The International Schools Review Forum

Hi,
My wife and I are looking to move back to Europe with our two young children. We're at a great school in Singapore right now and have thoroughly enjoyed Asia and the school itself. All the practical considerations are there of course- will it be a good education for the kids, will we be paid enough not to worry about money etc- and we definitely want to live somewhere beautiful and /or with a rich culture.
Most of those things we can take an educated guess at. What is hard to figure out is which schools have a happy, positive atmosphere. I thought it might be a question that lots of people might be interested in, but forgive me if it has been asked before.
In short, which schools are happy ones?
Where are the staff friendly, the kids and parents contented, the general tone an upbeat, good-humoured one? Places where people laugh would be number one I think. I'm curious about Europe, but maybe others would be interested in schools in other places? Where in your experience are people happy?
I'll start by saying that Greengates in Mexico is wonderfully human, very warm and a great place to work and UWC in Singapore whilst very busy, has a fantastic staff and a wonderfully can-do vibe.
Anywhere come to mind?

While there are a few truly GREAT schools (IS Brussels for example), in my experience working in Western Europe is always a balancing act between the high costs of living (and good compensation packages mean little when half your salary goes to taxes, etc) and the opportunity to live in Western Europe. You just cant live the lifestyles that you can in Asia. To that end very few people are really "happy" maybe content for the time being but happy I dont see. Dont get me wrong the kids are great, the parents generally supportive, and the schools run well enough, but every teacher I meet and talk to is either over worked, under paid, bored/tired/restless (and often a result of being over worked/under paid), or a combination of the three....

There are several decent schools in Europe where you can save decent money including ISPrague, IS Warsaw, ISBudapest, ISHague, and ISBucharest. In general if you stay away from Western Europe and Scandinavian countries, you can find about a dozen decent schools spread over Eastern/Central Europe that pay well, give decent housing allowances, and where you can save a lot. Most of these schools are in the CEESA conference and most of the educators I know who have worked at these schools are generally happy. There are a lot of competition for these jobs, though.