Teaching Staff

The women on the Toy Box team have a special profile:

• They're qualified.
• They're experienced.
• They are either native English speakers or with a high level of spoken and written English.
• They're in good health.
• They love children and teaching.
• They're serious and trustworthy.
• They subscribe to the teaching philosophy of María Montessori.
• They're ecologically aware.
• Each one of them has a special talent, whether it's singing, dancing, artwork or playing a musical instrument.
• They are, in a word, professionals.

In the important parents' meeting at the beginning of each school year we introduce the teaching team. After the meeting the parents have the opportunity to chat with them and get to know them personally.

All new personnel are interviewed by the management and spend training time working beside one of our established teachers before taking over a class themselves. The children are always in the hands of qualified, well-prepared teachers. The school tries every day to live up to its mission statement: To provide children with a fascinating world to be discovered by the children themselves through the English language. All of that in a loving and secure setting, inspected frequently by the children's parents, who have the maximum interest in the smooth and effective functioning of the Toy Box Little School of English.

Hours and holidays

From September to June

Holidays are two weeks at Christmas, one week at Easter, the national fiestas and Corpus Cristi.

Month of July (optional month)
Toy Box adopts a summer timetable and a summer approach in the month of July. Some of the regular attendants go away on holiday, thus leaving some July vacancies for non regulars. The hours are from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm and the programme of activities takes place mainly in the garden and includes aerobics and splash time. This is a good intensive starting point for a child wishing to join our "Chatterbox" conversation classes later and also serves as the adaptation period for children newly registered for September.

Chatterbox

Chatterbox is Toy Box's ongoing education program designed to help children from 5-12 years maintain their English-language skills in a structured play situation. The groups were originally designed to cater for Toy Box ex pupils, though other children are welcome, especially if they have a good level of spoken English.

One-and-a-half-hour afternoon extra-curricular group sessions are held on Tuesdays between 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm. They combine speech with activities that are fun, thus appealing to children who would rather not be in yet another classroom atmosphere after school. Fun is taken seriously and the teachers monitor the progress of the pupils and design the activities in order to maximise language skills.

Parents

Toy Box is a parent-friendly place which is always striving for ways to involve parents in their children's experience. There is a standing invitation for parents to spend as much time as they wish with their children. We provide a written daily report for the very young children in the Teddy Room. Parents of older children can consult a daily written report on the notice board of all that their children have done throughout the day in the Jigsaw and Hobbyhorse rooms. Some of our parents have given talks or demonstrations related to their professions.

Workshops for Parents

Throughout the school year we organize talks, presentations and workshops for the parents of our pupils.

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Outings

A picnic, anyone?

Both the staff and the children enjoy going out on excursions. Toy Box has taken its little pupils just about everywhere locally, including skiing in Sierra Nevada. They have been to the Alhambra, to farm schools, parks, fire stations and local monuments and museums. There is nothing like real life experiences for learning, so Toy Box programs at least one excursion approximately every six weeks. Some of the trips have even been partially subsidised by local organisations and authorities.

Transport

The children are transported in microbuses and full-sized buses belonging to authorized and regulated transport companies. All coaches have safety belts.

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