Daily immersionAges 2.5 – 5
Roots & Wings
Mon–Fri · 10:00–14:00 · Sep–Jun
Our daily immersive English program for ages 2.5–5. Native speakers, 5:1 ratio, and more than half the day spent outdoors. Only 2 places left for 2026/27.
Learn moreDaily immersion · Ages 2.5 – 5
Real English, real fast, from age two and a half.
Roots & Wings is our daily immersive English program for ages 2.5–5. Half the day outdoors, native-speaker teachers, never more than five children per adult. Built for expat and local families who want their child to grow up speaking real English — not memorising it.
Children in our most recent cohort were using 400+ working English words within their first five months.
Places taken for 2026/278/10
5:1
Children per adult
50%+
Time outdoors
Mon–Fri
10:00 – 14:00
Half the day outside
Beach · garden · sierra
Native speakers only
Real English, all day
What makes us a little different
Native English SpeakersReggio-Inspired MethodOutdoor Learning20+ Years Teaching ExperienceMax 5:1 Early-Years RatioBritish International School BackgroundNative English SpeakersReggio-Inspired MethodOutdoor Learning20+ Years Teaching ExperienceMax 5:1 Early-Years RatioBritish International School Background
Communication, Not Grammar Drills
Children learn English the way they learned Spanish: by needing it, hearing it, and using it. Conversation comes first; rules come later, and quietly.
How we teach
Half The Day Outdoors
The sea, the sierra, the school garden. More than 50% of our early-years day happens outside — because that is where vocabulary actually sticks.
Our approach
Five Children Per Teacher
A 5:1 ratio in early years and around 8:1 in older groups. Everyone gets to speak. No one disappears into the back row.
Class sizesOur Programs
Four programs, one simple idea: speak English by living it.
Whether your child is three or thirteen — or you teach phonics and want to sharpen your method — there is a place for you in our small, sunny school.
Daily immersion
After schoolAges 3 – 18
Extracurricular Classes
Mon–Fri · 16:00–21:00 · Sep–Jun
Three tracks: Dynamic Conversation, Targeted Reinforcement, and Cambridge / Trinity Exam Prep. Around 8 children per teacher.
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29.06 – 28.07Ages 3 – 6
Summer School
Mon–Fri · 09:30–13:30
Four weeks of pure immersion — beach mornings, garden afternoons, themed adventures. Same play-led method, in summer mode.
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Pro developmentFor teachers
Phonics Workshops
Half-day · By arrangement
Hands-on phonics workshops for early-years and primary teachers. Built from twenty years of classroom experience.
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Named after Ella
the founders' eldest daughter
About the AcademyA family school that teaches English
Come Meet Us In Motril
A family school that teaches English
the way English is actually learned.
Ella's English Academy started with a small belief: a second language doesn't come from worksheets — it comes from minutes, hours, and days of feeling at home in it. So we built a school that lives in English all day, and that spends as much time outside as in.
A real family school
Founder-led and named after the founders' eldest daughter. Every child is known by name — and so is every parent.
Real outdoor people
Hiking, climbing, canyoning. Our team genuinely loves being outside, which is why our students end up loving it too.
Reggio-inspired early years
Children as capable researchers of their own world. Open materials, project work, and time to follow real curiosity.
English only, all day
From the moment children walk in. No translating, no switching — just a warm bath of real English.
A Day With Us
A rhythm of speaking, moving, and discovering.
A typical day at Ella's is a mix of quiet focus, loud delight, and a lot of fresh air. Here is some of what your child will fall in love with.
Beach & Outdoor Days
Walks along the Motril coast, exploring rock pools, and bringing English vocabulary out of the classroom.
Story & Phonics Time
Read-alouds, decoding games, and sounds-first phonics that build reading without breaking the fun.
Drama & Conversation
Role-play, improvisation, and the kind of pretend that quietly turns shy speakers into confident ones.
Project Workshops
Cooking, building, science experiments. Real projects with real materials — and English as the working language.
What Families Say
The proof is in the bedtime stories.
Real words from real parents at the academy.
“This school is so innovative! It really engages children and makes learning fun. Professional, good prices and a great learning opportunity, I would highly recommend it.”
Zoe
Parent
“He absolutely loves coming to your school. He keeps telling us 'teacher taught me this and that and the third thing.'”
Katriin
Parent · Roots & Wings
From The Classroom
More on InstagramA few moments from our happy little school.
Meet The Founders
The family behind Ella's English.
A small school is only ever as good as the people who run it. Ours is run by the same two people who founded it — and who teach in it every single day.
Bianca
Founder & Director
Bianca spent over a decade teaching at British international schools in Spain and Portugal before founding the academy — and naming it after her eldest daughter, Ella. She leads the early-years program and the phonics workshops, and she still teaches every week.
A team that lives outdoors
20+ years of combined classroom experience
Hiking, climbing, canyoning — the founders' love of the Andalusian outdoors is not a marketing line, it is their weekend. It is also why more than half of the early-years day happens outside, in the gardens, on the beach, and up in the sierra.
Good Questions
The things parents always ask us.
Straight answers, no small print. Anything else — call, write, or just come by.
Is Roots & Wings a nursery (guardería)?
No — and that's by design. Roots & Wings is a daily English immersion programme run by a private language academy, for children aged 2.5–5, Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 14:00. Many families use it the way they would a morning nursery, but what we offer is a language and early-learning environment: native-speaker teachers, a 5:1 ratio, and more than half of every day outdoors.
From what age can my child start?
From 2.5 years old in Roots & Wings. After-school Extracurricular Classes run from age 3 all the way to 18, and Summer School takes children aged 3–6.
My child already speaks English but can't read or write it. Can you help?
Yes — this is one of our specialities. Many bilingual children on the Costa Tropical speak fluent English at home but never learn to read and write it properly. Our phonics-based literacy work and Cambridge certificate preparation give them the written foundation to match their spoken English.
Do you prepare children for Cambridge or Trinity exams?
Yes. We prepare Young Learners (Starters, Movers, Flyers), A2 Key, B1 Preliminary, and B2 First for Schools, plus Trinity exams — within our after-school tracks for ages 3–18.
Do you run an English summer camp?
Yes — Summer School runs from late June to late July, Monday to Friday, 09:30–13:30, for ages 3–6. Full English immersion through play: beach mornings, garden afternoons, and themed adventures every week.
We live outside Motril — which areas do families come from?
Most of our families are in Motril, with several travelling from Salobreña, Almuñécar and Castell de Ferro. Summer School and exam preparation in particular draw families from along the whole Costa Tropical.
Visits welcome Mon–Fri
Come by. Bring your child.See if it feels like home.
The fastest way to know if Ella's is right for your family is to walk through the gate. Send a quick message — we usually reply the same day, and we love showing people around.
Send us a message
We aim to reply within one working day.