New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: Learning how to get reimbursed and meeting the business office staff

In this blog series, we will talk about the ins and outs of an excellent new teacher orientation programme at an international school. A new teacher orientation programme can really play a very important part in the start of your new school, in your new host country. What are all the must-haves then? Check out our blog series here to read all about the ones that we have discussed so far.

Must-have #13: Learning how to get reimbursed and meeting the business office staff

It takes so much money to move yourself from one place to another. Now add in the fact that you are shipping boxes and whatnot halfway across the world, and the cost just gets higher and higher. Many times, international school teachers need to pay for these shipping costs upfront. Hopefully you are getting a relocation allowance (not all international schools offer this though), as there are also many other things that you will need to pay for upfront (e.g. the flight, extra baggage, visa costs, etc.). It is a tough time financially, that’s for sure.

When you finally get to your new school in your new country, you almost want to make a beeline to the business office to immediately get some of your money back! It is not that easy, though, at a number of international schools. Helping new teachers get reimbursed should be as easy as pie, but at For-profit schools (for example), it can take a loooong time and much paperwork to get your money back.

There are two ways to get reimbursed at an international school: the easy way and the hard way.

The easy way, of course, is the preferred way. You go in, hand in a receipt/reimbursement form, and then you either get paid right there in the local currency (e.g., cash), or they make a bank transfer that is made to your local bank account, and you either receive that money that same day or the next day. You might say that the goal of all international schools should be to make sure that getting money back to its teachers is as easy and as quick as possible.

To also make things easy, the dream would be that somebody would take you to the business office and introduce you to all the important people in the business office, all within the first week at work. Word of advice: go in with a huge smile on your face and your hand extended out to shake everyone’s hand; also remember to say many thank yous and make some friendly conversation to get to know the staff more personally. Because every month or so, in your first (and second, third, etc.) year, you will be walking into that business office wanting some money or some assistance with several financial issues, and you will need to have a good relationship with these guys. So make sure that somebody is there during your orientation to get you started on the right foot with the business staff.

The hard way to get reimbursed is every international school teacher’s worst nightmare. You don’t want to be worrying about getting money back from your new international school (or even worrying about getting your salary paid on time!). It is stressful, that’s for sure. Also, it can distract you from doing your job at times. In some countries, though, it is not the school’s fault that makes getting reimbursed a difficult task. The country itself can have certain laws and regulations that make the reimbursement process a difficult one for expats. It can be very confusing to some new teachers, so how nice if there is somebody straight away who will “show you the ropes” during new teacher orientation.

The business staff plays a huge part in the wellbeing and staff morale of an international school. Knowing the business staff’s names and getting introduced to them as soon as you start working there can really have a positive effect on your experience starting at your new school. Also, make sure to take a few notes during your orientation week/days about how to get reimbursed for things the correct way at your school.

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Luckily, on International School Community, we have a new comment topic that specifically addresses this issue of getting reimbursed. It is called: What is the process of getting reimbursed for things?

We have 356 comments so far in this topic on our website:

American International School of Lusaka –
“Pretty basic. Show receipts, get paid. Flights can be a bit of a hassle in terms of dealing with the business office and its interpretation of “cheapest, most direct.”

Western International School of Shanghai –
“All receipts must be kept and submitted with a filled-out form to the director who then signs and returns them to the finance office. From the day of leaving the forms at the director’s office, it might take 4-6 weeks to see any money back.”

If you currently work at an international school or have worked at one in the recent past, share the information and details about getting things reimbursed. You can find easy access to all international schools on our Schools List page.

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So, does your international school have an easy, confusing, or difficult way of getting reimbursed for things? Please share your experiences!

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: A sit-down with an admin to go over each part of your contract

Must-have #14: A sit-down with an admin to go over each part of your contract

Contract details can be easily overlooked. They are not overlooked because you are not interested in them (because of course you want to know ALL the details when you are in the initial stages after being offered a contract), but because there are too many fine details to fully understand everything you see.

Contracts can also be easily misunderstood. Maybe you already “read” the contract, but it would be safe to say that you would not completely understand everything you “read”. International school teaching contracts definitely contain parts that use language you may not be familiar with. If it contains parts that are specific to the rules/laws of the host country, then it is very possible that you might not be so familiar with that jargon in terms of what a certain part is really trying to say.

Another reason that contract details could be easily overlooked is that you also might be looking at the contract with rose-colored glasses, meaning you are just focused on the more positive aspects of the contract instead of the parts that might actually give you cause for concern.

There might even be additional things that are NOT on your contract that you are entitled to. For example, in Denmark you are entitled to take off a certain number of days to be with your children, but it might not necessarily be spelled out for you in the contract. Good idea to ask around or have an admin tell you about these entitlements straight away during new teacher orientation.

