Insider Information about 11 International Schools (Part 2)

Oh, if we were to have all the insider information before signing a contract with an international school that has just offered you a job. In theory, knowing the insider information about working at a specific school could be a game-changer and definitely help you make a more informed decision.

There are so many international schools in the world. Each international school is in a different situation. Even if you try to keep the most up-to-date by reading every review about the school you can get your eyes on, it is difficult to know exactly what it is like to work there.

But, the more you know, the better. Or is it that the less you know, the better? We guess that most teachers recruiting to work at international schools want to know as much information (good or bad) as possible; with a preference for firsthand information.

How then can you get this insider information? One of the best ways is to have some communication with a veteran international school teacher. If you are already a veteran international school teacher yourself, it shouldn’t be so hard to find somebody who knows somebody who has worked at a certain international school. The longer you stay in the international school community, the number of connections that you dramatically increases.

Once you find a good connection, he/she is more than willing to share with you what they know and answer your burning questions. The connection shares about what life is like living in the city, all the ins and outs of what it is like working at the school, how the money situation is along with all the other benefits (or lack of benefits), etc.

It would appear that there is an endless list of insider information topics. This connection will most likely also tell you answers to questions that you never even had thought to ask. The more information the connection shares with you, the more at ease (or nervous) you become. It definitely feels good to finally get some answers from real people who have recently worked there.

But for the newbies, who don’t know many (if any) international school teachers yet, it would appear they have a much more difficult task of getting this insider information. Maybe they can try to get some insider information at the recruitment fair that they might have attended. There are always other candidates that are walking around the hotel common areas. These newbies might even try to start chatting with some of the administration from the other schools. You would be surprised how much the administration enjoys talking about these insider information topics as well.

If there is one certain thing, people in the international school community love talking about the schools they currently work at or have worked at in the past. Insider information is what we want to know and what we are all craving to know.

Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to figuring out some of this insider information about working at certain international schools, so you can stay the most informed as possible. It is called: “What insider information would you give to a teacher considering working at this school?“

Our veteran international school teachers have submitted a total of 657 comments on this comment topic (June 2024). Here are a few that have been submitted:

“There are lots of lazy locals and sadly, the school can’t fire them due to Bolivian laws. School is technically run by parents as a cooperative school. School always hires an American head of school but they don’t care if they have experience. Susan Zapata and Jessica Gilway were both American women who had no previous experience as head of school and very little experience outside Bolivia…” – Santa Cruz Cooperative School (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia) – 42 Total Comments

“Jeju is gorgeous and quiet. BHA is busy and teachers are often there from 7:30-5:15. Most grades have 9-11 member teacher teams so you need to be ready to plan with a large team…” – Branksome Hall Asia (Jeju-do, South Korea) – 152 Total Comments

“Be prepared to wear some kind of bug repellant every day…” – The American School of Kinshasa (Kinshasa, Congo (DRC)) – 188 Total Comments

“It’s a nice working environment that expects you to work hard but still have a work-life balance. The benefits are not that competitive with other schools in Bangkok but you finish at 3.30…” – Regents School Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand) – 19 Total Comments

“I’d encourage them to take a long view of the school’s development. There are bound to be kinks when a school is growing, but management and long-time staff really do seem to be active at troubleshooting when faced with an issue. The community is warm and open…” – Cambridge School of Bucharest (Bucharest, Romania) – 108 Total Comments

“Local staff are most friendly and welcome and have an open-minded attitude to share your expertise and knowledge as locals want to learn. Learning from each other and sharing ideas is what makes this community so diverse and unique…” – Windhoek International School (Windhoek, Namibia) – 42 Total Comments

“You need to be flexible with changing schedules and shifting goalposts…” – Dhahran Ahliyya Schools (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) – 120 Total Comments

“Please consider if you would suit living here. If you love nature and an outdoorsy lifestyle and don’t need cafes, museums, big nightclubs and music festivals then you’ll be just fine. It’s a very social place…” – Cedar International School (Tortola, Virgin Islands, British) – 43 Total Comments

“Academic not at the highest. Poor leadership and many workplace environment issues…” – International School of Almhult (Almhult, Sweden) – 220 Total Comments

“If you have children, especially from grade 5 upwards, I would think deeply about whether my children can keep up academically in this school. Students have hours of homework each day, and there are a lot of academic expectations…” – BASIS International School Guangzhou (Guangzhou, China) – 34 Total Comments

“Depending on your subject area, there is a good chance you will be allocated classes not in your specialty or training area in order to “fill your timetable.” Examples of this have included people being placed in EAL, Mandarin, or in-class support despite having no experience teaching those classes…” – EtonHouse International School (Singapore) (Singapore) – 102 Total Comments

Is Teaching in Sacheon, Korea for Everyone?

