New School, New Wallet: Prepare for Surprising Purchases

Are you moving to a new international school? You may be excited to start your new adventure, but don’t forget about the essentials. It can be overwhelming to arrive in a new city and not know where to buy things. You don’t want to end up paying more than you should have because you don’t know where to go to get the best prices.

Ideally, you would arrive at the airport, and someone from the school would pick you up and take you straight to your new fully-furnished home with groceries waiting for you. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. There will be things that you need to buy, and some are more important than others. If they are small things, it’s not a big deal to walk down the street to pick them up. It’s a great way to explore your new neighborhood.

However, if you need to buy many small items or a few big ones, it can be stressful. Depending on your living situation, you may need to make emergency purchases. You may need to go to a store like IKEA, which some schools may take you to in their van. Don’t forget that your new school may also require you to bring or buy some items for the classroom.

Living abroad is different from living in your home country. You need to be adaptable and open-minded. Don’t expect everything to be perfect when you arrive. Be prepared for a few surprises, such as surprise purchases, in your first few months.

Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to figuring out which things you might need to buy once you arrive in your new host country, so you can stay the most informed as possible. It is called: “What are some things that you need to buy/pay for when you first arrive at the school that you didn’t know about beforehand?“

Our veteran international school teachers have submitted a total of 403 comments in this comment topic (May 2023). Here are a few that have been submitted:

“You WILL need a car, although some teachers rent one. If you get a nanny (not on the school’s nanny visa) you will need to pay for their visa which is usually about 850 OMR for two years but must be paid up front. You will also need to pay for their healthcare (about 150 OMR for a year)…” – American British Academy (Muscat, Oman) – 65 Total Comments

“You need to come with a lot of money! This was a shock for us. We needed money for a car rental and eventual purchase (hard to finance a car as a foreigner) and first and last months rent plus damage deposit for housing…” – St. Andrews I.S Green Valley (Pattaya, Thailand) – 31 Total Comments

“The school provides a limited amount of textbooks or resources. As a new teacher, this is often a challenge as you develop or buy the resources needed for your daily lessons. The school has expectations on what will be taught but the teacher is responsible for providing the materials used in class. The school pays for one Twinkle subscription that teachers can use in school. The school also provides a color copier, lamination tools, some manipulatives, Google /SeeSaw classroom, and a class supplies list (glue, storage containers, notebooks, etc) from the teacher list given the prior year…” – International School of Brno (Brno, Czech Republic) – 99 Total Comments

“The school offers the help of a real state agent. He can help you to find your places and manage internet and utilities, at a cost. Other than that, you will have to buy everything else. Furnished apartments can be a good way to go if you do not want to spend much just landing…” – Benjamin Franklin International School (Barcelona, Spain) – 125 Comments

The Summer Vacation Dilemma: To Go Home or Not to Go Home

Summer vacation is the time of year all teachers are waiting for (and I suppose all students as well!). The 1.5 to 2 months of summer break is especially important though for teachers who work at international schools because it is typically when they take their annual trip back home to their native country. When you live in a foreign country, halfway across the world, it does indeed feel good to go home. Even though you do create a new ‘family’ when you live abroad with the other international school teachers that you are working with, your home is where your real family lives. Going home too can simply mean just going back to your home country, not necessarily going back to where you grew up.

There are some good reasons to go back home and maybe some things to consider first before making the decision to travel back to your home country during the summer:

• Some international school teachers make their annual trip home during their winter break. Those that do typically say that they already went home during the winter holiday and don’t plan on going back six months later during the summer months; that would be too soon to go back!

• You get to see your old friends from when you went to University maybe or people that you went to high school with. It is important to reconnect with old friends and acquaintances; Facebook still can’t compete with real face-to-face meetings with these people from your life. Also, you can tell them all about the adventures you have been on while they have been staying-put, most likely in the same city where they went to high school in.

• Speaking of talking about your adventures. Many family and friends from your home country actually don’t care very much about your adventures and traveling. Very few of my friends and family even bring up the topic, and when I do, they don’t seem to be showing much interest in hearing the details. Maybe it is not so interesting to them because traveling around the world and seeing more than 6-8 countries a year is just something they can’t relate to. They also want to share what they have been up to, just like you, so I suppose there should be a bit of give and take to try and understand each other’s very different lives.

• If you go to your home country during the summer, you get to stock up on all your favorite products from your old life. Many international school teachers love to go to their favorite grocery stores to stock up on all the products not available in their host country supermarkets. Be careful though, food products weigh a lot and can easily make your suitcase go over the allowed weight on your flight back!

• You get to see your nieces and nephews in person, noticing how they are getting so much older now and all grown up. You can do things with them like taking them to the movies or for a few games of bowling. The years past by so fast and soon they will be adults and possibly off to university!

