Autumn term 2025: Tuesday 2 September - Saturday 20 December 2025 (October half term 27 - 1 November)
Our Story
September 2016 – the beginning of Brilliant Bilinguals
Brilliant Bilinguals was born back in September 2016 when founder Nicola Grijalva became exasperated at there being no fully Spanish immersive classes available to support her children’s journey to fluency. With her eldest about to turn 3 years old and her recently recruited Spanish au pair not being a long-term plan, she decided to find a way to deliver the type of classes that her children so desperately needed but did not exist. After researching suitable Spanish immersion methods and lesson plans, she recruited her au pair to deliver the first lesson from her living room – something that quickly became a fixed weekly occurrence in the diary of other local Spanish enthusiast families!
January 2019 – the opening of our dedicated classroom
Fast forward to January 2019, having grown to 150 registered students and two full time teachers at the time, Brilliant Bilinguals own dedicated Spanish classroom premises opened delivering classes every day of the week, for ages toddlers through to adults.
Throughout these initial years, Brilliant Bilinguals collaborated with Spanish schools in the UK and the States, culminating in the design of a Spanish Preschool, Primary, Secondary and Adult curriculum, all of which are being continually developed and are still to this day deployed by Brilliant Bilinguals.
March 2020 – embracing a new virtual world
When Coronavirus hit, we had to adapt to a new world which was alien to all of us. What was surprising to all of us, the teachers, students and parents alike was how students embraced this new virtual world, keen to not regress their level, with students actually looking forward to their weekly Spanish lessons. This new virtual medium has proved very effective at retaining student’s level (both children and adults alike), with headphones working well at blocking out external sensory distractions. Students and teachers alike also enjoyed the variety of resources easily shareable (videos, games and other online resources). For educators and students it has opened up so many possibilities, making it even easier for us to all to reach our Spanish goals.
Present day
Brilliant Bilinguals continues to deliver in-person and virtual classes to its 200+ enrolled child and adult students, from age toddler through to adult, with every level and age catered to. The Brilliant Bilinguals team continues to be at the forefront of innovation, continually adding more and improving existing learning materials. 2025 sees the launch of our DELE prep, a pathway to fluency through examinations where our trained teachers enable students age 11+ to sit the prestigious DELE exams and be recognised worldwide for their level of Spanish fluency.