Hi,
I've been offered a job at this school but I haven't decided as of yet. Does anyone know anything about this school? I looked at their website and it seems pretty good. They have a US curriculum too. I've never heard of this city in Italy before, so just wondering. Need to know before I make a final decision as I have another offer at Turin School.
International School of Trieste
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Guest
Trieste is way up northeast on the border of Slovenia. I don't really know much about the school.
I know about the school in Turin though. I have a friend who taught there. She had a pretty good experience and loved Turin. We just visited her there last month, and turin was quite lovely...more than I thought. She is returning to the States because her 2 year tax free status is over, and it's too expensive for her to stay on in Italy.
Turin is a PYP school (International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme). They were just authorized this past spring. I recommend Turin because I am a fan of PYP! And Turin doesn't seem to be so geographically isolated as Trieste.
Which school pays more? Because you are going to need all the money you can get to live here in Italy! Salaries are low and cost of living is high! Save up!!!
I know about the school in Turin though. I have a friend who taught there. She had a pretty good experience and loved Turin. We just visited her there last month, and turin was quite lovely...more than I thought. She is returning to the States because her 2 year tax free status is over, and it's too expensive for her to stay on in Italy.
Turin is a PYP school (International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme). They were just authorized this past spring. I recommend Turin because I am a fan of PYP! And Turin doesn't seem to be so geographically isolated as Trieste.
Which school pays more? Because you are going to need all the money you can get to live here in Italy! Salaries are low and cost of living is high! Save up!!!
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Trieste
Trieste school
I have a friend who has worked there for the past two years. He seems to have liked the school. I visited him last summer, checked out the school, and stayed in Trieste for 4 days. I thought it was a nice school. It is a small school from what I recall. I talked with the director who seemed like a nice guy.
The city itself was nice and it seemed off the beaten track for many tourists. It was a good gateway to go to Slovenia which is a gorgeous country, plus you are right on the sea. I know nothing about the school in Turin, but I can tell you that I had a good impression of both the school and city of Trieste. Good luck.
The city itself was nice and it seemed off the beaten track for many tourists. It was a good gateway to go to Slovenia which is a gorgeous country, plus you are right on the sea. I know nothing about the school in Turin, but I can tell you that I had a good impression of both the school and city of Trieste. Good luck.
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Sara
Great students
I know this may be way too late for you, but my school in the States did an exchange with the school in Trieste two years ago. My very good friend and former colleage set it up before she herself jumped ship to go teach EFL in Rome. They seem like a really nice school--bright, funny kids with excellent English--they were definitely on par with many of my school's brightest students, who are native English speakers. Their director came too, and he put me at ease, as did the faculty who came with. It's a small school, and Trieste can be a bit chilly from what I hear, but they seem like a friendly, laid-back place to work.
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babyshambles
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:24 pm
International School of Trieste
Hi.
I just signed on today and read the posts on International School of Trieste. I was surprised to see people posting about that little school. Although, I am probably late in replying to the person who asked for advice. but I thought I would write, since I worked at this school.
TWO WORDS - AVOID IT.
The city is located right on the Slovenian border, which as one poster said makes it for great travel to eastern europe, so that is about the only plus.
I started there three, four years ago and broke contract. I know that prior to me and after me, contracts kept getting broken.
The staff: mix of Brits, Americans, Canadians (at the time)
The Director: He left about 2 years ago after being there for about 20 years. Currently, the director is Jim Pasitor, an American. He worked his was from the Jnr. High Principal to Director. From what I saw and from my contacts who are still in the in, he is a terrible. Favors Americans and has a very Rumsfeld approach. My way or the highway. He only recruits out of the big Boston fair and only Americans. Many of the teachers that I worked with had little if any credentials.
It is a poorly run school, with office staff telling teachers off, staff backstabbing and money not being there for pay day. One day, the 'accountant' had us all lined up on the last day for Christmasbreak and we had to wait hours for our pay. When I got my turn, she had to literally look in drawers for cash..
