Blue Door: Location & Facilities

Blue Door is a private language school located in the southern Spanish city of Córdoba. A medium-sized city with a population of about 300,000, Córdoba is about 200 kilometres north of Málaga and some 400 kilometres south of Madrid.

(click on this link for more information about Córdoba)
 

Blue Door is a member of ACEIA, the association of language schools in southern Spain. The school has been in operation since 1999, and the premises are located in a residential area of the city centre.

Blue Door's city centre premises

Refurbished to offer the highest standards, the school boasts a total of eight classrooms, as well as study facilities, an administration department and a staff room.

Apart from the teaching resources available to teachers, the staff room also as an extensive DVD library, 7 broadband internet access points, and a mini-kitchen.

Each teacher has his/her own work station with ample space for books, stationery, CDs and other material. The staff room is the hub of activity at Blue Door with a dedicated team of nine teachers sharing ideas and working together.

The recently-refurbished staff room

One of the larger classrooms

Full-time teachers have their own classrooms and all classrooms are decorated attractively.

Each classroom has its own whiteboard, noticeboard and audio equipment.

A TV, video player, DVD player, video camera and digital recorder are also available for use in class.

Classes

With a maximum of six students in each group, Blue Door classes are small and personal. Students come for two hours a week. A full timetable usually consists of 12 groups with a total of 24 contact hours. Levels range from absolute beginners to advanced levels (click here to see our level system), and we have students of all ages from as young as 5. The vast majority of our students, however, are older children or young adults. Many of them take the Cambridge and Trinity exams. Classes are normally held on the school premises but are occasionally given elsewhere.

A group of adult students

Some of our younger students playing a game

A group of juniors doing a speaking activity

Continuous Professional Development

Blue Door is a professional organization and expects high standards of teaching and commitment from its teachers. Teachers have a real desire for professional development and, to this end, a comprehensive Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Programme (including pre-course induction and on-going in-house and external training) is provided.

In-house Training

As part of the Blue Door Continuous Professional Development Programme, teachers attend weekly workshops or meetings. These are given by colleagues or guest speakers from other professional organizations.

Similarly, teachers participate in the Peer Observation Programme (POP) and both the Director of Studies and Head Teacher are on hand to provide support and advice throughout the year, as well as observe classes and offer feedback.
 

Blue Door teachers at a workshop
given by the Head Teacher

External Training

The school also covers the costs of any external TEFL seminars and/or conferences teachers attend (subject to approval by the committee of coordinators). Similarly, any teacher interested in doing a relevant course (such as DELTA, IHYL, etc.) can apply for subsidies of up to 30% of the cost of tuition.

Blue Door Teachers
at Mario Rinvolucri's seminar
at the annual ACEIA Conference in Seville

Career Development

All teachers are encouraged (but not obliged) to give workshops as part of the in-house training programme. Similarly, many Blue Door teachers participate in the ACEIA Guest Speaker Scheme and give workshops at other language centres throughout Andalusia. Indeed, some teachers have gone on to speak at the ACEIA annual conference, and more than half of the Blue Door team have had their own material published as a direct result of our in-house training programme.

a teacher from Blue Door giving a workshop at a school in Andújar

Salary & Conditions

We offer a competitive package with salary in accordance with national pay agreements and full national health and social security cover. Each teacher is also covered by a private health insurance scheme which covers work-related accidents and civil responsibility. Contracts are for 9 months, from the end of September to the end of June. A full-time contract consists of 24 contact (teaching) house per week, the remainder of the stipulated full-time contract being made up, by class preparation, participating in the continuous professional development programme, meeting parents, etc. There are two weeks' paid holiday at Christmas and a week at Easter, as well as all local and national holidays. Long term teachers are eligible for permanent positions (with twelve month contracts and an extra months's paid holiday in summer).

To see what our teachers have to say about working at Blue Door, please click here.
Click here to read the article on www.onestopenglish.com about Blue Door