The International Schools Review Forum

I'll be finishing my 4th year of IS teaching in China next year at the same school. I have a non teaching spouse and two young kids with no plans of having more children. We'd like to move to southern china or Hong Kong area next year. Any recommendations on schools to look into? Search has denied us because of the dependents. 4 years IS experience in elementary with MAT.

Thanks!

What do you mean Search has denied you? They don't take families?!

It's not that Search doesn't take families; it's that Search probably doesn't take single candidates with 3 dependents.

Search won't take candidates they deem non-viable. Today's market is so much different than the IS market in the late 1990's, when there was much less competition and far fewer schools.

Remember, if Search invites a less competitive candidate to a job fair over a more competitive one, they are potentially losing 1500 to 3000 dollars in placement fees. Search is not a charity.

Have you tried TIEonline? Checking out and applying to southern China schools yourself? If you could get your spouse certified, or if they have skills that apply to a school situation - technology, sports, etc, that is another avenue of selling yourself as a package. Also try ISS and see if they accept you.

Sadly, for a school to hire 3 non-teachers with the benefit of one teacher doesn't make sense in today's market, especially for the many many proprietary schools in China. That doesn't mean the job isn't out there, just you might have to dig deeper.

We heard the same news from Search Associates today: will not accept an application based solely on dependents (non-teaching spouse and two kids).

Not sure the job market was any better in the late 90s. My wife and I got our entire application and cheque back from ISS because we had three kids. It was one of the most disheartening mail runs I have ever made. However, we rebounded and went to Northern Iowa and found jobs there and have been on the road ever since. Search and ISS are not the only way to find teaching jobs.

True, overhere, but there were far fewer teachers out on the circuit back in the day - making it easier to find jobs :-)

Back in the day when ISS was the job fair to be at and Search was the ugly stepsister...

Shadowjack:

As I have mentioned many times in other posts, Xiamen International School is a gem in southern China AND they like to fill their slots before the fairs. Great weather, decent pay and benefits, and really low cost of living. Small city mixing the modern with many villages, hills and trails, and farms AND a 20 mile bike road that goes along the ocean and beach - Xiamen is an island.

Let me know if I can help you with any other information.

Xiamen sounded so tempting until....
http://www.vagabondjourney.com/clean-air-cities-china/

A friend of mine worked there for a while. Yes it is an island, but you don't get any of the benefits of being on an island. My friend basically told me the water was so polluted no one actually dared to swim, and the "beach" was basically a junkyard... I believe most of China would be somewhat like that in terms of "cleanliness" though...

Thanks for the replies. Search said that because of the three dependents and today's market (over saturated with elementary teachers) he didn't think our chances were good. He did recommend we search on our own.

Which schools do you think we'd have a shot at? Wanting to send the resumes out soon but don't know where to start.

Does Search still give you access to their database, even if they don't accept you as an official candidate/invitee to a fair? I was wondering if you could still pay the 200 bucks for access, as that would be worthwhile as well.

Trojan, they don't.

Thanks, wntriscoming.

That sucks.

Yeah, Search has their policies in place for a reason I'm sure. So, any school recommendations?