Pity, that the children are being short changed.
Currently, I am working at one of the best schools in Mexico, with teachers winning prestigious American sponsored teacher awards.
There are some good schools in Rome, but avoid Marymount, St. Stephens.
They also have a sister school in Udine, run by the same school. Avoid it!
Cheers
I just signed on today and read the posts on International School of Trieste. I was surprised to see people posting about that little school. Although, I am probably late in replying to the person who asked for advice. but I thought I would write, since I worked at this school.
TWO WORDS - AVOID IT.
The city is located right on the Slovenian border, which as one poster said makes it for great travel to eastern europe, so that is about the only plus.
I started there three, four years ago and broke contract. I know that prior to me and after me, contracts kept getting broken.
The staff: mix of Brits, Americans, Canadians (at the time)
The Director: He left about 2 years ago after being there for about 20 years. Currently, the director is Jim Pasitor, an American. He worked his was from the Jnr. High Principal to Director. From what I saw and from my contacts who are still in the in, he is a terrible. Favors Americans and has a very Rumsfeld approach. My way or the highway. He only recruits out of the big Boston fair and only Americans. Many of the teachers that I worked with had little if any credentials.
It is a poorly run school, with office staff telling teachers off, staff backstabbing and money not being there for pay day. One day, the 'accountant' had us all lined up on the last day for Christmasbreak and we had to wait hours for our pay. When I got my turn, she had to literally look in drawers for cash..
Pity, that the children are being short changed.
Currently, I am working at one of the best schools in Mexico, with teachers winning prestigious American sponsored teacher awards.
There are some good schools in Rome, but avoid Marymount, St. Stephens.
They also have a sister school in Udine, run by the same school. Avoid it!
Cheers
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jimpastore
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:38 am
- Location: Trieste, Italy
Hello from Jim Pastore, Director, IS Trieste
It certainly was gratifying to read so many (unsolicited) nice comments in the replies to the teacher who, back in June 2006 started this discussion about IST.
I was particularly pleased to see that comments came from visitors of current staff, and a teacher from a school with whom we did an exchange.
I wondered immediately as to how they knew about/found this site to comment...but I was happy about what they wrote, and already was thinking how to share (probably by printing the webage as is) what they wrote with my staff and school families.
Then I got to the comment by "babyshambles" posted Friday, Jan. 5th 2007.
Wow. What a blast of cold water. My hands are still shaking as I realize that "babyshambles" comments will be online forever, and there is nothing any of our hard work over the last several years, nor what we plan to do over the next year, can do to eliminate what "babyshambles" wrote.
But I feel obligated at least to respond to what I perceive as misinformed comments. I would like to state that I openly invite anyone to visit IST- just give me a few days advance notice so I can be available to give you a tour, arrange for lunch, and make you welcome! I would also like to state that while I respected before the ISR policy of allowing people to post without using their real names (as you can do all over the web), I can say that the shock in having to see yourself call "Rumsfeld" is quite distressing, to say the least. As for seeing my name misspelled... well, emailed spelling errors happen to the best of us, and I excuse "babyshambles" that error.
Point by point:
1. I was hired to take over the school, with the first year to be the Principal/Assistant Director/Middle School English Teacher. I did not "work my way (up)."
2. "Favors Americans": IST has, over the last two years, given 4 local hires large increases in their contracts; given lifetime contracts to a Canadian, one American, and three Italians (one an ex student now a teacher) after their third years at IST; obtained two year extensions for three British teachers; hired as full time teachers an Irishman, 7 Americans (one a returnee to IST from 5 years ago), a Ukrainian, 2 Brits (sorry if I missed anyone); given teaching jobs to two qualified interns to stay second years to teach Literature and Science.
Sorry if I sound defensive, but after having lived overseas in 6 countries for 17+ years, I feel so not "American" that I has to address this!
