The International Schools Review Forum

Hello,

I am looking into two different schools in Kazakhstan (the Intellectual schools which really is a group of local schools and to a lesser degree Hailebury, which seems to be a British school with local students). The paid section of the website has some contradicting information on the former, and just one review on the latter...

Does anyone know anything about these schools, whether the savings potential is as good as they claim, etc? What is life like in Almaty? What is the visa process like?

I appreciate any information you can give me!

Thanks.

I haven't lived or worked in Kazakhstan, but some of my former co-workers had. They did not have wonderful things to say, but also didn't think it was the worst place in the world. The biggest complaint was the expense of traveling out of the country during the breaks.

Last year when we were on the job market, we got a cold call/email from the intellectual school asking us to interview -- basically offering us a job. I started to look into them and was not impressed with the information I found. If you do a search, there was an extensive thread on the conditions at the school. There was some good insight from current and past teachers. From what I remember from that thread, a lot of the promises were not kept and the conditions were not great. The salary looks really good, but doesn't allow for as much savings as you would think given the cost of living. Look for that thread to get information from actual teachers there.

Thanks for the information. I just saw the thread and it was very enlightening!

There is a second school called Hailebury Almaty that also seems to have a vacancy in my field, but there is only one review on the paid side of ISR. Does anyone know anything about this school?