So, if an admin did sit you down and went through your contract sometime during the new-teacher orientation, it would be nice if they went over the following parts:

Duties and responsibilities – Making it clear what you need to do is exactly what all new teachers want to know. Sounds simple, but they can be easily forgotten to be explicitly explained to you. Admin might think the duties and responsibilities that you will have will be implied or learned about by talking with your colleagues. Of course, if that is the case, new teachers often find themselves just learning about these things last-minute! Also, it is good to know up front what is required of you so that you don’t feel obligated to do the extra things an admin might ask of you.

School year and work day – It is important to know how many work days you have in the year; well, you can look at the school calendar for that. But what about what is required of you for each day of the week? Maybe you need to arrive 30 minutes before school starts and 30 minutes after school ends. Some days you might be required to stay longer for meetings; which days are those? Are the meetings optional? Some international schools are doing that now. All important details to know before you get caught not following those rules.

Workload – How nice to sit down with somebody who can give you an honest picture about how much you will be expected to work. How many reports will you need to write each year, and how often will they be sent out to parents? Even more important is what the reports look like. Writing multiple reports in a year definitely increases your workload. The admin could also give you an honest picture of how much the other teachers are putting in extra hours.

Other parts of the contract you would most likely want to discuss with your admin are salary, retirement, housing benefits, settling-in allowance, insurance, curriculum duties, etc.

So, does your international school set up a time for you to thoroughly discuss each part of your contract? Please share your experiences!

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Luckily, on International School Community, we have a new comment topic that specifically addresses this issue of getting reimbursed. It is called: Details about the teaching contract. What important things should prospective teachers know about?

We have 387 comments so far in this topic. Here are just a couple of those comments:

“Read your contract carefully. Do not sign an unsigned contract. Contracts signed by the teachers have been changed and then signed by the owner. If you have issues with the owner, his first and only reaction is to tell you to take him to court, where he will happily drag the case out to cost you a lot of money.” – Makuhari International School (Tokyo, Japan) – 22 Comments

“They reserve the right to interpret, change, and manipulate dates, and avoid transparency when dealing with staff regarding their contracts. A teacher who recently left at the start of the year discovered there were several things in the contract that actually conflicted with Japanese labor law. Fortunately for them, they consulted with an attorney and were able to avoid paying a one-month penalty for leaving on short notice. By the way, they left because they lost several thousand dollars due to mistakes the school made regarding visas that they were unwilling to rectify.” – Seisen International School (Tokyo, Japan) – 72 Comments

If you currently work at an international school or have worked at one in the recent past, share the information and details about the contract that you have at your school. You can find easy access to all international schools on our Schools List page.

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We also have a useful Comment Search page. Using a keyword search of ‘Contract‘, we found 1655 comments. Here are a few comments from those results:

“This has changed a LOT. Flight in and out at the end of contract. No mid-contract flights. No settling-in allowance; it is a repayable loan. Lunch is free.” – UWC Thailand(Phuket, Thailand) – 112 Comments

“The school will help with negotiating a contract if you don’t read Spanish. Your apartment will either come with a phone or you’ll use your cell phone. Cell service is cheap, usually less than $15 US a month; data plans cost more. Be careful with smartphones because they are easily stolen.” – The American International School of Guatemala (Colegio Maya) (Guatemala City, Guatemala) – 91 Comments

“Airfare for initial contract to Panama and departing flight for end of contract(typical initial contract 2 years). When renewing contract “home leave” flight per yearly renewal as well as renewal bonus. You can also ask for the funds from your annual ticket so you can use towards the “summer” travel you wish. Settling in money of $1000 (all), moving allowance between $500 (single) and $750 (dependents/family). When leaving said to also get some “departing” relocation money, your “retirement fund” of 1.5% annual salary school sets aside for you per Panama Law, and money for your airfare if wishing to buy your own ticket.” – International School Panama (Panama City, Panama) – 198 Comments

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: Getting access to the internet AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!

Image by Welcome to All ! ツ from Pixabay

In this blog series, we will talk about the ins and outs of an excellent new teacher orientation programme at an international school. A new teacher orientation programme can really play a very important part to the start at your new school, in your new host country. What are all the must-haves then? Check out our blog series here to read all about the ones that we have discussed so far.

Must-have #10: Getting access to the internet AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!

You arrive in a new country, and things are just crazy for you; everything is crazy. Living in your new apartment or house without any internet access set-up is probably going to get you to the tipping point of your new-teacher craziness.

Please, schools (the ones that help teachers find apartments or have new teachers move into school-owned housing), the best thing you can do to help out your new staff is to think ahead and somehow get the internet set up in their houses…before they arrive or VERY soon after they arrive.

Well, we cannot say that having the internet is more important than clean drinking water or getting running electricity to your place, but it is definitely in the top five things that you would most like to have set up immediately after your arrival.

Getting the internet set up in another country can go very smoothly in some more developed countries where you can speak the local language, but getting the internet set up on your own, in a country where you don’t speak the local language, can prove to be one of the most stressful moments for you after your arrival. Maybe the internet company has an employee who can speak English for you, but their English might not be at the fluent level that you are desiring!