Living in the Republic of Korea, Chosun can be an exciting and enlightening time. This is my third time teaching in Korea, albeit the first time as a fully international teacher. My past two tours here were as a DoDDS teacher in Busan (1998), before that school closed, at the Seoul district office (1999) and High School (2011), before that school closed, and at Humphreys Middle/High School for its opening in 2013. In that span of two and a half decades, the changes in the communities have been monumental. Now, I’m teaching in Sacheon, about 90 minutes from Busan, at Gyeongham International Foreign School (33 total comments).

Coming as an international teacher, not a DoDDS US federal employee, guarantees a substantial change in lifestyle due to the differences in compensation and benefits then vs. now. At my current school, housing is provided, and I’m living in a flat in the on-campus dormitory with my wife and son. That fact alone eliminates a huge factor from the expenses that one could be facing.

The city of Sacheon, located in the very south of the Republic, is a small city of a little over 110,000 people. When compared to the metropolitan Seoul area (population: over 9.7 million) or Pyeongtaek (about 500,000), Sacheon is definitely on the small side. The area is primarily agricultural; however, Sacheon is also the home of many large aerospace industry names and is soon to be the home of South Korea’s space agency.

*The taxi queue near the GIFS campus in Sacheon-eup. This is not common to have every space filled with a waiting taxi; more often there are one or two taxis enqueued. (Photo by Rich Walrath*)

Getting around the local area, Sacheon-up, for me is normally by foot; there’s a small but well-stocked Woori Mart grocery a five-minute stroll away from the campus flats, a Daeso household goods store about ten minutes along the main roads, a Baskin-Robbins two minutes away, and lots of smaller shops as well. Taxis are normally available at two close stands, and there’s a bus stop about 3 minutes away from the school gate which provides reasonable and inexpensive transportation to Sacheon-si, Jinju, and nearby cities including Busan and Seoul, via transfer at the bus terminal. My personal preference for further distances is the KTX train through Korail, with the nearest station in Jinju (20,000KRW/18 USD taxi ride away). While not as economical as when I was in Korea for past tours, I feel 58,000KRW a reasonable price to get to Seoul Station in 3 ½ hours. From Seoul station, it’s an easy and cheap train ride to Incheon, a subway ride to points infinite in the metro Seoul area itself, or easy bus trips to other Seoul locations. Taxis take both credit cards and T-money cards for payment; bus transportation requires the re-loadable T-money card; one can purchase train tickets online with credit cards (both Korean and international), for cash or credit cards at the station windows, or at the ticket kiosks in most train stations.

In Sacheon-si itself, one can find many shopping and eating options, while in the nearby city of Jinju, shopping options include E-Mart and HomePlus. Also, one can shop in Western style at Costco in the Busan area, about a 90-minute bus ride from Sacheon/Jinju. While the presence of Costco was a major change for me compared to previous tours, the online shopping opportunities in Korea are impressive, albeit somewhat expensive. Coupang, a Korean company that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange is probably the best known, but Amazon also ships to Korea at reasonable rates, and a number of my colleagues use the online retailer AliExpress. With those options, many products that were simply unavailable in previous years are an order away. But, here’s a caveat for people: comparison shop! Many products available online can be found by digging locally. Likewise, prices are not uniform between online sellers or even on the same online platform.

As I mentioned earlier, Sacheon is a small community, and with that smallness comes a perceived limitation of activities. There is limited nightlife, but the sporting world is very active and a number of folks at the school follow the local baseball team; hiking is a favorite pastime of many people here, and there are sights to see. In Sacheon, one can ride the cable car over the mouth of the river, visit the aquarium, and more. Also, down the road in Busan, one has a major metropolitan area 90 minutes away including beaches, nightlife, theatre, and more. A bus or car can get you to Namhae Island in about 3 and a half hours, where there are beaches and more, including a reasonably authentic “German Village”. Seoul, a 3 and a half to four hours trek up north provides Busan’s features (less the beach) in spades. Travel from Korea to other areas in Asia, or even the West, is reasonable and reliable either from Incheon, near Seoul, or from Busan.

