MISSION AND VISION

MISSION

At Desilena our mission is:

to offer our students a quality education through linguistic immersion in Spanish and its cultures;
to be an educational centre of reference in the teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language in the Canary Islands;
to create a welcoming environment that encourages students to feel at home;
to help students’ personal and professional growth by providing them with the necessary tools to adapt to and enjoy the Spanish-speaking world;
to encourage empathy, respect and unity between the different cultures within the centre.

VISION

At Desilena our vision is:

to be an international educational centre of reference in the teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language;
to ensure that students «return home» (i.e. understanding home as Desilena school) and that they recommend us, thus expanding the Desilena family;
to be leaders in quality education in the teaching of Spanish by promoting methodological innovation and continuous updating;
to encourage the development of a tolerant and inclusive society inside and outside the school.

VALUES

The principles and values that characterise Desilena are:

academic excellence: we offer quality educational programmes that we update frequently;
professional ethics and commitment: the administrative, academic and teaching staff are highly committed to and responsible for the values upheld by the school, sharing our mission and vision;
personalised education: we see each student individually, adapting classes to their goals, preferences and needs;
corporate social responsibility: we understand that our impact on society and the environment can be decisive, and for this reason, we are committed to being a socially responsible school (a seal we hope to achieve by 2024) by contributing to the development of our local community;
non-discrimination and inclusion: we defend diversity and equality in all areas, respecting people and rules, using an attitude of dialogue to resolve possible conflicts and being tolerant of different opinions;
innovation and continuous improvement: we strive to be up to date in Spanish education by adopting new methodologies and educational technologies;
the participation of the whole educational community in the school’s project and in decision-making;
the use of Spanish from the very first lesson;
the consolidation and specialisation of the teaching staff: all our teachers are native speakers with university degrees, specialised in ELE who have extensive experience in teaching ELE and who act as guides for the students in their learning process.

HISTORY

Our story, like all great stories, arises from the beautiful coincidences of life. This one begins, back in 2009, with a student called Elena who started studying Spanish at an ELE school in the north of Tenerife where a teacher called Desire worked. We don’t know how or why their paths didn’t cross until 2011, when Desi and Elena had the opportunity to meet personally as teacher and student. For the latter, it had been two very difficult years in which she had not managed to get beyond A1 level or to communicate in Spanish at all, as no one had really aroused her interest in the language. The student will never forget that first class with her new teacher in which she not only began to take an interest in the language, but also began to communicate using something other than infinitives.

At the beginning of 2012, after careful consideration, they decided to open a small Spanish language school for foreigners in which the feelings that had been forged during months of classes would be present. The student had a background in business administration and management and knew, as a student, what students did and did not expect from a Spanish language school. The teacher knew the teaching side of things and knew how to enthuse and motivate students, as teaching Spanish was not only her vocation, but her passion. In her school, her intention was to make everyone who studied Spanish there feel that they had a place to turn to in case they needed information or help when they were in a country that was not their own, as well as learning to communicate in Spanish, making oral comprehension and expression the core of the teaching-learning process. (All this in a relaxed atmosphere, where good humour and laughter were never lacking and made them enjoy their immersion in the language and its cultures even more).

A few months later, in July 2012, they created a company and in October of the same year they finally opened the Desilena Spanish language school for foreigners. After 2 years of hard work, they decided to change the first location of the school, as in order to achieve one of their objectives (to become an accredited centre of the Cervantes Institute) they needed the place to meet a series of requirements that they could not have in the previous location.

Since August 2014, the centre has been located at Calle Colón no 5, C.C. Aguamarina local 15-17, Puerto Colón. And so, step by step, after many adventures and misadventures, without haste but without pause, we have created our Desilena family and we are proud to see how it continues to grow along with our dreams and our achievements.

In January 2019 we received the seal of accredited centre by the Cervantes Institute thanks to the work, effort, perseverance and perseverance of the previous years, which, by the way, were not easy. That same year we became a member of FEDELE, the Spanish Federation of Spanish Schools for Foreigners.

In addition, since 2020 we have been the first DELE and CCSE examination centre in the south of Tenerife. In this way, we have been enjoying and sharing our motto every day for more than 11 years:

¡TODO EL MUNDO SONRÍE EN EL MISMO IDIOMA!