• The price of flights and plane tickets to your home country are just unbelievably high now. Many of us without a flight benefit just literally can’t afford to buy plane tickets home. Sure, at some schools, the school pays for your flight home each summer. But, not all international school teachers are as lucky. In many international schools in Western Europe, teachers are left to pay for their annual flight home themselves. And if you have two children in your family, your total cost has just gone from $2500 for two people to $5000 for four people. That amount is just not a feasible amount to pay for a trip for some international school teaching couples. Even with the annual flight allowance, you might have already used that allowance for your winter break trip home.

• Some international school teachers just want to stay put in their host country during the summer. Some feel you don’t have the time to really explore the city, the nearby cities, and the other cities in the country during the school year. And in the northern hemisphere, summer is the best time typically to explore these countries.

• Some teachers also just simply stay put to save money!! We all need to carefully plan for our future (hopefully early) retirements!

• A month-long trip to Africa or a month-long trip to the Chicago area? A question you might be asking yourself in April. Some are faced with this international school educator’s dilemma each summer. For many international school teachers, the price of the flight to go home is actually the same price it would take to go to more exotic places like Kenya or Costa Rica, or even Bali. Who would want to go home (a place you have seen many times already) in place of going on an exciting adventure? Many choose the adventure option each summer!

When some of the International School Community’s members were asked the question: “To go home or not to go home?” Here are a few responses we got:

“Choosing to go ‘home’ over the summer is always a tough decision. I usually head back to see friends and family. It feels really good to reconnect with the people you don’t see every day and your own culture. After about 10 days though, I am ready to head back to my other ‘home’ or my next adventure.”

“Absolutely go home! First of all, many schools will pay for your ticket home during the holidays, but more importantly, is the idea that one needs a “home base” when doing these international teaching assignments. There is a real feeling of refreshment when one goes home, it regenerates your sense of self, everything is familiar to you, and you regain the energy needed to face another year of the ‘unknown’. On a side note, this year, I will not be able to ‘go home’ as I am too pregnant to travel back and forth before my second baby is born…and I’m already feeling the stress of it. Although, I know it is well worth it to stay in Brazil this time around….I feel a slight sense of panic every time I think of it.”

At Brent International School Manila, one ISC member said, “Many teachers leave on major holidays, most to other locations in South East Asia. During summer almost all teachers travel home.”

At theUnited World College South East Asia, another ISC member said, “Most teachers travel during school holidays. Singapore is an amazing hub from which to travel to all other Asian cities/countries. Many staff travel home during summer and for Christmas.”

At the American School of Torreon, a different ISC member said, “It is expensive to travel home for the holidays. The airport is small and prices are high. Traveling by bus is also time-consuming and long.”

So, are you planning on going home this summer? Are you the international school teacher that makes their annual trip home each summer, the one that stays in the host country, or the one that is traveling to another country on some adventure? Share your stories and reasons for your summer plans on ISC!

EFT Tapping in International Schools for Stress Management

Working in an international school can be very rewarding. It can also come with its own unique combination of stresses and strains. When we let these types of stressors go unacknowledged and fester, this can affect our well-being at work, and even our health.

On top of the usual challenges schools face, like dealing with challenging student behavior, stressors of an international school career may also include:

Going through the stress and overwhelm of relocating.
Dealing with parents who perceive their paying for a private education as outsourcing their parenting responsibilities to the school – with all the challenges that come with that.
Dealing with incidents of ‘difficult’ (often actually ‘aggressive’ or ‘abusive’) behaviour from a parent or a student who is harassing school staff for grade inflation.
Having to attend meetings and training that aren’t useful for your work.

Of course, working conditions and staff training vary depending on what stage the school is at and what systems and culture do and do not exist in a school environment.

Irrespective of the differences, it’s becoming more and more common for staff working in international schools to practice mindfulness-based tools for stress management. Some invest in such training for personal use, and it then also benefits their work. Others have the good fortune of having administrators who are open to investing some of their staff-training budget in upskilling their staff in stress management strategies.

The most cost-effective stress management strategy I’ve come across for working with international school counsellors, teachers, SLT, and support staff is a mindfulness-based stress management technique called EFT Tapping. EFT Tapping is sometimes just referred to as Tapping, or EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques. Not to be confused with the other EFT, Emotionally Focused Therapy, which is a talk therapy).

There is a range of applications for coaching school staff and students in schools using EFT Tapping. One is for reducing staff stress and overwhelm, which aids with communicating more constructively, problem-solving, and teaching in a more collaborative manner. I’ve also found EFT Tapping valuable when coaching students in international schools for school-related stress. It’s great for fear of failing their exams, study motivation or concentration problems, study procrastination problems, missing deadlines, panic attacks in tests or exams, fear of going on stage for school plays, and more.

Tapping helps regulate the nervous system and reduces our cortisol levels when we think about an upcoming event or a goal we want to achieve. For students, that may be an upcoming test, exam, tournament, or school play. For teachers, that may be an upcoming parent-teacher conference, report writing period, meeting with a difficult parent or colleague, or lesson with a difficult class.

When we tap, it neutralizes the stress response in our body so that we can go into the meeting, class, exam, or another event in a more grounded and balanced emotional and physiological state.

Isn’t that what we all want?

