The International Schools Review Forum

I'm curious what people do if things are not working out at a new posting (as a teacher or administrator) and you end up leaving between October and Christmas by resigning or pulling a runner and there's no vacancy anywhere elsewhere in the world that you want to accept.
Where do you go?
What do you do in terms of keeping yourself buys until recruiting begins for the following September?

I guess the simple answer is to try and keep your expenses down and pick up a side gig (tutoring?) to keep yourself going.

But I'd also spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to explain "pulling a runner" if a recruiter ever got wind of it. You'd need a compelling argument and probably a good amount of evidence to back it up, for another school to have the confidence to go ahead and bring a person on who left another post.

If it's really that bad, is it possible that the school feels the same way or would understand your position? If so, you might want to see if it's possible to mutually part ways.

[quote=GoingMyWay post_id=59413 time=1596738861 user_id=247032]
I'm curious what people do if things are not working out at a new posting (as a teacher or administrator) and you end up leaving between October and Christmas by resigning or pulling a runner and there's no vacancy anywhere elsewhere in the world that you want to accept.
Where do you go?
What do you do in terms of keeping yourself buys until recruiting begins for the following September?
[/quote]

That JUST happened with me this school year. The discipline in the school was more than my meager classroom management skills could handle so I talked to my principal and we agreed on an end of school year departure. The head of school decided I had to leave at the end of the semester, which was a disaster because I had my family.

The country I was working in has strong labor laws so I was well compensated, no problem there, but the timing of the departure, how it affected my reference list and the hoops I had to jump through to stay on Search really makes me wish I had just muddled through the two years.

My advice, be careful when you discuss leaving with your principal or head of school.

Fangpiren,
I would be very interested in knowing the country you left which had strong labour laws.

The simple answer is to communicate clearly with your boss. It's an uncomfortable conversation, but necessary to protect your career prospects.

Communication is important. Also for sure there are many mutually agreed upon contract breakings. And, over the years I have seen people do those and do complete runners and end up better than where they were. I think recruiters understand that some teachers are hired and promises are not honoured and pulling runners would be almost expected if there was no release from a contract. While some recruiters may think 'Ya, well, they should have stuck it out", I think that's complete bollocks. If you are promised extra medical help for your own child or a specific grade level or subject to teach or accommodation only to arrive and that is not honoured then you are perfectly entitled to get the hell out of there. And even recruiting agencies can be sympathetic towards you. I know of schools that have been banned by recruiting agencies for shafting their staff time and again.

You might be overestimating what recruiters think.
As a seasoned recruiter (over 10 years), my opinion is you need to be quite careful about leaving in this way and how you represent it. Never make the classic mistake of running down previous employers. Don’t blame your decision to run on others. There’s a long list of what recruiters DON’T want, and high in the list is someone with a tendency to complain, blame, and expect the unobtainable. Even if your reasons for leaving are entirely valid, how do you represent them without coming across as a risky hire? If your school thought their best option was for you to leave, how does that inspire the next school to bring you in?
Even so, the best scenario is to mutually agree with your school about leaving and then stick to that story. Focus on the positive.

I was in a similar position in a previous post, due to a very corrupt admin. The students were great, but the people running the school made work a kind of hell. I thought about leaving in the October break.

But I have some friends who are administrators at other schools, and what they advised was similar to what Sid has said here.

So I stuck it out for the duration of my contract. It was hard, but I'm glad I stayed. For me, showing that I can honour a contract and keep my CV pristine was worth it because this allowed me to get a job at a much better school after leaving the bad place. The admin really was as bad as they seemed in my first months at the school, but they were happy to give me positive references for Search when I finished my contract, and that meant a lot for getting my new job.

You can PM me if you want to talk more about some strategies for coping in a bad post.

Its usually either another IS, a short term appointment (supply,substitute, relief), or ESOL (tutoring), assuming the IT wants to maintain some form of employment.

Its not difficult explaining pulling a runner, assuming even if the IS finds out somehow (start by not telling them). There are plenty of ISs with less than sterling reputations. Smart people change when given new data and that means exiting a bad situation. A contract isnt a suicide pact.

Dont bring the possibility of departing up unless youre ready, and prepared to leave right then and there, because you have no idea how someone in leadership is going to take that information.

Of course that what @Sid believes thats the leadership agenda. The best choice after such a short period of time is to ghost the experience, fill it with some PD fluff, and move on to the next IS.

> Even so, the best scenario is to mutually agree with your school about
> leaving and then stick to that story. Focus on the positive.

This is good advice.

Also, heard of a teacher who was almost hired and then they found out the 'year off to take care of a family member' -popular to explain a missing year of employment- was made up. They found out talking to his most recent -according to his CV- employer who told them which school he had left them for. It's more likely to come up if you leave a job after a year.
Heard another story where a teacher who also left a school off his CV because of a bad breakup was found out later when a colleague from that ghosted school joined his new school. The Head was pissed and he was allowed to finish the year but was not renewed. The colleague who unintentionally outed him as a liar is now my department head.

As for what to do during the year off, I'd move back home and do some PD and some tutoring. How much tutoring would depend on how much I would have saved up. There's a family cabin I could use so my expenses wouldn't include rent. I would also try to enjoy the time off and just relax.

Which is horrible advice, because you dont know what your IS or various leadership is going to say, think, or do. That mutual agreement only works if its truly mutual.

This is why ghosting an IS early within a few months is preferable to sticking it out.
Yeah cant help those things, but whats the alternative discourse and then just not get hired, this IT got found out but if they hadnt they could then bury the bad IS under the most recent positive IS experience. Of course theres risk but the outcome are generally in favor of ghosting.

Just go to a lower tier IS. If you have good qualifications and experience, the lower down ones with aspirations will take you.

My last school hired a guy against my advice, he was known in our subject community as super flaky, but I wasn't on great terms with management, so they chose not to listen. Lo and behold, he didn't show at the beginning of term, and the guys that I'd recommended have already taken up posts.

There is a job for anyone if you will accept anything.