International School Community Newsletter v2012.03 – 03 March, 2012

v2012.03 – 3 March, 2012:

We have had a surge of new members on International School Community this past month taking us over the 300 mark. With 67 new members joining, we are now at a total of 326 members! It is so interesting to look at the range of members that we have so far: veteran international school teachers, teachers new to the international school community, teachers who are thinking about getting into our community, retired international school teachers, international school parents, international school directors, etc.  All premium members are able to send unlimited private messages to other members on our website to contact for information and also to network with if you have questions about what life at a specific international school he/she is currently working at or has worked at in the past.

Go ahead then and send a private message to one of our members that is currently living in one of the many different cities around the world represented on our website. International School Community’s current members work at or have worked at over 115 international schools! Check out which schools here and start networking today!

Our 320+ members have now also submitted over 3300+ comments and information on our 1120+ international school profile pages.  To celebrate these recent milestones, you can now get 50% off of your next membership subscription by using this coupon code: MARCH3241. With the discount, you can renew your premium subscription for as little as 5 USD!  Just go to your My Account page and click on “renew your subscription”.  This offer will expire on 17 March, 2012.

Premium members also have unlimited access to our 1126 international school profile pages.  On each school profile page there are 4 separate comment and information submission sections: School information, Benefits information, City information and Travel information.

There are many international schools profile pages getting updated all the time.  In the international school community, it is important we share what we know to help others make better informed decisions when looking for employment at an international school.

Thanks again for everyone’s support! For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy the beginning of spring!

From the staff at International School Community.

Recently updated schools with new comments and information:

· 03 Mar  Vilnius International School (6 new comments)
Vilnius, Lithuania
“Age limit for hiring is 60. Often restrictions for non-EU dependents. This school posts vacancies on the Search website…”· 03 Mar  The American International School – Salzburg (9 new comments)
Salzburg, Austria
“The school is located in the southern part of Salzburg very near the city’s greenbelt in a semi-rural setting but only 10 minutes from the city center…”· 03 Mar  Highlands International School (11 new comments)
La Paz, Bolivia
“Hiring a maid is quite common here in La Paz and very inexpensive. The extra help can be nice, especially if you have a family…”· 01 Mar  Hampton International School (13 new comments)
Bangkok, Thailand
“Because the school is very small, all teachers have more than one additional duty – right now, this tends to be a sore point among teaching staff but as numbers grow…”

· 29 Feb  Escuela International de Sampedrana (6 new comments)
San Pedro Sula, Honduras
“The school pays teachers in USD. With 3.5 percent taxes taken out , the monthly salary is around 1850 US…”(Click here for the last 40 schools to be updated with new comments)

Recent blog entries:

· TEN COMMANDMENTS OF RELOCATING OVERSEAS: #9 – Maintain a sense of humor, but most importantly be ready to laugh at yourself.
“When you are living abroad, there are moments when the locals are looking at you strangely. You might be thinking that they are making fun of you, being rude, or just plain staring at you.  Most of the time though they usually don’t have an unkind intention towards you.  The initial reaction is to…”

· Great resource: ISAT – International Schools Association of Thailand
“If your dream is to work at an international school in Thailand, the ISAT website can be a great resource for you…”

· International schools that were founded in 1947 (New York, Cali, Medellin, Rome, and Sao Paolo)
“The United Nations International School (UNIS) was established in 1947 by a group of United Nations Parents to provide an international education for their children, while preserving their diverse cultural heritages. What began as a nursery school for 20 children quickly grew, adding…”

· Overview of an int’l school #4 – Makuhari International School
“At MIS, at present, around 60% of our children are Japanese returnee children, the other 40% are either dual nationality or foreign children…”

· The Wonderful World of Int’l School Hiring Fairs: Lesson #6 – “Remember to research.”
“When interviewing at an international school recruitment fair, it is indeed a difficult task to be 100% knowledgeable about each international school you interview with.  You do some final researching the night/morning before the interview, but…”

· Comments and information about hiring policies on International School Community #3
“The school goes through Search Associates. Teachers must have appropriate degree for teaching the subject of major concentration and by under 65 years of age. They are willing to hire interns for certain positions…”

Recently added schools:

Requested schools to have members leave comments on:

Last month we have had visits from 80 countries around the world!

