Edited for privacy. Everything turned out perfectly fine. The HR was slow.

How exciting! I lived in South Korea a while back (before I was a school teacher). I loved it. I agree with the post above, decent bed sheets were hard to find!
I was there for a couple of years and, even in that short time, the amount of home comforts I could buy improved a lot. My favourite swiss chocolate, heinz ketchup, razors aimed at women (!) ( I just bought men's until then-same thing!) all appeared while I was there. Plenty of other things, which you used to have to search out, become readily available in supermarkets. I reckon you can get pretty much anything these days.
A couple of things I always stocked up on at home:
Deodorant. You could find it, but it was not widely available.
Tampons.
Decent flavoured toothpaste.

I found plenty of English books in Seoul (several bookstores with huge English departments).

Have fun!

You should be honest and tell schools you have a partner that would be coming. I just got a job at a school I really wanted to work at (it was my number one choice) and the school were really supportive and still offered to pay for various things for my partner even if we weren't married (we are lucky that my partner can work from anywhere). But they couldn't get him a proper visa if we were not married so he would have to leave every few months, which wouldn't be ideal. We are actually planning on getting married before we go (we, like you, have been together a long time and had always been open to marriage, it just wasn't a priority) so they are sorting out his visas now too. We are very happy with everything. :-)

You could tell them you are planning on getting married before, if that is your intention anyway. Or if you don't want to get married before then he can get a visa through his esl work. Bare in mind that in some countries (e.g Korea), your visa is tied to your job if you are an esl teacher, so he couldn't quit and remain in the country (unless he had a new job lined up or his boss agreed to transfer the visa over). In other countries (e.g Japan) the visa is your own so once you have it you can do as you please.
I wouldn't worry about having a non teaching partner. It hasn't been a problem for me and we are excited for next year. Good luck!

Have you actually done a PGCE then Psyguy? Because I have and you are incorrect. The observations are not minor or depending on the school. They are full on, teaching every lesson of the day and doing all the planning and marking. It is a minimum of 18 weeks teaching as well as the assignments and lectures for the proper PGCE.

The PGCE is the university qualification. The QTS part is the teaching qualification. You are not a qualified teacher in the UK without QTS. I doubt most tier one schools (as you like to talk about) would want to hire someone who was not actually a qualified teacher.
I don't like to argue but, in this instance, you are wrong.
The open university does offer an online PGCE. The university part is online but you still have to take the same total weeks of teaching placement, in the UK, during school term time as everybody else.

[quote="PsyGuy"]

Post Graduate Certification in Education:

A PGCE is the UK (and Australian) certificate for teacher education. technically, its the coursework and study portion, after which UK trained teachers then receive their field experience portion over 1-2 years in the classroom and eventually get QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). In ISs schools require only the PGCE. A number of universities offer the program online/distance education, with only a few observations required, which you could complete during non deployment periods. This would allow you to actually be certified without having to do a field experience. The programs are expensive though you would easily spend $10K and closer to $20K for such a program. Like ACP programs these are also post bachelors programs.[/quote]

You are not quite right about the PGCE. Yes, you do your Bachelors degree first and then you do your PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education). You can can do a PGCE for Early Years, Primary or Secondary. But it is not simply the coursework and study option. It is both that and teaching.

You take several teaching placements over the course of the PGCE year and attend university and submit assignments in between. There is a minimum amount of weeks that you must be in charge of a class. In your final placement you should be teaching and planning every class (which, if you are Primary school/Early Years, is all day every day!). You have to plan and mark everything for that class for the time you are placed at the school.

If you pass the PGCE (the teaching placements and assignments) then you are a qualified teacher. However, you are called a Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) until you complete your first year of teaching. You have the same responsibilities as any regular teacher except you are allowed a 10% reduction in timetable for professional development, courses, meeting your school metor etc. You have full QTS after the first year of teaching.

The PGCE is a good option if you do a degree first. You would have to move to the UK though. You cannot do a proper PGCE which ends with qualified teacher status online. If you want to actually have the QTS bit then you have to do it in person. You do not only have a few observations. You have to teach for at least 18 weeks during the PGCE and be observed numerous times. I do actually know someone who completed some kind of online PGCE . When he returned to the UK he found he was not really a qualified teacher. He did manage to get a job but he is paid as an unqualified teacher and has to undergo a lot more training until he can gain QTS.