3. "My way of the Highway": hard to address, as I don't know what that refers too, but I'll take a stab at it. I rarely say to staff "do it my way or else." If anyone can give me a concrete example, I would love to hear it, and I will make sure to ask staff to help me on this one when we return to school for 5 inservice days Sept. 3-7.
4. "Mix of Brits, Americans and Canadians (at the time)": I did manage to hire one Canadian intern for next year, and I offered a job to a Canadian teacher who chose to stay where she is for another year. We do have perhaps (but I am not sure) less Canadians now, but for one very important reason. We have found out from our tax consultant that any Canadians who come to work at IST must pay taxes at home in Canada. They are not tax free for two years at home, as are teachers from the USA or the UK (or most of the rest of Europe), as Canada does not have an agreement that covers teachers in this way with Italy. I discovered this while trying to help a potential Canadian hire figure out how to make ends meet here in Italy if she accepted the job and still had to pay taxes to the Canadian government. In the end, she had to say no for tax reasons.
5. "He only recruits out of the big Boston fair...": I go through one company, SEARCH Associates. I hire at their Boston fair to also have access to lots of interns who are certified, and I also hire from SEARCH online.
6. "Many of the teachers I worked with had little if any credentials": I cannot speak to the school and its hires before I arrived, but IST's policy has always been to hire qualified teachers. In the last two years IST has only hired credentialed teachers. The new hires for my first school year as Director in 05-06 had the following:
Grade 1: 15+ years in British schools and certification
Kindergarten: BA in Music, MA in Elementary Ed, 5 years in a private school in NYC, USA
Grade 2: 4+ years in the UK and fully certified
All the interns hired that year except one (with a Yale degree in Music, hired to teach music), were certified by US Universities to teach
The story was similar for 06-07 (apart from two interns/teachers hired to do PE and Music when a teacher decided to opt out in May of a second year on her verbal agreement to return home to Canada, so I had to hire on very short notice), and again for 07-08.
Of course, we will hire people without certification if we need too- and if they have equivalent experience working with children in an educational atmosphere, such as our last PE teacher for 06-07, who ended up being one of the best overall teachers of children I have ever seen.
7. "Office staff telling teachers off"unfortunately, I have seen this happen in every single school I have worked in... it is human that people who are in contact with one another every day, will occasionally "have words" with one another. Having said that, we are working hard to make IST a place where all staff (teachers, Admin, cleaners, cooks, office workers, guards, groundskeeper, etc.) treat each other with respect and dignity. I will say that specific examples that are brought to my attention are worked on... but we can only "fix" what we know about, so I constantly encourage staff to communicate with one another and with me.
8. The first thing that the IST School Board and new Bursar authorized when I "took over" (for lack of a better term) two years ago in July 2005, was to set a new policy of all new hires will have bank accounts opened for them by the school within days of their arrival. This was done because I had heard of issues with paying teachers in cash, etc. I actually witnessed the cash distribution process my first December here, in Dec. 2005, and swore then that we would professionalize the way we pay staff. This we have done.
As for looking in drawers for cash- anything like that is now in the past for two years.
9. "Pity, the children are being short changed": sigh... how to respond.
a. Enrollment has gone from 240 two years ago to over 310 for September 2007.
b. There are waiting lists at most levels from the 2 year old program up into middle school- and all rooms are full up to 7th grade (three spaces) and above.
c. Parents are happy their children are happy... they raised this year close to 10,000 Euros for four different charity projects.
d. Our overall tuition is the lowest for the diplomas given by International Schools in all of Italy- and includes a hot lunch in the price.
I better stop... I don't want to brag, I just want to point out that things are getting better, and can always get better.
The irony of "babyshambles" bragging about being at one of the "best schools in Mexico...with teachers winning prestigious American sponsored teacher awards" does not escape me!
What can change things, however, is communication.
I will say, in ending, that I encourage "babyshambles" to contact me and to visit IST again.