Site Stats:
Current members: 325 ( 67)
School profiles: 1126 ( 38)
Blog entries: 226 ( 21)
Posted comments & info:
3301 ( 612)
Twitter followers: 297 ( 31)

MORE BIG improvements:

We have updated our Members List pageto include a sorting feature.  Now visitors and members are able to sort our 325 members more effectively now.  It is now possible to sort the list by Newest First, First Name, Last Name, Current School and By Location (also being able to sort these lists by Descending or Ascending order).  Go ahead and try it out and start contacting our members and networking today.  Who knows who you might find?!We have also just completed two more updates to the school profile pages.  Now there is a Youtube video that can be found sometimes on a school’s profile page.  If there is one available, then it will show up under the map feature.

The video shown will be related to the school, typically a review or an overview of the school from the school itself.

The other update on the school profile page is the school’s Facebook feature.  If the school has a Facebook page that they update with the news from their school, it will now show up on the school’s profile page on our website.  The feature can be found under the Members of this School feature.

Check out pictures of the improvements and other details here!

New members:

· Sally Loughborough
(Hampton International School)
· Alissandra Butzbach
(Baku International School)
· Linda Belonje
(KIS International School Bangkok)
· Karen Jones
(Ajial Bilingual School)
· Falustein Shoman
(Al Ittihad National Private School)
· Kiyo Horii
(Nishimachi International School)

Current Survey Topic:

Vote here!

Member spotlight:

Beverley Bibby
“I am in my 4th year of teaching at Seisen.  Seisen was my first experience in a PYP school.  It was a new learning curve, but…”

Check out the rest of her interview on our blog here.  If you’d like to be one of our next member spotlights send us a message here.  Highlighted members will receive a coupon code for 6 free months of premium access!
Discussion Topic

Discussion Topic: Things I (an international school teacher) Have Not Done in a Year“After living abroad for so many years, I have forgotten all the things that you don’t do anymore.  We used to have a different life, didn’t we?  But now that you are living abroad, many of your routines have changed. Being that these changes have now become your new routines, you tend to forget about the things you used to do!Inspired by this blog entry by the Kirby Family, Things I Have Not Done in a Year, we invite our readers and members to discuss their list of things that they haven’t done in a year (or more for that matter).
Highlighted blogs of international teachers:
This international school teacher’s insight about moving back to your home country after teaching and living in Hong Kong is something we can all relate to:“I think I wouldn’t be completely honest if I said I was happy to be moving back to Canada. There are many things I am looking forward to about going back, foremost among them, being closer to our family, but there are many things I am going to really miss about Hong Kong, especially my job.  In early June I included an article in one of my posts that I wrote in 2005 about what I will miss about Hong Kong.  I’ve learned there…”* If you are an international school teacher and would like your blog highlighted on International School Community contact us here.

Comments and information about hiring policies on International School Community #3

Comments and information about hiring policies on International School Community:

Every week members are leaving information and comments about the hiring policies at international schools around the world.  Which ones go to the Search Associates Recruitment Fairs?  Which ones hold interviews over Skype?  Which ones have hiring restrictions imposed on them by the host country?  All important questions to think about when job searching, but where to find the answers to those questions?

Sometimes it is hard to keep track of which international schools go to which recruitment fairs and which interview style and tactic each international schools employs.  At International School Community, we want to make the search for information about hiring policies easier for international school teachers. In the school section of each international school profile page on our website, there is a section specific to the school’s hiring policies.  The topic is: “Describe their hiring policies. Which recruiting fairs do they go to? How do they typically hire (e.g. face-to-face interview, Skype, etc.)? Are there any hiring restrictions mandated by the country?”