Thank you Psyguy. Yes, I should have done with my profile that really. Oh well, next time!

I have just now seen a job come up (not through Search obviously) so I am going to apply. Problem is, I only started my current school this term and not sure what to do about the reference. As I am in my home country I am not tird to a two year contract or anything, but I know my Head will be angry if I ask for a reference now! Just have to hope they will be willing to take up the current Head's reference after interview (if I got one of course). I have good references from my previous jobs. I wasn't expecting to see any jobs I was interested in yet!

Well, I had to change my profile to 'not available' (or whatever it is) as I often had schools email me asking if I was interested and I didn't want to seem rude by not replying. I wasn't available so didn't want to say I was. I also had to cancel interviews and my attendance at a fair so I did tell my associate.

I explained that I had a family situation and needed to stay in my home country for the next few months but would most likely be looking for jobs abroad the following year. They said that is fine but then cut off all access to the database! If I have access for three years why won't they let me view the database again? I have all my old references on there still.

To be honest, they didn't really help me anyway. I researched all the school myself and knew which ones I wanted to apply to in advance. I saw most of the jobs advertised on the school websites before they came up on Search (and sometimes on other teacher job sites before Search too). I also ended up still having to complete a lot of their application forms anyway and they contacted all my referees again too. The search application just meant an extra reference form for my referees to fill in! My associate didn't do anything to help or advise me or give me any contacts! The database is nice to be able to browse and see the wages and packages (not always listed on school sites) but I did all the work myself. Makes me wonder what they do? Although, as you said, it depends who the associate is.
If the OP does join Search this year (why do you want to join so far in advance?), make sure you will not get your access cut off like I did. And also, decide if you have the time and motivation to do the work yourself instead.

My experience of Search and their database is: I signed up with them at the start of the last school year (August/September 2011). I had done my research and knew which countries and schools I wanted to work for. I usually saw the jobs for these schools advertised on the school website or even on other school job sites before they appeared on Search. Most of these schools still required me to fill out their own application form and took up all the references again (despite them using Search and me telling them I had all the references on there). My recruiter did absolutely nothing to help me, advise me or anything.

I was offered several interviews but, due to a sudden family situation, decided to stay in my home country instead and look for a new job here. When I told Search I was not looking for a job any more, they immediately cut off all my access to their database.

I emailed them this August (2012) as I was thinking about looking for jobs abroad again. They said I must send them new references before I could access the database. Well, they already had the references from every supervisor and head from my job and I hadn't started a new one yet. I didn't have any new references to give. I have not been able to get access to the database, despite me having been a full member last year. Does anyone know if this is right? Isn't my membership meant to last for 3 years?

So basically OP, just make sure they are not going to cut off your access to the database and you are not going to have to ask your supervisors to write your references all over again several times!

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I also agree.The emails are much clearer. The site is so much better now. I was actually surprised when I first joined Search at how 'messy' it all seemed. I like all the improvements other than the thing I mentioned above about not showing on the page if schools are attending a fair or not.

I haven't been receiving any email updates either. I found them really useful as I could check them on my phone on my commute. I hope I get them again soon.
I'm not sure if I am missing something here but on the old site each school could tick if they were planning on attending any fairs. I can't seem to see that on the new site? I know you can search schools by fair but this is not up to date any way as, according to Search's London Fair facebook page, there are something like 123 schools confirmed but only 40 something come up when you search on their website.
Also, if I am already looking at a schools page I want to see there and then if they are planning on attending the fair, not go back and search again.
If I am just not seeing something here then please let me know!

Anyway, I like the layout a lot better. It's a shame I had to re-enter details several times before it saved though.
Agree about being able to email the associates but they don't do anything anyway! Wish I had one who was more helpful!

Thank you HeyTeach for your reply and advice. It was very useful. I actually started a similar sounding spreadsheet last week, so I'm glad to hear that I am a) along the right track and b) not a crazy person for making spreadsheets! Thanks very much!