We moved abroad with out (then) 13 year old daughter, to a country we'd only visited once on holiday and even then to a different city. Some thoughts from that experience...

1. Tell them as soon as possible. Preferably the minute you make the decision to move, even before you know where you're going. They need time to process what is happening, what will be expected, how it will affect them.

2. Involve them as far as possible in all decisions. If they decide, for whatever reason, they really don't want to move to a certain country, then don't go there. My daughter took very strongly against UAE, for some reason, and when I did apply for a couple of jobs there she really took it badly (needless to say that's not where we ended up!) Lesson learnt...

3. Once you have an offer from a school, sit down with the kids and go through the school website and information with them. You'll have done this already yourself as part of the vetting for the school, but let them see what they are getting into and that they are happy with it.

4. Get them set up with Facebook, FaceTime, etc. FB has age limits technically but if you're sensible with it then it can be really useful for keeping in touch with grannies, friends, etc. My daughter still talks to many of her friends back home, and is currently arranging what to do with them when she's back in the summer.

5. Whatever the kids say, don't expect them to be happy all the time about the move. They will see you're excited, and looking forward to it, and might not want to burst that bubble by talking to you about their worries about the move. We didn't spot this until about 3 or 4 months into our time here, and that was probably the most difficult period since our move. Get them to talk to you, their school guidance teacher / year head / class teacher before they go, and when they get there let them know about the support network available to them.

6. Prepare for homesickness. They will miss people, including some they didn't expect. Make sure that grandparents, cousins, aunties are all on side at least to the kids about the move, as if they're not it will make things worse.

7. Bring photos, favourite books / toys, clothes, anything which will give them some familiarity from home. Depending on the country you are going to, this could include pets. As others said, try to find out which of their favourite foods are not available in the country you are going to, and bring some with you to ration.

Our first move was difficult, but not impossible. We're about to take on our second, and this time we're more prepared and ready for it.

I don't know about Search shrinking, but I've had the feeling there are less jobs around this year. Both my wife & I are registered, but neither of us have had any bites through Search (we both got jobs though!) Admittedly I'm humanities, and we were excluding most of the Middle East, but even just observing them there doesn't seem to be much.

You don't say which country - that will make a difference. Can you live comfortably on one salary? Also, if your wife is there with boarding responsibilities, then she'll have a work visa for that country (presumably) and will be able then, if a teacher, to do some cover / supply work as needed.

If it was me, I'd double check about the likelihood of cover work and something coming up either this year or next, and take it. As we say in Scotland, if it's for ye, it'll no' go by ye!

@carolina - that's true. It's required for almost every job in Scotland now and I think more and more in England too. I don't really like it - especially in person as you don't always know the class - but I can see why from a recruiter's perspective it makes sense.

Just trying to work this out - so do you point the camera at yourself only, or have it across the classroom? How exactly can this be of much use to people - I don't really have the knowledge or ability to edit a video!

@psyguy - that's true (I didn't learn anything on mine that I didn't already know), but is it not the case that (a) you have to get it at some point to teach IB, or at least by when the school is certified, and (b) it would then be $800 that the school doesn't have to pay out?

If you get a job in an IB school, you will have to go through some training at least to Category 1 level pretty much as soon as you get there, so it would probably be of benefit to get it done (in your case, it's one less thing for the school to pay for!) Certainly at secondary, though, it's experience which counts as much as anything else.

Put it this way - it wouldn't hurt to do it (my wife just did, completed the course before Christmas, paying for it ourselves, before landing a job with a UK curriculum school. Typical....!)

@psyguy - but to me (as someone looking primarily at British schools) that would ring alarm bells. It's such a basic thing for UK teachers that it would show that the head either was so out of touch with British teaching that he didn't understand why this was a problem, or that he was a little creepy.

You need to ask for info on this on the members' boards - can't do anything here.

joe30 wrote:
> All that stress, all that work, all that expense...for something that could
> be just as easily accomplished with a 30 minute Skype interview.
>
> These fairs are very outdated and I can't see them lasting much longer.

I get your point - but I still think that meeting face-to-face is better than Skype. You get a much better feel for someone's personality that way and how they look, present themselves, etc. And not everywhere has fantastic internet which can sustain Skype (even in places like the UK!)

CountingCarbons wrote:

> Cons -
> Was told not to have a digital portfolio and then in my last interview it
> was requested. I had to throw something together and it's not quite up to
> the standard that I would want it to be at. I wish it had been stressed to
> have one, especially for new teachers.

If schools are insisting on this then it's going to be a real problem for them with teachers coming from UK schools. It's forbidden through child protection legislation (you have to get individual permission from each parent of each child pictured or whose work is used, whether named or not making it incredibly difficult) and even for those of us abroad could threaten our continued registration.

That said, I hope something works out for you!

Gluxnis wrote:
> Just an update to the original post: It's been 17 days since we first sent
> money to Spinks / GEL. Still have not been refunded.

Like I said before - go to CAB. Get a small claims notification and tell him you will take action. Report to Trading Standards at your local council.

This all sounds awful.

Firstly, on the fees paid. It's illegal in the UK for a recruiter to charge a fee to recruit - the fee needs to be paid by the employer. This is why Search candidates registered through the UK office - not all of whom are either UK nationals or even in the UK - do not pay for the London fair, or pay the joining fee. This applies whatever your nationality - so there would certainly be interest from Trading Standards about this.

If you don't get your money back, I would look into getting a Small Claims Court settlement against them. Your local Citizens Advice would be able to help with this - you can probably find details on your local council website. Brit Expat99 - do the same, this is a service which has not met reasonable expectations.

Just say "Hello, I'm a friend of Donald".....

OK, I'm getting seriously frustrated now by the prehistoric approach so many schools seem to take to recruiting. When applications were by letter, I could understand not getting a reply. But it's so easy now to set up a simple automated reply that it just strikes me as unprofessional and lazy not to reply. I don't accept the argument that "oh, they get 100s of applications so it's too difficult" - major companies can get that for low level jobs and still at least send out a blanket rejection email so you know where you stand.

It's also immensely frustrating not knowing why I'm not being considered. Is it my teaching experience? Is it because the school
is and American system school and I'm a British teacher? Is it because, although I have taught university entrance exams in my home country, I haven't taught A level because at my school students aren't encouraged to teach Humanities?