FAQs
Is it easy to park close to the school? Is the school easy to access?
We want to promote mobility models that involve less use of private vehicles, encouraging collective transport, personal vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, and above all, walking. For this reason, Kaleide does not have a parking area for vehicles on its premises, nor is motor vehicle circulation allowed inside.
However, the school is located in an area with easy vehicle access from the ring road, with a public parking area in front of the Francisco Peraza stadium, just a 5-minute walk away; a 22-minute walk from the La Trinidad tram stop; and 8 minutes from the nearest bus stop.
As a project, we would love to one day see something like this on the streets of La Laguna:
Are there other schools like this in Spain?
Unfortunately there are still few. It is very hard to fulfill all the financial, legal, pedagogical and space requirements. The good news is that the number of alternative schools is growing, not just in Spain but on an international level. Kaleide is connected to other alternative schools in Spain (such as those accredited by NEASC) and in other countries, such as the Agile Learning Centers (ALC), the European Democratic Education Community (EUDEC), or the Alliance for Self-Directed Learning (ASDE).
What's your admission process like?
If, after visiting our facilities and having an informational interview, you would like to join our project, we will invite you to a second interview to talk in greater depth about our approach and your family’s needs.
To formalize admission, it is necessary to:
Complete the enrollment form
Pay the registration fee
Once we have confirmed your child(ren)'s spaces, we will ask you to pay the amounts corresponding to the deposit and materials by the established dates.
Is there a settling-in period?
Our bonding period is flexible and personalized, depending on the needs of the families and, above all, the children. You can stay with your child for as long as they need until they feel safe at school.
Are there sibing discounts?
Yes, we apply sibling discounts. Please see our fees section.
Can my child attend Kaleide part-time?
Although in other countries it is possible to find "homeschool enrichment" centres, within the education system in Spain there is nothing of the sort.
Children who attend Kaleide do so as students, and the Law in Spain does not allow for part-time schooling. Children need to come to school every day, unless there is a justified reason not to. For financial reasons, and because it's so important to create and maintain the school culture, we are unable to offer this option.
Do children need to be potty-trained to come to Kaleide?
No. At Kaleide we respect every child's rhythms and stages of development. Our facilitators will help children who need to clean themselves and get a change of clothes, while continuing to support children on their path to autonomy.
What are facilitators like?
Given that Kaleide promotes self-directed learning, one of the qualities we look for in our pedagogical team (our "facilitators" as we call them) is self-direction. They also need to be passionate and committed individuals, who can connect with children and understand their 100 languages (physical, musical, artistic...) and who can embody the values that we identify with: empathy, collaboration and team-work, sense of humour, playfulness, caring, honesty and authenticity, and –above all– humanity.
What does assessment look like at Kaleide?
At Kaleide we don’t give grades, and there are no passes or fails. However, we do carry out evaluations based on our curriculum with the aim of getting to know each child, discovering their potential, and contributing to their holistic development. Evaluations also allow us to share with families and the community what is happening inside the school.
Evaluation takes place alongside the learning process, is part of it, and is:
Formative: focused on the process
Holistic: including the affective, physical, cognitive, social, and moral dimensions
Non-competitive: there are no prizes or rewards, judgments, or comparisons
Not based on grades or qualifications (pass/fail), but on “learning stories”
These evaluations are shared with the children and communicated to families in individual meetings.
The school also follows a system of continuous self-evaluation based on the contributions of children, families, and the observations of the team itself. This self-evaluation takes into account curricular aspects, the work of facilitators and the leadership team, as well as relationships with children and their families. We are committed to continuous training and professional development for the entire pedagogical team.
If children are only taught to cooperate, how will they later manage in a competitive world?
Research in neuroscience shows that our brains are better prepared to function collaboratively than individually. We learn more, and better, when we collaborate than when we compete.
At Kaleide, we foster collaboration as a means of learning and as one of our core values. But this does not mean that children will not know what the world is like or how it works. Our school is open and in constant contact with the surrounding community. We do not promote competitiveness, but we do encourage self-demand. We do not promote comparison, but we do encourage self-reflection.
We believe that children should know their own limits (especially those rooted in fear) and learn how to transcend them.
The skills children can develop at our school—critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, emotional intelligence—will serve them throughout their lives, both in a competitive world and in the world we would like to help create. But above all, they will help them understand that in life we have the possibility of choosing how we want to relate to others and to ourselves.
How do children learn curricular contents at Kaleide?
In addition to allowing children to learn through their own play and in self-directed activities, we offer a wide range of activities that complement those proposed by the children themselves. The offering is based on the children’s interests, but also on the need to cover curriculum content.
The school day is structured into three distinct periods: teacher-guided activities (Focus Time), combined activities (Projects and Workshops), and time for activities chosen by the students themselves (Free Flow). This structure allows us both to teach essential content in areas such as mathematics and language, and to foster students’ capacity for self-direction.
What is your approach to conflict resolution?
Conflicts at Kaleide are tackled in various ways. Our first strategy will often be to call in a facilitator (or an older child who has accepted to act as mediator) to offer immediate help: both parties will be listened to, and the mediator will ask questions in order to facilitate empathy and reflection.
Whenever a conflict cannot be resolved in this way, through the children's own suggestions and ideas, we may resort to a mediation circle involving other children (chosen by the parties) and a facilitator. If we are still unable to reach a solution which everybody is happy with, we may bring the situation to our weekly meeting, where we will strive to find a solution based on consensus.
Under no circumstance do we punish, criticize or judge children. Our conflict resolution practices are based on restorative practice, and the focus is on repairing the harm that a person has suffered. This can be achieved through dialogue, active listening, non violent communication, and allowing the time and the space necessary for the children to collaborate in finding a solution.
We deal with cases of bullying from a no-guilt approach, and consider them as a separate issue which is essentially different to conflict. Kaleide has developed an anti-bullying policy based on restorative practice which is available to families.
We have written down a specific conflict resolution policy which has been designed to deal with issues that may arise between the parents and the school.
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