Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Climberman
Posts: 76
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:29 pm

Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by Climberman »

Does anyone know anything about this school? Do all teachers have to serve as dorm supervisors? Is the Head of School (Principal) any good?

How about Jeju?

Thanks for any help.
MIS
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 6:57 pm

Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by MIS »

I don't know anyone at Branksome, nor have I been to Jeju, but I have lived in Korea and can speak to the fact that it has a good reputation and Jeju is an interesting place that offers a lot of outdoor activities. It's not supposed to be the most happening place in the world, so if you're single and looking for a wide array of options, it may not be the best. But it's supposed to be a really nice island and flights to mainland Korea are pretty cheap.
Last edited by MIS on Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sonnypest264
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Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2014 5:02 am

Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by Sonnypest264 »

I live on Jeju and teach in the Global Education City but not at BHA.

As far as the Island is concerned it is an interesting place and suits some but not others. As MIS said it's not really a place to come for mega city and . life. The location of the schools is around 35-40 mins from the main city and pretty much the same from any major supermarket. Amenities close to the schools are limited to 3 corner stores, a great pizza place, a couple of Korean restaurants, a cafe and lots of real estate offices!! All of this is better than when we arrived 3 years ago where there was nothing, literally nothing.

So who is it good for? well young families love it, as it is very safe, very social for the kids in the accommodation areas and it has great beaches all within 20 mins I guess. There is plenty of walking to be done with both coastal and Oreum (parasitic volcanic cones, extinct thankfully) walks. You have an endless supply of "museums" which quickly become a bit of an in joke as Jeju does its museums in a unique way. To name but a few we have 2 sex and health, a teddy bear, 2 miniature lands, a Hello Kitty, 2 chocolate, a toy museum (but you can't play with the toys), a paper doll and at least 3 trick art. They add humour to a Sunday morning for sure. The current fad is road biking, loads of people into it and the roads are almost empty, pretty new and have stunning views, there is also mountain biking, diving, fishing and open water swimming. There are often running events organised and a triathlon (iron man distance)

Eating out takes some work but there are enough places to cater for most tastes, although vegetarian is a bit trickier. The local pork BBQ always seem popular, Italian is fairly widespread, Indian, mexican (awesome) and plenty of fish. Health care is very good and easy to access.

Of course the job comes first. Working in any of the Jeju schools has its frustrations in dealing with the Government organisation that actually own them. Many BHA and NLCS teachers left last year after being frustrated with contract issues. I think this will be an on off issue but the actual packages are very good compared to many other international schools and the problems eventually sorted themselves out. As with any international posting there are times when you just need to wait things out.

One word of warning I would give is that the schools are not international, they are Korean with Canadian or British or American syllabi. You could probably count the number of non-Koreans on two hands in the senior schools. I would think very carefully about bringing teenage children as it is a difficult environment for them to break into. Young kids is not an issue as there are way more western youngsters and the young Koreans are growing up with them so they mix wonderfully. The older kids don't have the same experience.
PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

Branksome Hall is a third tier school, they are a private Korean school, that markets itself as international. They have a lot of turnover and consistently unaddressed issues, for which they have had time to resolve, but they havent as it is cheaper to not resolve the issues.
There is nothing interesting about the location, as its very industrial, and Seoul is not convenient.
Climberman
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Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:29 pm

Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by Climberman »

@Psyguy:

The salary and benefits as listed on the Search database seem FANTASTIC? What's the deal with that and if true, how can that be a third tier school?
Sonnypest264
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2014 5:02 am

Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by Sonnypest264 »

Psyguy

Have you actually ever been to Jeju or the Global Education City? "There is nothing special, it is very industrial" I agree there is building going on as the city area is developing but to call it industrial makes it sound like there are factories spewing out pollution, traffic jams galore, not a sign of greenery. That is total nonsense. There is no industry other than squid boats and tangerines, there are no traffic jams other than when the little old ladies are chugging along on their rotivators. The building work has pretty much to a halt now with the latest set of apartments and the 4th school project seems to be on hold.

Brankshome Hall Asia (BHA) and NLCS Jeju are both "owned" by a company which is itself "owned" by the Korean Government, so they are privately run for profit schools. This does cause frustrations and there have been issues at both schools regarding contracts. Much of which has been resolved and was handled poorly more due to a difference in cultural approaches to business than anything malicious. The fact that many staff have signed on for contract extensions this year shows that things have settled.

Tier of school? Well many threads have spoken about the difficulty of classifying this. Both NLCS Jeju and BHA are newly opened. NLCS Jeju had its first IB Diploma and IGCSE results in 2014 so you can't say it has established a consistent record, but the results were very good and well above World averages. The packages are certainly better than you will get in most places, particularly for people new to the circuit. The location for young families is awesome. So they aren't top tier as they have no reputation but they certainly aren't third tier.
PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

@Sonnypest264

Okay commercial business park with a fair amount of construction is more appropriate than industrial, but I was trying to be succinct. Its isnt a factory locality.

Any IT knows that for profit means for trouble for teaching staff. Your not team or family member your a human asset, a resource. Thats fine for corporate cubicle dwellers who, no educators that like being treated with that mentality. No the issues have not been ALL cleared up.

Their scores werent consistent or competitive with elite or 1st tier school averages, world averages describe well very average schools (and the USA greatly skews those). There really is no debate they arent KIS or KFS, they arent even Dwight.

Tier classification isnt difficult at all, as a profession we struggle with the middle those between the top and the bottom, its not difficult at all here BHS is a third tier school. The package isnt that great for SK, its average and you have a lot of turnover compered to upper tier schools.

