We cannot just leave them behind. Well, sometimes we do, when we find a happy home for them (usually a friend or a relative). However, if there is a possibility of bringing our pet with us to our next destination, then people will probably do it.
Moving is a hard task, that is for sure. It can be even harder, though, transplanting yourself with a pet. There are so many hoops that you may need to go through before you have your pet with you, safe and sound in your new home/country.
Sign this form here. Sign this form there. Quarantine your pet for XX amount of days, weeks, or months??
Not so much fun for you or your pet.
For the love of this inseparable part of your family, you do it. Because at the end of it all, you will both be able to enjoy and explore the new country together and comfort each other when things get tough and lonely.
Bringing a pet to another country varies across the globe as there are different laws in different countries. Additionally, we must not forget about the international school itself. It is very possible your new international school highly discourages you to bring your pet (due to staff housing policies, etc…). Good to know these things ahead of time then!!
Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to international school teachers with pets, so you can stay the most informed as possible. It is called: “Describe your experience bringing pets.“
There are a total of 357 comments in this comment topic (June 2022). Here are a few that have been submitted:
“The biggest obstacle will be the landlords not allowing pets. This despite that there are tons of dogs and cats around. The landlords that do allow pets will require a $1000 USD deposit. Lots of vets, people love dogs here, but also lots of strays and roving packs of dogs. Vets are inexpensive compared to elsewhere…” International School of Belgrade (Belgrade, Serbia) – 95 Total Comments
“No support from school. Do all your own research. Viet Nam is fairly easy for bringing pets into the country but, depending on where you are going next or what type of pet you have, it may be much more problematic leaving…” TH School (Hanoi, Vietnam) – 9 Total Comments
“Many staff this year successfully brought cats. Most chose to do the paperwork on their own – others paid $$$$ for pet shippers. Personal choice. The school didn’t help with this…” International School of Panama (Panama City, Panama) – 89 Total Comments
“Very easy to come into the country with pets and a good area to have them. Not too many areas have grassy bits but there are parks etc to bring them to. Recently GRAB, (Uber here) started a pet carrying service. Veterinary care is very good too from my experience…” KIS International School (Bangkok) (Bangkok, Thailand) – 401 Total Comments
“Updated on this pet situation. With the new housing benefits coming into effect now, many newly constructed apartments do not allow pets, and therefore housing that allows pets is at a premium. You need to discuss your pet situation with HR if you are considering coming here…” Chadwick International School – Songdo (Incheon, South Korea) 158 Total Comments
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International School Community is full of thousands of useful, informative comments…44256 comments (30 May 2022) to be exact.
Members are recommended to keep their comments objective on our website, and sometimes they need to share how it really is working at their international school.
We scoured our database of comments, and we found 12 that stood out to us as being some of the most controversial.
12. Has the school met your expectations once you started working there?
“Disorganised. Micromanagement from leaders who haven’t been teaching a range of schools before. Limited experience from Tier 1 schools which reflects the disorganization and reactive rather than proactive approach to problems. Leadership runs to stomp down teachers, bully them and drain their enthusiasm for teaching. AOBA has a huge staff turnover, which was a question that I asked when interviewed. I was told a very low turnover rate until I turned up and was met with a large new teaching cohort. Leadership sees good teachers, and lies to get them because they know that what they offer is not good enough for the truth-telling of how this school is actually run…” – Aoba Japan International School (Tokyo, Japan) – 49 Comments
11. Details about the teaching contract. What important things should prospective teachers know about?
“The ONLY contract that matters is the teacher’s contract with the government of Azerbaijan, and that is for one year and one year only. The “2-year” that is issued by the school? It’s not worth the paper it is written on. The business office regularly ignores sections of that contract that it finds inconvenient! Coming from a country where contracts are considered sacrosanct, that was a shocking realization…” – European Azerbaijan School (Baku, Azerbaijan) – 7 Comments
10. What controversies have been happening lately? Please be objective.
“Leaders have been fired without any forewarning shocking leaders and staff. Replacements were hired who are not trusted or have a reputation for being unpleasant. Student leaders behaved in a manner this year that caused a great number of problems for staff, parents, and admin. This is not a new behavior but rather part of the school persona and spirit…” – Tarsus American College (Mersin, Turkey) – 278 Comments
