Unfortunately things have not changed. There are at least two pending court cases . The Assistant Director is poison. The culture of this company in UAE is toxic. On the TES site there is some up to date comments. "C*B* provider who cannot be named." Tes has pulled this thread a number of time but it keeps resurfacing.
Other PPP providers are not attracting the negativity of this company. Apply elsewhere, That would be my advice.

I don't know about Saudi but Skype is a banned website in Abu Dhabi.

Be ever so careful. I worked for CFBT, I thought this was a reputable English company but it turned out far from it. They kept my passport for nearly 4 months.

I had asked the company and they assured me all was fine. When I insisted on information in writing and refused any more verbal assurances, they sacked me.

It turned out, I had no working visa and way over on my visitors visa. Ihad to go to court and it all cost. Money out of my pocket.

I could have taken CFBT to court but it's another process i just didn't have the time to deal with.

Chalk it up to experience and move on BUT in the future I will be far more diligent.

My perception is the number of 'bad' schools to 'good' is rising. Security in your position, top notch admin, professional development opportunities, stable curriculums, honest reporting procedures cannot be assured in many of the schools who like to call themselves international.
Take the example of ENS, it gets many negative feedbacks but claims it has CIS backing and IB staus. It advertises on what were once reputable sites, attends fairs.
Why would you pay out an enormous amount of money to attend a fair, when there is no protection against schools like ENS.
I like maxsaidno idea of a ultra selective fair, a fair where applicants could trust that schools had been vetted.
Another reason is wages. I have been working overseas for ten years now and in real terms my wages have dropped. It used to be financially rewarding for me to work overseas, now I would earn less than home wages.
I would work overseas again if the above things were assured.

What I like about this forum, it's public. Everyone gets to read comments about schools both positive and negative and a person can react if they think what has been said is not true. Unlike what happens to teachers, Search etc can ban a teacher without a public forum.
I love International School Review, I would never accept a position without reading it.

I left this school over 2 years ago, I returned to the UAE. When I tried to leave the UAE immigration found that the school had put a ban on me. I was trying to leave the UAE quickly to return to my father who was not expected to live and what did this school demand nearly 6000 dirams or face a jail sentence.
I went to the school and personally explained my case to no avail. They maintained I had left my contract illegally.
As for accomodation, it is not a problem. This is not the issue, the school is absolutely horrible. Everything that is said on this site is true. Don't go there.