You sound like an admin or admin cheerleader, thats the issue its a relatively new for profit school outside of the city, with a history of problems, and aversive administration, with an average package. Sure it might be great for entry level or noobs compared to the other options they have but your not attractive to professional ITs.
RedDragon
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Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by RedDragon »

The package seems Tier 1 to me, it pays way more than KIS, SIS, Dwight, Dulwich, Busan IS, and is competitive with Seoul Foreign School. so my guess is the second best package in Korea(atleast for newer teachers). The location is probably tier 3 at the moment... 40 minutes to the nearest supermarket seems awful, and the package isn't good enough to still be good if you buy a car(unless you are in it for the long haul) but chances are that will be fixed. Sounds tier 2 to me on its way to upper tier 2 to me.

I don't agree with classifying everything that is for profit as tier 3.. Most non-European countries would only have a couple non-tier 3 schools. If the package is tier 1, a school shouldn't be considered worse than tier 2.

Peter Kenny(the director) called Branksome Hall a tier 1 school at his talk to all the people at the job fair. Seems a bit fishy to me considering they didn't have half the jobs they have listed online on schrole and seemed really only interested in finding people to be interns/dorm supervisors. That said, I heard the guy from Seoul Foreign School go, "yeah, we are just interested in finding a Chinese teacher, the other spots are already taken) while the board behind him had 15+ positions listed. Think he was just taking peoples' CV and telling them "I will let you later if I want to do an interview".
Micky
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Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by Micky »

I don't know much about them but they had the longest line during the sign up session at the Melbourne Fair.
PsyGuy
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Location: Northern Europe

Disscussion

Post by PsyGuy »

@Micky

No offense but Melbourne is a dump fair, its not one of the super fairs.

@RedDragon

School profile pages are over inflated when it comes to compensation.

The majority of tier 1 and elite tier schools in Asia (and elsewhere) are non-profit, for profit schools are almost always 3rd tier schools. Of course you can run a non-profit as a for-profit but thats another issue.

Ive never met a director who didnt think their schools was special or tier 1.
RedDragon
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Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by RedDragon »

I guess my argument is this.

If non-profit schools with good packages and high teacher retention rates are tier 1... and for-profit schools are tier 3...

Then about 99% of the schools outside of Europe are tier 1 or 3. What would be the point of having a 3 tier labeling if there are nearly no tier 2 schools.
PsyGuy
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Post by PsyGuy »

@RedDragon

Its not. Tier status isnt a checklist, its not check this and your one tier and dont check it and your another tier. There are far more than organization status that goes into tier determination (a subjective determination) then just profit or non-profit status. There are many schools that are non-profit and tier 2. There are non-profits that are tier 3 their are some for profits that are tier 2. There is a strong trend however that for profit schools generally dont make it into tier 1 not because they're for profit, but because the profit motivation of the organization results in practices, and policies that are adversive and have a negative impact on IT work and life quality, resulting in diminished experience and lower tier ranking.
Sonnypest264
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Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2014 5:02 am

Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by Sonnypest264 »

@Psyguy

You continue to exemplify your ignorance of not only the schools and location being talked about but also the content of people's posts, the identity of people posting and a balanced approach to judging status.

"You sound like an admin or admin cheerleader": I am not an administrator I am a teacher at NLCS Jeju with an open mind, a balanced view of situations and an honest appraisal of what I see and experience.

"Your not team or family member your a human asset, a resource": Excusing your grammar errors, I suspect you're correct in many instances in respect to profit schools. However the idea of a hands on director, at least at NLCS Jeju, who somehow counts nameless "human assets" is plain wrong. I would say both NLCS Jeju and BHA schools have or have had principals whose aim was to provide a barrier between the teaching staff and the frustrations of the administration. That barrier and the ethos of the school is where the humanisation takes place. The professionalism of the teaching staff, morale and tangible evidence of the impact the school has had on its students already are all excellent. Yes there are still frustrations, which the principal and his team take the brunt of, but which can still filter down. But show me a school where there are no frustrations.

"No the issues have not been ALL cleared up. " I love your emphasis of the word ALL, which simply highlighted the fact that you hadn't actually read my post carefully. I did not use that word or imply that at all. The actual wording was "Much of which has been resolved" followed by " ...things have settled." To my reckoning that suggests that not everything is sorted but there is no longer any major issue or outcry which happened briefly in the past. I cannot speak for BHA specifically but the atmosphere at NLCS Jeju this year is at its most positive since it opened.

" The package isnt that great for SK, its average, " I find your understanding of the term average interesting. There must be some bloody amazing packages in SK if what we get is merely average. I wonder where your statistics are coming from or how you are choosing to interpret them.

The issue of tier status will forever been a bone of contention. There are tier 1 schools that I would not want to work at, I'm sure there are tier 3 schools where the staff are perfectly happy. At the end of the day it is about finding the fit between the teacher / family, the location and the school. If that all works out nicely then status is irrelevant.

What helps in that decision is to be presented with the facts in a dispassionate and informed way. Neither of which I find in your posts.
senator
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Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by senator »

Yeah, Psyguy's a piece of work, isn't he.

All he does is trash pretty much every school in the world but he supports the system of international education to the death.

What gives, Psyguy? If all of these schools are horrible or mediocre, why should anyone want to be an international educator.

Go ahead, baby, spin that one.
shadowjack
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Re: Branksome School Asia (Korea)

Post by shadowjack »

I CAN tell you the facilities are amazing and state of the art.
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