Here are 3 out of the numerous comments and information related to the hiring policies of international schools that have been posted on our website:

American School of Barcelona (63 Total Comments)

“They have gone to CIS and Search London and also hire on Tie-online. It is possible to be hired without a face to face interview.”

Hampton International School (13 Total Comments)

“Face-to-face interviews, no or limited use of recruiting agencies.”

International School Monagas (8 Total Comments)

“The school goes through Search Associates. Teachers must have appropriate degree for teaching the subject of major concentration and by under 65 years of age. They are willing to hire interns for certain positions.”

Check out the more than 90 comments and information about the hiring policies of numerous international schools at www.internationalschoolcommunity.com.

Overview of an int’l school #4 – Makuhari International School

How great that each international school is unique!

In this overview of an international school, by Tokyo Families, we would like to highlight Makuhari International School.

“Being the newest addition to the international schools in the community, TF asked its principal Paul Rogers to explain what MIS offers to children.

1. What is the Makuhari International School?

Makuhari International School is the only recognised international school in Chiba prefecture. We are a new international school, having opened in April, 2009. We educate Japanese children who have returned to Japan from overseas or dual-nationality, and foreign children already residing here.

2. What qualities make MIS unique?

We are unique because we are the only Article One international school in the whole of Japan. As such, we have unique benefits as an international school. We are also the newest such school operating in Japan at this time. As such, we have no history to fall back on but make our own history as time goes on.

3. What is the curriculum like?

At Makuhari International School, our curriculum is Japan-based. This means we teach the same subjects and at least the same amounts of time for each.  In actual fact,  we teach longer hours than in most Japanese schools and certainly in English and maths. We add on to this Japanese curriculum base, content and objectives from other curricula, mainly that of the UK. This makes our program of study not only extremely full but also suitable for children going into a Japanese school system after leaving us or back to another international school.

4. How does the school’s ‘Article One’ status affect it?

Financially, we can offer lower tuition fees than many other international schools because of tax benefits that Article One schools have. Educationally, children who leave MIS at the end of Grade 6 have legally completed their elementary education and cannot be refused access to taking any entrance tests to Japanese junior high schools.

5. Are there any extra-curricular activities or clubs?

We offer at present over 20 after-school clubs (as well as after school care) ranging from such clubs as chess, frisbee club, homework, rugby, art and yoga club.

6. What facilities are available to students?

At MIS, we not only have excellently resourced classrooms (with the most up to date technology such as interactive SmartBoards) but also specialist rooms. We have a large media centre (including a library, museum and ICT study area), art room, science lab, music room, media areas for all elementary grades, a multipurpose hall, ESL class and cookery room.

7. What kind of children comprise the student body?

At MIS, at present, around 60% of our children are Japanese returnee children, the other 40% are either dual nationality or foreign children.

8. What nationalities are the teaching staff?

We have teachers representing the following countries: UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America and Japan.

9.  Are there services offered to students and parents?

We offer ESOL (English for Speakers of other Languages) as a support for those children whose English needs assistance.

10. What opportunities can MIS provide?

MIS offers an excellent rounded educational experience for all children in our care. This experience is based around the Mission Statement at our school – ‘all children are unique and special’. Our class teachers are at the core of this process and we believe that we have employed the very best teachers we can. Ultimately it is our aim for all children to make as much progress educationally, socially, physically and emotionally as is possible during their time at our school.”

Currently there are 20 international schools listed in Tokyo on International School Community. Some schools that have some comments and information submitted on them are:

• American School in Japan (19 Comments)
• Canadian International School (Tokyo) (9 Comments)
• International School of the Sacred Heart (5 Comments)
• Nishimachi International School (7 Comments)
• Makuhari International School (7 Comments)

All about schools

More features

Let's connect

Meet us on Facebook
Follow our Tweets
Join our Linked In Group

IS Community