A face to face discussion over a cup of coffee or lunch, rather than an anonymous email filled with information that is second or third hand ("babyshambles" wrote "...from my contacts who are still in the in.") would be of great help to IST and to me in making this school continually better.
but I will admit it... it does hurt to read what "babyshambles" wrote. Guess I'll just have to take what he/she said, and try to make it into something good for IST and good for me, as I hope I have done above.
Thank you all for your patience in reading this exceedingly long response!
Sincerely,
Jim Pastore, Director, IST
I was particularly pleased to see that comments came from visitors of current staff, and a teacher from a school with whom we did an exchange.
I wondered immediately as to how they knew about/found this site to comment...but I was happy about what they wrote, and already was thinking how to share (probably by printing the webage as is) what they wrote with my staff and school families.
Then I got to the comment by "babyshambles" posted Friday, Jan. 5th 2007.
Wow. What a blast of cold water. My hands are still shaking as I realize that "babyshambles" comments will be online forever, and there is nothing any of our hard work over the last several years, nor what we plan to do over the next year, can do to eliminate what "babyshambles" wrote.
But I feel obligated at least to respond to what I perceive as misinformed comments. I would like to state that I openly invite anyone to visit IST- just give me a few days advance notice so I can be available to give you a tour, arrange for lunch, and make you welcome! I would also like to state that while I respected before the ISR policy of allowing people to post without using their real names (as you can do all over the web), I can say that the shock in having to see yourself call "Rumsfeld" is quite distressing, to say the least. As for seeing my name misspelled... well, emailed spelling errors happen to the best of us, and I excuse "babyshambles" that error.
Point by point:
1. I was hired to take over the school, with the first year to be the Principal/Assistant Director/Middle School English Teacher. I did not "work my way (up)."
2. "Favors Americans": IST has, over the last two years, given 4 local hires large increases in their contracts; given lifetime contracts to a Canadian, one American, and three Italians (one an ex student now a teacher) after their third years at IST; obtained two year extensions for three British teachers; hired as full time teachers an Irishman, 7 Americans (one a returnee to IST from 5 years ago), a Ukrainian, 2 Brits (sorry if I missed anyone); given teaching jobs to two qualified interns to stay second years to teach Literature and Science.
Sorry if I sound defensive, but after having lived overseas in 6 countries for 17+ years, I feel so not "American" that I has to address this!
3. "My way of the Highway": hard to address, as I don't know what that refers too, but I'll take a stab at it. I rarely say to staff "do it my way or else." If anyone can give me a concrete example, I would love to hear it, and I will make sure to ask staff to help me on this one when we return to school for 5 inservice days Sept. 3-7.
4. "Mix of Brits, Americans and Canadians (at the time)": I did manage to hire one Canadian intern for next year, and I offered a job to a Canadian teacher who chose to stay where she is for another year. We do have perhaps (but I am not sure) less Canadians now, but for one very important reason. We have found out from our tax consultant that any Canadians who come to work at IST must pay taxes at home in Canada. They are not tax free for two years at home, as are teachers from the USA or the UK (or most of the rest of Europe), as Canada does not have an agreement that covers teachers in this way with Italy. I discovered this while trying to help a potential Canadian hire figure out how to make ends meet here in Italy if she accepted the job and still had to pay taxes to the Canadian government. In the end, she had to say no for tax reasons.
5. "He only recruits out of the big Boston fair...": I go through one company, SEARCH Associates. I hire at their Boston fair to also have access to lots of interns who are certified, and I also hire from SEARCH online.
6. "Many of the teachers I worked with had little if any credentials": I cannot speak to the school and its hires before I arrived, but IST's policy has always been to hire qualified teachers. In the last two years IST has only hired credentialed teachers. The new hires for my first school year as Director in 05-06 had the following:
Grade 1: 15+ years in British schools and certification
Kindergarten: BA in Music, MA in Elementary Ed, 5 years in a private school in NYC, USA
Grade 2: 4+ years in the UK and fully certified
All the interns hired that year except one (with a Yale degree in Music, hired to teach music), were certified by US Universities to teach
The story was similar for 06-07 (apart from two interns/teachers hired to do PE and Music when a teacher decided to opt out in May of a second year on her verbal agreement to return home to Canada, so I had to hire on very short notice), and again for 07-08.
