Beijing Royal School

[dpashouwer]

Has anyone had any experience with Beijing Royal School?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[PsyGuy]

It's a Tier 3 Bilingual school. The students are all locals. They are an AP test school. They use the IGCE curriculum. The school is basically a private, for profit cram school. They hire western teachers primarily for ESL and bilingual subject support. It's not a real international school, and the compensation package is more that of an ESL program. Salary is around 14K RMB, housing, local insurance and airfare. The 'Panda' housing is small on campus apartments. If you were desperate, didn't have kids, and it was this or nothing, well it's better then nothing.

[mstaller]

Hi dpashouwer,
I too am curious about the Beijing Royal School and considering a position there. Are you by any chance part of the TFA group that is currently being recruited?

And PsyGuy, thank you for the info. Makes me pretty hesitant to accept...

[PsyGuy]

There are a number of online recruiters hiring for this school, some of them are charging $100 to take an application. The real salary will be around 10K-14K RMB a month. The apartments are more dormitory/apartment style (small, concrete, cheap furnishings). The school has very little in the way of teaching resource materials. The library is nicely stocked, but the technology integration hasnt been implemented yet (meaning its there, but not enough, and getting to use it involves a reservation, checking out process). All the classrooms have mundane resources like white boards, projection screens, and they bought bucket loads of markers, paper, pens and other supplies. The WIFI is slow, but its a strong signal and good coverage (because of the construction methods, the signal doesnt get far out of the buildings).
The only REAL impressive attribute of the school is what they spent on landscaping and facilities design. It looks pretty. The cafeteria food is OK, and very cheap (about $.50 a meal) for teachers.

[mstaller]

PsyGuy, once again, thank you for the info. Would you prefer this over a TEFL type position in Beijing?

About Beijing Royal, I read that the location is about an hour and a half from the city center of Beijing. Beijing sounds like an interesting place to live, with a strong expat community. What do you think of the area around the school? Is it near a metro/ is it easy to get around without a car?

[PsyGuy]

Its actually a trip. The school isnt really in Beijing, and by bus it's closer to two hours. There isn't a metro as far as rail, but there is a slow coach train that gives you access to the rest of China, It's not the most efficient. You can't drive in Beijing, seriously you will get killed. The consensus is that most people either take the bus into Beijing or take a hired car. There is a local bus system, and taxies, which is pretty much the public transportation system, within the area. The school also has a private bus system that runs once in the morning and once in the afternoon. At least that was the plan that was discussed.

It depends what the money turns out to be and what kind of lifestyle you want, let me explain. If you were in the city center of Beijing at a language school, you could easily supplement your income with private lessons. So an ESL position in the 10K-14K range could easily be 20K a month with extra work. Where the school is, that's not really an option, not without the school finding out, which would put your job at risk.
Second, if you want any kind of social/night life, this position wouldn't really allow it. The area is basically the suburbs, there are a few pubs, and restaurants to get a drink, and eat out but nothing special. If your a homebody then it's fine (because you can chil at home anywhere in the world).
I wouldn't take it because personally I'd be bored to death. Im the type of person though that's runs out of things to do in Coppenhagen, so I might not be the most representative person.

[eion_padraig]

Boring location, but probably a good place if you really wanted to learn mandarin. I learned a lot of Chinese some years back while teaching English in the outer reaches of Shanghai mostly because it was a hassle and somewhat expensive to get into the city proper.