The International Schools Review Forum

Looking for advice.

My partner and I have worked at two international schools previously before coming home for a few years. We have great references from those schools and I have solid references from my current school. We're trying to get back to international teaching next year, however...

My partner, who has been at his current school for 3 years, cannot get references from the admin. The school itself is well known in the area to be a pretty terrible school for reasons I won't get into (but I'll say that they made international press for it), but that doesn't help us reactivate our Search files either. Search won't usually reactivate your file without current references from admin.

Advice? I'm at my wit's end about this. I don't know what we can do. I don't want us to be locked out of international teaching and Search forever because of one god awful mistake of a school.

I would contact Search and ask what "admin" references they'll accept--head of department, assistant principal, etc. My principal was fired at the end of my first year at one school, and I had only known the new principal a couple months before I needed a reference. The fired principal promised a reference, but then never answered my followup emails. I do remember Search insisting I needed the reference, but I can't remember if someone that was admin other than the principal was acceptable. Good luck!

I agree--talk to your associate. My husband worked at a district where the principal and superintendent were the same person. He WAS the department, so no HOD. He only had one person who was his boss, and Search required at least two supervisor references for an initial signup. The associate helped him figure out his options (honestly, I don't remember if he did extra parent references, references from a colleague/HOD, or something else).

I wouldnt tell SA or discuss it with your associate. Heres the problem, youre assuming that SA and your associate and EVERY recruiter and leadership would and is agreeing with you. Once you disclose you cant undisclose and take it back. You lose all control over what you do with that experience. You cant force or control a recruiter or leadership not to contact this individual or not to listen to what they say, you cant tell them to only talk to X and Y individual who support you. All you can do is choose what information you share, and once youve done that you have no further control.
I would suggest you consider just ghosting the IS from your resume and tell SA your spouse was just a trailing spouse and maybe taught some ESOL or tutoring on a limited part time basis, to get past the current admin reference for SA, and then size up various recruiters based on your experience with them on whether you disclose the experience or not.