Of course, we will hire people without certification if we need too- and if they have equivalent experience working with children in an educational atmosphere, such as our last PE teacher for 06-07, who ended up being one of the best overall teachers of children I have ever seen.
7. "Office staff telling teachers off"unfortunately, I have seen this happen in every single school I have worked in... it is human that people who are in contact with one another every day, will occasionally "have words" with one another. Having said that, we are working hard to make IST a place where all staff (teachers, Admin, cleaners, cooks, office workers, guards, groundskeeper, etc.) treat each other with respect and dignity. I will say that specific examples that are brought to my attention are worked on... but we can only "fix" what we know about, so I constantly encourage staff to communicate with one another and with me.
8. The first thing that the IST School Board and new Bursar authorized when I "took over" (for lack of a better term) two years ago in July 2005, was to set a new policy of all new hires will have bank accounts opened for them by the school within days of their arrival. This was done because I had heard of issues with paying teachers in cash, etc. I actually witnessed the cash distribution process my first December here, in Dec. 2005, and swore then that we would professionalize the way we pay staff. This we have done.
As for looking in drawers for cash- anything like that is now in the past for two years.
9. "Pity, the children are being short changed": sigh... how to respond.
a. Enrollment has gone from 240 two years ago to over 310 for September 2007.
b. There are waiting lists at most levels from the 2 year old program up into middle school- and all rooms are full up to 7th grade (three spaces) and above.
c. Parents are happy their children are happy... they raised this year close to 10,000 Euros for four different charity projects.
d. Our overall tuition is the lowest for the diplomas given by International Schools in all of Italy- and includes a hot lunch in the price.
I better stop... I don't want to brag, I just want to point out that things are getting better, and can always get better.
The irony of "babyshambles" bragging about being at one of the "best schools in Mexico...with teachers winning prestigious American sponsored teacher awards" does not escape me!
What can change things, however, is communication.
I will say, in ending, that I encourage "babyshambles" to contact me and to visit IST again.
A face to face discussion over a cup of coffee or lunch, rather than an anonymous email filled with information that is second or third hand ("babyshambles" wrote "...from my contacts who are still in the in.") would be of great help to IST and to me in making this school continually better.
but I will admit it... it does hurt to read what "babyshambles" wrote. Guess I'll just have to take what he/she said, and try to make it into something good for IST and good for me, as I hope I have done above.
Thank you all for your patience in reading this exceedingly long response!
Sincerely,
Jim Pastore, Director, IST
I did 2 years in Trieste from 1990-1992 and absolutely loved it- but you hve to get to know the locals and really fit into the culture. I taught at the British School of Trieste di Peter Brown and in a co-school in Monfalcone. I think the school has been sld now. I would recommend Trieste to anyone but i am afraid I don't know anything about the Internatinal School. One teacher left our place to go work there for more money and seemed to like it tho.
Good luck...forza gli triestini! :twisted:
Good luck...forza gli triestini! :twisted:
Execelent & mature response Jim,
My wife and I were interested in your school, unfortunately, you didn't advertise an art & historysocial studies position this year. She would like to eventually live in Italy in the future.
We will be touring Italy over our spring break, however, we are not going any further than Florence... or else we will be taking you up on your offer :wink:
<--Pike----
"I have met my wife, and I am hers!" :lol:
My wife and I were interested in your school, unfortunately, you didn't advertise an art & historysocial studies position this year. She would like to eventually live in Italy in the future.
We will be touring Italy over our spring break, however, we are not going any further than Florence... or else we will be taking you up on your offer :wink:
<--Pike----
"I have met my wife, and I am hers!" :lol: