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October 11, 2026 Highlighted Articles

Choosing the Right International School: Advice for Your First Move Abroad (Part 1)

October 6, 2026 Highlighted Articles

Is Your International School Pension Enough? 5 Ways to Build for Your Future

September 29, 2026 Comparing the Schools and Comments

Comparing the Schools and Comments: Working in Kuala Lumpur (2026)

September 21, 2026 Highlighted Articles

Rules for Counting Countries You’ve Been To

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Survey results are in – Which area of the world would you prefer to work in?

The survey results are in, and it seems as if Western Europe is the top area of the world that internationals school educators want to live and work in.

It is no surprise I suppose that many teachers desire to live in Western Europe.  Every time I go to a recruitment fair, I hear many people getting very excited about the prospects of moving to France, Switzerland, Spain, etc.  And each time that I go to the orientation session with all the candidates, the presenter always brings up this exact topic.  “Don’t get your heart set on finding a job in Europe!  There are many other excellent places to live in as well.”

So, what attracts many people to live and work in Western Europe?  The list could include:

  • Salary (in some countries it is quite high!)
  • Benefits (some retirement benefits are outstanding to say the least, and we all know that most international school teachers are spending all their savings on traveling!)
  • Location (you are very close to many different countries, including ones in North Africa)
  • Established schools (many school in this area have been around for 40+ years)

On our website, each international school profile page has a city section.  Pictured here is the voting part for this section.  If you are unsure of a specific area in the world, check out one of the international schools in that area on International School Community.  You will be able to get some insight into what life is like in different cities around the world without actually having to go there yourself first!

New survey: Which benefit is the most important to you??

Survey number 2 has arrived!  Topic: Which benefit is the most important to you?

Some schools offer all of these benefits, some only offer 1 of them if that!  It is important to remember that some schools offer really high benefits in one area that help offset the lack of benefits in other areas.  Sometimes schools keep their actual benefits a secret until you have the real contract right in front of you.  Lucky for the people to finally get the chance to look, but for the other prospective teachers, they want to know that information too.  Many times teachers spend hours preparing CVs and cover letters for schools not knowing those important details about the contract.  Schools should be better with giving their specific details upfront.  Until then, the members of International School Community are doing that work for you.  Each member is encourage to leave really specific information related to the benefits at the schools they current work at or have worked at in the past.

So, which is it?  Do you prefer a nice housing allowance to a nice salary?  Do you prefer a nice settling-in allowance to a great flight allowance?  Go to the homepage of International School Community and submit your vote today!

Are students from one culture group “taking-over” certain international schools?

I found an article related to this very topic here.

It is about how there are many international schools in Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that have very high populations of Filipino students.

Is it true that in most places in the world, where there are international schools, that there is many times a “dominant” culture group at each school?  I know that when people talk about many schools in China, one of the first questions out of people’s mouths is “Do you have a lot of Korean students?”  It seems like there is a high number of Korean families living here in China that want to send their children to international schools to learn in English.  Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but it seems to be creating one for the owners/school boards.  They even go as far as to limit the number of Korean students that they will allow in each classroom!  It seems a bit of a touchy subject I think.  Many international schools strive to have equal amounts of all their culture groups, not have one culture group ever dominate the school.  But, that is not always possible in a specific city in the world.

So, what about other areas of the world?  Are there students from one culture group “taking-over” certain international schools?

International School Community would like to encourage its members to comment on this topic, especially providing some insight about how things are in the schools that they know about.

I can honestly say that I did not realize that in Riyadh there was a huge population of Filipino students.  Because of the high population of this specific culture group, according to the article, there seem to be a lot of people involved in decision-making based on this dominant group.  The schools there are hiring specialized trainers to help the teachers that are working in those schools.  The schools are also having to deal a lot with the national government of the home country to that group.

The article also highlights how there is definitely a demand for teacher specializing in giving professional development in-service sessions to teachers at international schools.  International School Community would like to talk more about this topic in a future entry on our blog, so stay tuned!

School profile highlights #4: Int’l School of Havana, Copenhagen Int’l School and Int’l School of Curacao

Members of International School Community have written some new and informative comments on the following schools:


International School of Havana:

New Comment: “Due to the complicated situation in regard to support for teacher visas, the school encourages candidates with Canadian citizenship or German citizenship to apply because the Cuban govt. makes it basically impossible to hire US citizens.”


Copenhagen International School:

New Comment: ” The school definitely uses Skype as a means of interviewing. Sometimes there are 10 staff members in the Skype, accounting for many people in different positions throughout the school. They seems to make it a joint affair, hiring new staff.”


International School of Curacao:

New Comment: ” You basically need to get a car here. Even though the island is like only 10 Km wide, you still need a car. The roads on the island also are not the best, so using a motorcycle is not recommended, especially when there is bad weather.”

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