If you’ve lived in Daegu or Seoul or other areas further north, you’re used to colder weather than we normally experience in Sacheon. Before I arrived last year, I was told there was snow on the ground, once, for a few hours. This past winter, while other areas of the Republic experienced some substantial snow, we only saw one hailstorm that deposited anything freezing on the ground. That’s not to say it hasn’t been chilly to cold, but the frozen precipitation hasn’t been an issue. The rain has seemed a bit more intense compared to my previous times in Korea, but not anything extraordinary.

Is Sacheon for everyone? No. Absolutely not. Many people can feel isolated and bored if they are used to more active locations. On the other hand, if one is looking for a low-stress community and a comfortable, low-stress school environment, it can be a very good choice.

This article was submitted by guest author and ISC member, Rich Walrath.

Show Me the Money: Exploring Teacher Department Budgets in International Schools (Part 2)

Many of us teach abroad to save money! So, why do some international schools make their teachers pay for simple supplies? Well, not all do, but according to several comments submitted on our website, some indeed leave their teachers in a situation where they need to. Why do some international schools give nice big budgets to classroom teachers and others do not?

Some might say that only for-profit international schools don’t give appropriate budgets. However, that would not be true. Several non-profit international schools also leave their staff with limited budgets to buy supplies.

Let’s say that your international school does provide some money to buy some supplies. It is nice to get at least something for your classroom! But the question is, when you are working abroad, where can you/the school buy these supplies?

If you order from your host country, then it will be cheaper, but the supplies might not be exactly what you want or have the quality you are used to. If you order from abroad, then the costs will be higher because of shipping and the wait time will most likely be a long time (with the risk of never even getting your order because it gets lost somewhere along the way).

Another question to consider is does a big budget for classroom teachers equal better instruction and more learning for students. Teachers can get quite creative in a budget-less classroom, and it is fairly certain that good learning still happens.

But when an emergency arises and materials that are necessary for the lesson/curriculum are not there, some teachers will use money out of their pocket to buy them. It is the sacrifice that many teachers choose to do to make sure that their students are getting the best education possible and that the promise the school has made to paying parents can be met.

But does the administration/owner of an international school really want their own teachers to be using their own money to buy basic and necessary supplies for their classrooms? It would be hard to believe that they would. But when other factors (like a recession in the world or a declining student population) come into play, sometimes schools don’t have a choice to provide a nice budget for their staff.

Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to what kind of budgets international schools offer, so you can stay the most informed as possible. It is called: “What types of budgets do classroom teachers/departments get?“

Our veteran international school teachers have submitted a total of 743 comments in this comment topic (May 2024). Here are a few that have been submitted:

“I concur with the previous post regarding the budget allocation for classroom teachers and departments and I appreciate the flexibility teachers have in determining how to utilize these funds.
Teachers have the autonomy to decide whether to allocate the budget towards classroom supplies and resources, or even utilize it for paid field trips or class event expenses. The allocated amount provides a reasonable level of support, allowing teachers to enhance the learning experience for their students while also facilitating engaging activities outside the classroom.” – Bandung Independent School (Kota Bandung, Indonesia) – 138 Total Comments

“The school is not-for-profit and very well-resourced. There are no horror stories of teachers paying for their printing after their allocation runs out. In general, heads of department with input from their colleagues can submit purchase requests that will be approved if they are reasonable and beneficial to the students/curriculum delivery.” – Hangzhou International School (Hangzhou, China) – 43 Comments

“We do not have individual or department budgets. I have not put in a budget request, but I have heard from many that the accounting office will order their preferred items rather than what you directly request. These may or may not fit your needs.” – St. Paul American School of Hanoi (Hanoi, Vietnam) – 121 Comments

“Each department has a specific budget for local procurement however, the school will often approve purchases beyond that budget if the material is necessary. The school also has a very large and organized resource “room” which is staffed and regularly re-stocked. It has all of the necessary paper, desk, office, and other teaching/classroom goods as well as some surprises!” – Shen Wai International School (Shenzhen, China) – 60 Comments

“A number of grade level and department budgets can be from DKK 40000-70000 a year. You make a list each year to give a good estimate of what your department will buy, and it is usually approved. Nobody is cross-referencing your list either, so you can basically manage the money how you would like. The team coordinator is in charge of the department’s budget.” – Copenhagen International School (Copenhagen, Denmark) – 437 Comments

“For budgeting this year we were told if it was a “need” we could request it, at the actual budgeting time there was a more realistic approach applied but for most things if you can justify how it will benefit students and the school, they will consider it seriously.” – The British School Manila (Manila, Philippines) – 88 Comments

If you know what the budgets are like at your international school, log in and share what you know about the international schools you’ve worked at!

New International School Essentials #10 – Does the school facilitate learning about the host country?

What reasons do parents think about when selecting a school for their children when they move abroad? Are there similar reasons why teachers choose to work at an international school abroad as well? There are many different kinds of international schools and they are all in different situations. How important is finding out about how well the international school deals with disciplinary problems? It could be beneficial to ask these types of questions at your interview before you make any big decisions to move or choose an international school at which to work. So, how do you choose the right international school for your children to attend or for you to work at? In this blog series, we will discuss the Tips for Selecting an International School.

Tip #10 – Does the school facilitate learning about the host country? (This may seem obvious, but some international schools make inadequate efforts in this area.)

One of the exciting reasons to work at international schools is to live, work, and learn about a different culture and region. Many international schools strive to embed the local culture into the academic curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and overall vision/mission of the school. The benefits of doing so are enormous. It helps to create open-mindedness, and a sense of belonging to a community, create local partnerships, inspire community action and outreach projects, and promote understanding of language and local customs. However, this does not happen by accident and a school must make a conscious decision to design all areas of the school; starting with the vision, mission, and core values of the school.

Assessing how much value an international school puts into its local culture can start with looking at the school’s mission, vision, and core values. For example, the International School of the Hague’s mission statement states part of its mission is “to make an active contribution to global, international and local communities” while “interacting with global, international and local communities through the exchange of resources and knowledge.” Another international school in Indonesia, Sinarmas World Academy, has its mission to “engage, act, thrive” by engaging in service to solve local, Asian and global issues. So why does this matter? All school-wide goals, projects, and action items must be aligned with an overall school’s mission, vision, and values. Therefore, if you have an interest in engaging in the local culture, this is a good place to start your research.

The second place to start is within the formal curriculum. Does the school offer authentic ways to engage and connect with the local community within a unit of study? Some international accreditation bodies have it as part of their framework. For example, the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization) has a strong action and community service component of the PYP, MYP, and DP programs. The DP program has a creativity action service (CAS) program where students use local issues to take up action projects. Both the MYP and PYP have strong action components as well that are integrated into units of inquiry and cross-curricular units. This often leads to relevant and meaningful action projects where students get to learn about and help solve local issues. Often schools have CAS coordinators that help to coordinate these projects across the school. These projects do not just happen outside of school walls but can happen inside the school. For instance, local schools are often invited into the school for a mutual learning experience tied to a unit of study.

Another area to integrate with the local community is through extra-curricular activities, conferences, special events, and sporting programs. An important question to ask your prospective school is what types of extra-curricular activities they offer with the local community. Do they offer local conferences for teachers or parents? Do they offer sports tournaments with local teams? Do they offer cultural events celebrating local traditions or customs? These are often questions that are way down the list but contribute to the overall school culture and climate. They provide unique opportunities for students and staff to learn and develop friendships with local members of the community. For example, some international schools in Asia, celebrate Chinese New Year and often invite local performers, artisans, and experts to offer musical, arts, and culinary activities for students to engage with. This can enrich the informal areas of the curriculum that can have long-lasting effects.

The opportunity to learn another language is another popular reason for choosing to work at an international school. The ability to converse in another language opens doors for our future learners as well as professionals. Thus, a critical question to ask is what languages are offered at the school and what language levels? Do they offer language instruction in the local language, either in the formal curriculum or as an after-school activity? Do they offer language lessons for staff? Often being able to speak even a few words of the local language goes a long way and is often appreciated by locals.

Interacting and learning from local cultures provides a tremendous opportunity for rich learning experiences for students, teachers, and parents. I believe this is one reason why we travel and live overseas. Often, this is an area that is forgotten in job interviews but remains an important consideration when choosing an international school in the future.

This article was submitted by guest author and International School Community member: Mark Marshall

Have a specific international school in mind that you thinking of applying to? Check out our “Where our Members have worked” page and start contacting some of our members who know about the international school you are interested in knowing more about. Our 28000+ members currently work at (or have worked at in the past) 1200+ different international schools. Feel free to send them a private message about how much their international school facilitates learning about the host country.

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Categories

Insider Information about 11 International Schools (Part 2)

Is Teaching in Sacheon, Korea for Everyone?

Show Me the Money: Exploring Teacher Department Budgets in International Schools (Part 2)

New International School Essentials #10 – Does the school facilitate learning about the host country?

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