Let’s not forget, though, how much trouble there can be trying to get the internet set up in your home country. Things can be less than ideal there as well, and it can take weeks sometimes.

If only somehow international schools could help out their new expat teachers just a tiny bit more with regards to their forthcoming internet crisis. The solution is simple: somebody in charge of new teacher orientation gets access to the new teacher’s flat and, after calling the local phone/internet company, gets the internet all set up and ready before the teacher arrives. That solution doesn’t seem to be happening, though, at most placements. Another solution is to set up a time that a local employee at the school can help call the phone/internet company for you to set up the time for them to come to your house (of course, in the local language!).

Once your internet is finally set up, at least some of your stress will be alleviated. Then you can finally check your email, contact your friends and family, download your favorite home country TV programs, and get updated and post an update on Facebook (unless you are in China, that is, without VPN access!)

Hopefully, too, you are living in a country where they are known for having very fast internet! If you find that your internet is very slow, don’t forget to ask your phone/internet company about the specifics of their package options. In some countries there is actually an option to pay more for faster internet. Better to know that sooner than later, after a year or so of torturing yourself (and unfortunately getting used to) with slow internet.

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So, does your international school help new teachers get access to the internet AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!? Please share your experiences!

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: Beginning-level host country language classes.

Must-have #11: Beginning-level host country language classes.

At times, there is nothing worse than the feeling of not knowing how to communicate with the people in your community. Many of us decide to move to countries where we do not know the host country language. People can’t know every language spoken in this world, especially really local languages that are not even possible to learn in universities in your home country. Additionally, most international school teachers don’t choose countries to live in only where they can speak the language (though some definitely do, which makes sense).

We all know that English is now being spoken in many countries. Maybe even all of them have some percentage of the local community that can speak English (especially the younger generations). Even if there are many people who speak English in your new host country, it is clear, though, that knowing the local language is very important. If you know at least some of the host country language, then you will be able to be clearer with the local people you have to interact with and have less miscommunication that might lead to tense culture shock moments for you. It is also important to start learning the local language because of how language is directly tied to knowing more about their culture. And that is what this international school teaching experience is all about: learning more about and appreciating the different cultures of this world.

So, the answer is easy. Just go and take some classes. Prospective international school teachers might be surprised, though, that many of us just don’t do it. And there are many reasons why we skip the opportunity or chance to attend those classes. One reason might be that you simply don’t know where to go. If your school is there to help you find these classes (or even pay for the classes for you…as some international schools include taking classes in their benefits package), then that can really help you find your way to sign up sooner rather than later. Another reason you don’t attend language classes is that you just figure that you don’t have the extra time to take them. It is a big time commitment to dedicate one or two evenings of your week to go and take language classes. A third reason might be that you are just not interested or ready to take on a 2nd (3rd, 4th, 5th…) language in your life then. A fourth reason is that you might think that you can easily just get away with speaking English your whole time living there. And if you are planning on only staying two years, you might justify to yourself that you won’t really even be in that country long enough to really need to know the language. There are probably even more reasons why we don’t take these language classes!

If you are interested in ‘taking the plunge’ and find that it is a good match for you, go and take some language classes; how nice if your new international school is there to guide you to where to take them (during your new teacher orientation programme). Your school and the people that work there might have some trusted references on schools/classes you can attend…and for the most reasonable prices. In some countries, though, the host country actually offers free language classes to new immigrants to their country, and your new school should be able to help you with how to sign up for those since they probably have many new teachers each year wanting to do just that.

Even though we all have good intentions to learn the host country language when we first move to a new country, it is a fact that not every international school teacher follows through with this. Many international schools have teachers who have been there 5-10 years or even longer, and they just know the very basic vocabulary. Being that the majority of their day is going to be in English, many teachers just get into a routine of not communicating in the local language and end of not effectively learning it. With all the possibilities of downloading or streaming TV programmes and movies in English on the internet, some teachers’ time after a whole workday in English becomes a WHOLE day of speaking, listening, reading and writing in English.

There are many success stories though. Just as many teachers there are who don’t effectively learn the host country language, there are many who do. They find (make) time to take the classes, they look for local friends to talk to in that language, they pick up the local newspaper to try and read that every day, they sit next to the host country language teachers during lunchtime to get in a few more minutes of local-language speaking practice, etc. It is ultimately up to each international school teacher to choose their own path in how they will learn or not learn the language, and having your school there to support and guide you in the right direction can be very helpful!

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So, does your international school help new teachers get beginning-level host country language classes? Please share your experiences!

And if you are interested in learning another language online, I highly recommend checking out our partner, Ling! There are so many languages on Ling, including ones that are not always represented on other websites. Check it out here:

Going home for the summer: No one cares about your international life!

Nine Benefits of Teaching Overseas

Teaching Abroad: Asia vs. Middle East – First Hand Teachers’ Experiences

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: Learning how to get reimbursed and meeting the business office staff

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: A sit-down with an admin to go over each part of your contract

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: Getting access to the internet AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: Beginning-level host country language classes.

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