Yes. With the option to pay for an extension if needed

Of the schools that have declared their preference most I have seen have asked for a single letter covering both of you. I think for many it depends on how detailed you want to be. My wife and I wrote a single letter but with hefty paragraphs each, covering our experience and how we would fit the Job. The advice that we received was that the covering letter is the chance to outline in 5 minutes how you could be the best fit for thew school, therefore keep it brief, to the point and giving the reader the key information they need to decide whether or not to take a closer look. Separate covering letters mean more reading and if you aren't careful the school may not tie you together.

Of course if the school has asked for philosophies of education those should be individual but could still be put into the same document for sending.

EUExplorer.

Please note I did not say that they were tier 2 - I merely said that they were willing to consider teachers with little international experience.

Don't be put off by the "Tier" and don't be put off by having slightly less experience internationally than they may say they want. If you are a good teacher it will show and that gives you a shot.

IS Latvia
AIS Warsaw
Anglo - American Moscow
Pechersk IS Kiev
Amadeus IS Vienna
Munich IS
AIS Budapest


These were all schools my wife and I looked at with a little international experience and no IB experience. Many of them interviewed us at least

Confidential references are ones where you dont see what the person has written. For Search they are filled in online. for many schools the ability to actually contact your referees is more important than the reference itself however. Many schools asked for transcripts but not all. (my uk Uni didnt ever issue me with transcripts so I always get annoyed when schools want to see them). Most of the time it is a VISA requirement when they want them.

3 professional references and a parent one if possible. I have had one school ask for four professional and quite a few places ask for two. It is typically better to have people who will write you one for each school that you apply for than have them as an open reference.

Birth certificate and marriage certificate apostilled (apostiles typically have to be done once you know where you are going though). For some countries the police check also has to be less than three months old.

I know my current school is still looking for an IB Maths teacher. Good school, Hard location. It may be worth reapplying to some schools that passed before as they may be willing to overlook whatever disqualified you before at this point in the season.

My school ran a condensed training session for MYP for 2 days for new hires as they cant send everyone off for MYP training as well as DP training. but unless you are in a location that has no difficulties in living conditions or cultural expectations. i would expect a day or two on that as well. 2 days does seem short.

We interviewed and then were offered the job 2 weeks later from one school. from another we had a 2 day turn around (although the second one knew we had an offer and a deadline on the table already). It is mostly up to the admin of the school and their time frame unless you already have another offer. if you don't hear back in a week to 2 weeks I would send a follow up email asking when it is likely you will know the outcome of your application and re stressing your enthusiasm for the position.

From some schools i did receive an email saying thanks but no thanks but from others I did not. Give some time to follow up anyway - remember once the school has offered the job they have to wait on someone to decide to accept or not before they can offer it to their next candidate.

As far as your experience goes the Physical chemistry background might be important for teaching DP Chemistry but the Zoology (and maybe the botany) wouldn't for DP Biology. That said clearly learning the subject knowledge would not be an issue. In my opinion the flexibility you would give school (especially small ones) means that if anything you would be at an advantage over contemporaries with a single subject degree. Just a point - in most international schools there is an expectation/requirement for science teachers to be able and willing to teach all three sciences to the end of G10 (Pre AP,IBDP). Your experience as a pharmacist can be spun as an advantage as you can build in real world situations to your teaching where you have used what you have learned.

Not western Europe.....

There are some in eastern Europe where the cost of living is low enough that you can save decently for retirement though.

Most of the Established schools in ME, South Asia (India, and Bangladesh) and South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia) will pay enough to save between 30 and 50% of the salary. I currently save 50% of my salary in Bangladesh.

I worked an Initial one year contract for my first year at my current school. I was already in country though and a position of need for the school and it was late in the recruiting period. It was because I was needed that the school gave me the option. I lost a few bits from the contract (mainly a shipping allowance) but I ended up signing on for a second year anyway.

Look for countries that are way off the beaten track - ones that are going to be hard.

Be prepared to go anywhere.

Be prepared to wait till April to be offered a one year contract

Be up front about the difficulty in signing on for two years.

Thanks. This is the first time I have been properly looking internationally for Jobs and it is quite stressful. The first two International jobs I almost fell into when I wasn't looking to teach abroad. It sometimes hard to know how much to push or whether I just need to be patient and wait.

Hi all.

I had an overall pleasant interview with a school in Eastern Europe just over a week ago and at the end they said they would get back to me in the near future. It seems from my end a really good fit and I would feel really happy to accept the Job. I was wondering, should I contact them again to follow up and show interest and if so how long should I wait to do so?