9. What insider information would you give to a teacher considering working at this school?
“This is a top-down working environment and your professional opinion is not expected or valued. Smile, agree and do your best to follow through with all directives. Lay low and never make ripples, much less waves. This is a great place for 1st ever international teachers, but an unacceptable post for professional international educators…” – American International School (Abu Dhabi) (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) – 97 Comments
8. Has the school met your expectations once you started working there?
“No, Not at all. There is no PAY SCALE as promised. Teachers even don’t get paid what they should get paid when inflation rises. Salaries stay the same every year. no way you can discuss this further with your HOD or director. Different building with more facilities was said to change, during my interview. During Covid, online teaching they cut salaries. Can you believe that? We spent more time in organising online learning and then they cut salaries! Flexibility only comes from one side in this school. I would not recommend this school to any teacher nor student!!!!” – International School Ruhr (Essen, Germany) – 65 Comments
7. Has the school met your expectations once you started working there?
“No, the interview process was great yet when I joined there were clashes of values and I was constantly asked to stop and ‘listen’ (listen in the sense of ‘do what I say’ rather than ‘listen’ from the heart to hear and incorporate perspectives). As a creative person with ambition and well-read and connected, I had to keep lowering expectations until I felt there was no way I could continue working here. I had a completely different ethic, based on quality international school standards. I was highly disappointed by the lack of innovative thinking and the authoritarian and competitive feel of the majority of the leaders. I think the school is too American and not enough “international”. the culture was not healthy…” – Anglo American School of Sofia (Sofia, Bulgaria) – 74 Comments
6. Pension plan details.
“It is not a pension. Due to Brazilian law, each teacher pays 8% of their salary each month into a guarantee fund. This is more or less an unemployment insurance. At the end of your contract, the school agrees to “fire” you, so you can access that fund. Based on the exchange rate at that time, it can vary in USD. At the beginning of my contract is was estimated around $12,000. But, now it will be much closer to $7,000. There is no way to know how much it will actually be in the end…” – American School of Belo Horizonte(Belo Horizonte, Brazil) – 78 Comments
5. Has the school met your expectations once you started working there?
“The school has changed severely since the new head of school started this school year. 6 people had been fired so far, the morale is really low, there is a fear of “who will be the next”. The environment is not healthy at all…” – Benjamin Franklin International School (Barcelona, Spain) – 116 Comments
4. Has the school met your expectations once you started working there?
“My first impression of the school was that it was warm, welcoming, and compassionate. I thought I would truly matter as an employee – I was eager to find a school with a family-like atmosphere that I could make home. The family-like atmosphere is a total illusion. Employees are expendable. HR put out a health survey to prepare for Covid-19. Anyone (local staff and teaching assistants) seen as expendable that marked that they were at a higher risk of Covid on that survey was fired at the end of the school year. The motto for the year was “We Are One.” The irony was not lost on the foreign staff with this. Generally, the moment you have a differing opinion, an issue, or a criticism, you are treated like garbage. This school is the epitome of the term “toxic positivity…” – School of the Nations (Brasilia) (Brasilia, Brazil) – 41 Comments
3. Are the expectations high of teaching staff? Are there extracurricular responsibilities? Describe workload details.
“Workload has increased, as teachers have been fired/let go… those remaining are regularly requested to cover (during their planning periods) for those who are out sick…” – Lahore American School (Lahore, Pakistan) – 193 Comments
2. Average monthly salary after taxes and in what currency (explain taxation situation). How often do you get paid throughout the year?
“This is a great school with a fantastic community of teachers and staff. Such a shame that the owners will ignore the contract and refuse to pay health insurance above a yearly total of $180 per year, but then use the poor wording in the contract to cheat other people out of their final month’s salary. Beware if you want to work here…” – Sekolah Victory Plus (Jakarta, Indonesia) – 143 Comments
1. Average monthly salary after taxes and in what currency (explain taxation situation). How often do you get paid throughout the year?
“No raise last year and I believe no raise this year as well…. Makes you wonder if the school is having some issues…” – Seoul Foreign School (Seoul, South Korea) – 226 Comments
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