The International Schools Review Forum

We are currently teaching in South America and have started the process of looking for our next school. Since this is our first contract, I would love to hear from teachers who have traveled to one of the various fairs. None of the teachers from our school attended fairs last year, so we are not sure of the etiquette.

I am specifically interesting in hearing how agreeable schools have been in giving time off and providing recommendations prior to the fair. Have you found that International Schools assume that their teachers will also be traveling to the fairs where they are recruiting?

Good schools will give you time (usually 3-5 days) to go to a recruiting fair, and won't penalize you for it. I told my administrator last year; he said he'd let me go, but I would have to give up 5 of my sick days.

If the school won't give you the time off to go to a fair and refuses to give you a reference, I'd say you're making the right decision in getting away from that school.

Thank you durianfan. That is very helpful.

At my previous school in China, I had a total of 7 sick days per year.