______________________________________________________________________________

This article was submitted by Eleni Vardaki, an Educational Consultant for international schools with 22 years of experience as a student and a teacher/administrator working in international schools. Eleni works as an independent service provider for international schools that value well-being and mindfulness-based stress management practices. She is also a qualified EFT Practitioner who uses EFT Tapping for goals, stress management, and anxiety to coach students and adults who want to work with her 1-to-1. You can reach her at: eleni@elenivardaki.com

Information on the science behind EFT Tapping and school applications (all levels): https://elenivardaki.com/tapping-in-schools-summit/

A hands-on introduction to EFT Tapping for newbies: https://elenivardaki.com/eft-for-stress/

Insider Information about 11 International Schools

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 and keep the most up-to-date by reading every review about the school that you can get your eyes on, it is difficult to know exactly what it is really like to work there.

But, the more you know, the better. Or is it that the less you know, the better? Our guess though is 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 actually 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 thing that is certain, 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 611 comments on this comment topic (April 2023). Here are a few that have been submitted:

“The secondary is laid back and you will enjoy it if you have good classroom management. There won’t be much actual support from the admin regarding discipline. The elementary is micro-managed, meeting-heavy and overloaded.” – American International School (Abu Dhabi) (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) – 97 Total Comments

“One important thing to note right now is that the primary and middle school principals are leaving at the end of this year, and the director and the high school principal are leaving at the end of the next school year. So, there will be a complete changeover of admin staff in the next year or so. There is no specific reason why these admins are leaving, just a coincidence that they are all leaving at the same time. Most of them have been at the school between 4-6 years.” – Copenhagen International School (Copenhagen, Denmark) – 419 Total Comments

“You are given a lot of autonomy to make it or break it in the classroom. The salary won’t make you rich, but you can live off it on a Mediterranean island for a couple of years. There’s always something to complain about, and the facilities are sometimes more functional than glamorous, but all these reflect the island itself. You’re given everything you need to do a great job and the kids appreciate it.” – Verdala International School (Pembroke, Malta) – 22 Total Comments

“The locals are mostly friendly but yes, experience living in developing countries is important before coming here. Teachers who came without that ended up breaking contract more often than the school likes to admit.” – Khartoum International Community School (Khartoum, Sudan) – 229 Total Comments

“Staff who come from British state schools love it! Staff who come from other international schools are… surprised. Learning Portuguese will massively improve your quality of life because your health care app and banking app (for example) is not in English.” – St. Paul’s School (Sao Paulo, Brazil) – 45 Total Comments

“The community is great and supportive. For teachers, collaboration and teamwork are essential here. Most teachers are willing to help and support other new teachers when needed. Staffs are very helpful and resourceful too.” – Raffles American School (Johor, Malaysia) – 33 Total Comments

“The salary is comparatively lower than anywhere else, while the incompetence of the administrative departments (including the Head of School) will frustrate you when needing support both inside and outside of the school. If you are passionate and sincere about your teaching vocation, rather consider alternative schools in Guangzhou.” – Utahloy International School (Zengcheng) (Zengcheng, China) – 134 Total Comments

“For the 2023-2024 school year, the Board of Directors has approved the following salary and benefits increases for all teachers.
• A 1% increase to the current base salary.
• An additional 30 OMR monthly WIFI stipend (per household)
• A 5 OMR per month, increase for utilities (per household)
• An additional 5 OMR per month, for travel allowance (per person)
• An additional 6% (avg) per month, increase for housing allowance (per household)” – American British Academy (Muscat, Oman) – 65 Total Comments

“If you need an international school experience, that could be the start, but definitely does not provide much room for professional development.” – GEMS International School (Al Khail) (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) – 89 Total Comments

“Ensure that your own personal philosophy aligns with that of the school. Educators here are nurturing a generation of activists that will be ready to make a change. Before you join, perhaps ensure you are ready to go full steam ahead! I would suggest reviewing the school website at www.unishanoi.org as well as the International Baccalaureate at www.ibo.org.” – United Nations International School (Hanoi) (Hanoi, Vietnam) – 132 Total Comments

“You will live with your coworkers in a fishbowl-type environment. If you value privacy, I would consider looking somewhere else. Most teachers aren’t very competitive, so it’s easy to stand out and gain more responsibilities if you work hard. It’s a very, very small school, so class sizes are usually manageable. Teams are only made up of only a few people, usually something like two teachers per team. Internet and technology are unreliable, as is electricity. As with all postings in West Africa, malaria is a real threat. It is not easy to travel within or outside of Nigeria. Safety is a big issue for domestic travel, and traveling outside of the country, even to neighboring countries, is very expensive.” – American International School of Lagos (Lagos, Nigeria) – 43 Total Comments

IS Community Blog

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

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

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

Rules for Counting Countries You’ve Been To

Categories

New School, New Wallet: Prepare for Surprising Purchases

The Summer Vacation Dilemma: To Go Home or Not to Go Home

EFT Tapping in International Schools for Stress Management

Insider Information about 11 International Schools

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