New Survey: How much does your current school pay for your housing benefits?

A new survey has arrived!

Topic:  How much does your current school pay for your housing benefits?

What is possibly the biggest expense you have in life?  Housing.  Your bill usually comes in the form of a mortgage payment or rent.  On top of that bill, most people also have to pay utilities, not just one utility, but all of them.  Some heating or electricity bills can reach very high amounts during the winter in some areas of the Northern Hemisphere. All of these bills add up and you find yourself with very little money left over for other things in life (like the other most popular expense of international school teachers: travel!).

Now imagine a life when you don’t have to worry about paying your rent.  Even better, try to imagine a life not having to pay for your rent or even any of your utilities.  In the international school community that life can be a reality.  For many of us in Asia, SE Asia and in the Middle East (and Africa, Eastern Europe, etc…) that reality is a welcomed event in our lives.  Without having to worry about paying your rent, many other opportunities present themselves.  For once in your life you don’t see your bank account go down to its last $50.  For once you see yourself saving money without even trying to save.  For once you can literally go out to eat every night if you wanted to.  With your “extra” money in hand, you might even decide that getting a massage one or two times a week in now within your budget.  You might now decide that you can afford a more expensive trip that would have otherwise been out of your budget.

With all that being said about the “good life”, having to pay for your rent isn’t automatically a bad thing.  If your salary is quite high, you might just be making the same amount of money even after you deduct the amount you are paying towards your rent.  Though the cost of living might be higher than the place you once were with the “free rent”, you still might find that you have a similar budget for traveling and extra expenses.  Clearly it is very important to note exactly how much money you will be netting each month and how much your apartment will cost you at the international school you are considering.

On www.internationalschoolcommunity.com we have a topic under the Benefits section that is specifically about sharing information about the housing situation at the school.  It is called: Details about the staff housing or the housing allowance. If there is no housing allowance, how much are rent costs and utilities.


Shanghai Rego International School

There have been 100s of comments and information already submitted in this topic on numerous school profile pages on our website.  Log-on today to check out the latest comments related to housing about the international schools that interest you most.  If you currently work at or have worked at an international school, please also log-on and share what you know about the housing situation.

Additionally, the Educatorsoverseas website also has a page about different housing situations at international schools that you might want to check out.

So, how much does your current school pay for your housing benefits?  Go to the homepage of International School Community and submit your vote today!  You can check out the latest voting results here.

Survey results are in: Which international school recruitment fair have you had the most success at?

The survey results are in, and it seems as if most visitors and members of International School Community have had the most success at the Search Associates international school teacher recruitment fairs.  The survey does show though, that most international school teacher recruitment fairs are providing at least some success for teachers.  With the exception of the Queens fair, the other recruitment fairs seem to be ones to consider going to.  Maybe we will do this survey again in 2013 and see if we get similar results.

There are many reasons why international school teachers decide or not decide to go to a specific recruitment fair, and one of those reasons is to save money.  Even though the international school teacher lifestyle affords us many opportunities and enough salary to travel and to travel often, traveling is still not that cheap.  The price of the flight and the hotel, plus the cost of the recruitment fair itself and also going out to eat each day can add up pretty quickly.  Soon, you are spending 1000s of USD for a 3-4 day “vacation” to a city in the world where you may or may not even score a job that you want.  For this reason, I suppose that is why not many of our visitors have neven been to the Queens fair to have success at it; it is in Canada which is not really close to many of the places where people are working at international schools.  It is a good fair to go though if you are already living in Canada.

What will the future hold though for the chance to interview face-to-face at international school teacher recruitment fairs?  I got my last job completely from over Skype.  I am thinking that is the way to go, and I know that many other international school teachers agree.  To be honest though, I did attend a Search Associates fair a few months before I got offered a different job completely from interviewing over Skype.  I did get offered a job at the Search fair, but I declined it.  I did though make a “vacation” out of the trip to Boston (spending some time with friends in NYC), so all was not lost.

So, what recruitment fairs will be the most successful ones for international school teachers in 2013?  Maybe Search Associates will continue to keep the lead. Maybe more teachers will be hired over Skype and the trend for online interviewing will take over the need to even attend a fair at all.

International schools that were founded in 1970 (Salalah, Nairobi, Monterrey, San Jose and Brussels)

Random year for international schools around the world: 1970

There is much history in the international teaching community.  We have international schools with founding dates of 1838 and 1854 and we also have many, many international schools with founding dates in the 21st century.  The numbers are increasing for sure (currently at just over 6000).  The prediction is that there will be more than 10,000 international schools in the coming decade.

Utilizing the database of the 1151 (24 March, 2012) international schools currently listed on International School Community, we found  international schools that were founded in 1947 (excepts about their founding are taken from the schools’ websites):

St. Austin’s Academy (Nairobi, Kenya)

“St Austins Academy was founded in 1970 by Academic Services Limited as part of a programme to establish centres of academic excellence in Kenya. Founded by the first African Director of Education following independence, the Academy was a deliberate attempt to break the segregated educational systems of the day and offer a truly integrated programme.  The original vision has been extended so as to provide a values-based programme for the complex, international world into which our students are entering.”

Colegio Ingles Monterrey  (Monterrey, Mexico)

“Founded in 1970 in response to the need for a top quality co-educational school in Monterrey, Mexico, Colegio Ingles offers international students from Preschool through grade 9 a challenging academic bilingual program. The curriculum is similar to that in U.S. private schools, instruction is mainly in English, and our faculty uses U.S. textbooks and supporting teaching material. Colegio Inglés is licensed by the Mexican Ministry of Education in Nuevo Leon and an active member of ASOMEX.”

American International School of Costa Rica  (San Jose, Costa Rica)

“The American International School of Costa Rica (formerly the Costa Rica Academy) is a private, coeducational day school which offers an educational program from preschool through grade 12 for students of all nationalities. Founded in 1970, the school year comprises 2 semesters extending approximately from August 16 to December 17 and from January 17 to June 10.”

The British School of Brussels  (Brussels, Belgium)

“A questionnaire sent by the Brussels British Community Association (BBCA) established a possible 68 families who were interested in sending their children to the school. A well-attended six months later meeting identified over a hundred potential students. The BBCA founded an investigative group chaired by Sir Dick Pantlin — it reported back on the 27th of January 1969, and the British School of Brussels was born.

The School opened its doors on the 15th September 1970 with 213 pupils aged 5-13 and 16 teaching staff including the Headmaster. Our Tervuren campus was officially opened on 9th December 1970 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.

Since then, the School has gone from strength to strength and now caters for 1200 students from the ages of one to eighteen, with an average of between sixty and seventy nationalities on roll at any given time.”

British School of Salalah  (Salalah, Oman)

“There has been a British School in Salalah, Oman since 1970. It was founded by John Edwards MBE who ran the school with his wife Terry, until he retired in 2000.

It was originally based in a small hut on the beach near Al Husn palace on a Taylor- Woodrow site. It moved to a villa in Salalah town in 1977 and then on to its present site in 1980.”

Check out the rest of the international schools listed on International School Community and learn about their histories as well!  We have over 1151 international schools that have profile pages on our website.

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