Stay away!

The teaching staff is great but the administration is a nightmare. They lie to the teachers, students and parents. None of the administration has taught any length of time outside the school and when pressed say that they didn't really want to be administrators.

They have no curriculum except for the IB Diploma and IGCSE exams at the upper level. There is not mentorship or support for the teachers. The kindergarten program includes 4 year olds sitting and writing for an hour each day. The results from the IGCSE and IB Diploma are not given out (they are abysmal). Many students who have been at the school for years can not speak, read or write English close to their grade level.

High turn over unless the teachers are Baha'i. Half of the new hires left after one year last year, equal number the year before. There are no long term plans and decisions are made at the spur of the moment with no thought of the larger impact and very little teacher input. The Board does not seem to care - they brought in a consultant last year who presented a pretty damning report of the school and nothing has changed.

The salary is low, there is no professional development budget unless you are in IB and IGCSE and that is only because they are required to provide those teachers with training.

Rents in Macau are rising and the salary is low. If you are interested in teaching in Macau then go the the Anglican School of Macau or The International School of Macau (TIS). Really, go to Hong Kong and visit Macau.

I am hoping that people can give me an idea what their experiences with training/professional development is at other schools.

My current school is trying to propose that if a teacher receives training that requires money (for example IB or IGCSE courses) then they need to promise to stay for another 2 years. If they leave before that happens, the cost of the training will be deducted from their last months pay.

One of the administrators suggested that this is standard. I find that hard to believe of even a 3rd tier school (I would argue that I am at a 4th tier).

What are other people's experiences? How is training/professional development offered at other international schools?

I guess my question is how long do you plan to be away?

We have purposely kept our residency, though we have cancelled our medical insurance because we want to continue to contribute to our RESPs and RRSP. We still get money from the Federal Government for our RESPs and As well as we are planning on returning we would like to continue to contribute to our CPP. (I know, I know there are people who say it won't be around by the time we retire.)

I have been torn about going through the process of claiming non-residency but as we are only going to be gone this time 2 or 3 years at the most, I don't think it worth it. I figure we will put as much in RRSPs as we can.

The country we are in does not have a tax treaty but we are able to deduct the taxes we have paid. As well, we are able to claim our helper's salary.

Also, my understanding is your first year you will be considered a resident anyways because you have to be out of country for 6 months. The only way around it is to leave in June.

Macau is very expensive to live without the benefits of living in Hong Kong. Rent for a 2 bedroom apartment is sitting at about 10000 MOP, food prices are going up and decent clothes are for the most part Western prices. This is not a place to get bargains.

Having said that I really like Macau, there are great cultural things going on all the time, you don't need a car to get around and it is close to Hong Kong and fairly cheap flights to all over Asia.

BocaJrs that is awesome, I don't know how you did it but I really appreciate the blogs.

Thanks for all the responses. This is our first time overseas and I am trying not to panic. We are moving to Macau.The issue we are having with Macau is that there doesn't seem to be as much info about it as other places. We are hoping the salary is going to be enough :wink: . We had a couple of offers but both my husband and I were drawn to the school, Macau and the people that we were interviewed by. I am hoping that our guts aren't going to lead us astray.

To make things a little easier in the summer, we are moving into my parents' house first.


It is a little overwhelming, especially trying to figure out what we want to put in storage and what we want to get rid of.

Being able to lurk on this board and have my occasional questions answered has made this process so much easier.

I was just wondering if people had any suggestions of blogs or resources that they read or read about the experience of relocating overseas. We are potentially moving with 2 small children to Asia and it would be great to read about other people's experiences. I am a firm believer in learning from other people's mistakes :D .

Also, is it normal to wake up the morning after signing a contract absolutely panicked and wondering if you are crazy to relocate and move away from stability and everything you know. This wasn't a hurried decision we have been in the process for a year and I am still excited but it all seems really overwhelming right now. It doesn't help that we are in the middle of trying to sell our stuff, figure out what is going into storage and decided what we need to live with my mum before we leave in August in the next 2 weeks.

Thanks in advance.

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this school? It is not listed on the review site. Thanks!