected at info request, newsletter petition or enrollment stage. The individual authorizes Spark to contact them with the requested information solicited in contact forms or via other means and unless otherwise stated, or selected, to contact them about future offers and information on our courses via email, our newsletter or any other way. Following the “Ley Orgánica 15/1999” the individual can choose to be removed from our mailing lists at any time through accessing their account with mailchimp or via contacting us directly at Spark Languages S.L and in full appliance with GDPR  Spark has double opt and correct data storage for all our services.  All our fore-mentioned third party services are fully compliant in all areas of GDPR and data protections.

Our full Privacy Policy is available at this link.

Aviso Legal

Photographic and Video Material

• The student accepts that Spark has a right to use in their marketing material any photographs or videos taken of them during their stay with us.  We also have the right to use any photographic material that a student uploads to our own web or social networks.
• Spark also reserves right to grant this permission to partner companies who promote our programmes.  Spark will always ensure this material is used responsibly.

To Jump to specific conditions click on links provided: * Class * Accommodation Payment *Cancellation *General *Data Protection Information