Hi,
You got a lot of wrong information here.

In Sweden, there are 3 types of schools in terms of legal status (actually 4, but I will not speak about "Riksinternatskolor" which are irrelevant in the discussion):

1) Communal schools (owned and run by the municipality)
2) Free schools (owned and run by private individuals). This category can be itself subdivided in 2 categories: non-profit and for-profit. For-profit schools have a lot of political pressure on them since the last elections.

These two categories are not allowed to accept fees.

3) Free schools which are allowed to accept fees.

There are 2 types of schools in terms of curriculum:

a) Swedish curriculum
b) Other country or international curriculum

All real international schools fall into categories 3/b (except ISSR but as written below ISSR will probably lose its international license).

Engelska skolan schools are NOT international schools. They are regular free schools / Swedish curriculum offering a bilingual education with reinforced English profile. Do not be mistaken ! The Swedish curriculum has extremely low expectations, these schools can by no means be compared with real international schools.

Same applies to "fake" international schools as STIMS and a lot of others.

There are actually very few real international schools in Sweden.

In Stockholm these are:

* SIS (IPC, IMYP, IB curriculum)
* Lycée Francais Saint-Louis (French curriculum)
* Tanto International School (English, probably the best school in Stockholm but only until Year7/Grade 6)
* Futura International (IPC, IMYP)
* BIS (Cross Englisg / IPC)
* ISSR (PYP, IB, but it has a lot of pressure to revert back to Swedish curriculum)

Additionally, some Swedish high schools do run an IB class but they are also under pressure to remove it (Kungsholmens gymnasium) or to be allowed to accept fees (Sigtuna).

[quote="PsyGuy"]The minimum for a international teacher at a second tier school is 2 years of full time teaching experience. Subbing doesnt count. Having a family of 4 with a trailing spouse is going to make it next to impossible. If anything id look to the middle east. Search is unlikely to accept you, as they would not likely be able to place you. Id look at TIE online. Sorry but practically speaking your not employable.[/quote]

Again I just have to disagree, sorry Psyguy.
Had a conversation the other day with a teacher being the mother of 3 kids.

She told me that having kids was a clear asset while looking for jobs in international schools where many non-native speakers study, as her kids would help the language of other kids to develop as well.

She got job offers in Thailand, Myanmar, Korea, Middle East and she thought it was so easy partly due to her family situation.

Hi!
I have a 95 sq m flat in very central Stockholm, very close to the real International School which will be available for rent from August 10th until December 30th and from February 10th until June 10th (I will be back in Stockholm after New Year for app. 1 month).
That would leave you some time to find another flat.

It is fully furnished, fully functional.

Tell me your email if you are interested.

[quote="Mathman"]

My wife gets pretty bored, but she just plays on Facebook or learns to cook. I also take her out often enough. Now we have kids, so not so boring anymore.

[/quote]

hm... there are tons of things to do no matter where you are. I started to read French and Russian classical literature for example. I also play the piano on a pretty good level. I don't understand how it s possible to get bored. There are just tons of things to do, but of course, if you are only interested in Facebook ... :(

[quote="PsyGuy"]Some cities are more conducive to being a training spouse, im not talking BK, Shanghai, Tokyo, Beijing, or any of the major cities in Europe. Im referring to the other less cosmopolitan cities.

I think your associate is just being nice to you, and not getting your hopes up. You have a lot against you, because the competition in the room is more marketable. There going to interview you, but your going to hear a lot of "were waiting".[/quote]

Again, Psyguy, this is YOUR view. I lived in Kazan (Tatarstan) without working, I had a blast learning Russian, traveling in the region, meeting with unexpected people. Trailing spouses can be interested in culture, not only in shopping malls. You seem to be very knowledgeable but it seems that this knowledge tends to lock you into your very definite opinions. Same about the value of schools that you tend to associate to 1) IB accreditation or not 2) pay and that's it.

[quote="PsyGuy"]Its an idea, but sponsoring a dependent visa isnt the real issue, its the cost and the stresses it adds to the relationship, and thus the teacher. Its not common, but trailing spouses without kids, and nothing to do in a foreign country has been known to cause "problems". Basically, there is nothing to do all day. On a second point, if you "sneak" your spouse with you, at some point the schools going to find out, and then what do you say? It could create a real problem for the school.[/quote]


Psyguy,are you a kind of besserwisser?

I am a trailing spouse in Bangkok (so far), and I am fully happy, and have A LOT to do and I don't think I am "causing problems" to my husband ??? What do you know about life in Bangkok???

Please stop responding when you do not know the answer, and not only about that particular topic, thank you.

Thank you very much for your very detailed answer.
This is exactly the feeling I got while visiting Wells and all the parents I have met are definitely happy having their children at Wells.
I think this website is a very dangerous place, especially the pay portion (please have a look at it) as it is very easy for anonymous contributors to write untrue statements and name teachers/admin, not mentioning the reports.
For example, somebody wrote that parents had been warned about the Sukhumvit 47 closure after having paid the fees for the following school year.
By my investigation, this is not true.
Parents told me they had been told about the closure after Songkran, and the payment for the next school year was done in June.
I think Wells should ask for a removal of the reviews mentioning untrue statements / names.

[quote="PsyGuy"]60K Baht is the upper end of the ESL spectrum as salaries go, and is the bottom (scraping the bottom) of the IS market.[/quote]


Hi Psyguy,
I know but I did not expect this kind of answer. I do not see education purely as a market nor as a way to get as much money as possible from the parents pockets. I am a pre-school teacher. I know how to teach. What I would like to know is what would make Wells a worse pre-school than, let's say, NIST?Do you know how much the fee structure differs between the 2 schools at enrolment time?
Do you know that children are up to 22/class at NIST in pre-school? As a parent, I would feel deceived to have my child there.
As UN pays from primary only, many parents decide to put their kids at schools such as Wells first, and switch to NIST or Pattana from Primary onwards.
so I have serious doubts that the education quality would be so much worse at Wells than at NIST as far as the pre-school is concerned.

Hi again!
I got some other inside info from teachers, this time very positive.
Seems indeed like last year was an awful year with many changes going on.
However the new enrolled teachers are happy. They do recommend the school to their friends for applying.
Salary up to 60K, paid holiday, prep time during working hours, no break in promises, lovely kids, good overall atmosphere.
This corresponds to the feelings I had.

I think most private organizations do face structural changes making staff unhappy at some point of time and that's most probably what happened to Wells last year.

By the way, how is Ango-Singapore? They are located very close to my home, but there are not reviewed. Which tier are they?
What's the difference between Anglo and SISB?

I guess I have no chance there if they are truly Singaporean but anyway...

I am mostly interested in knowing about Kindergarten level.

Thanks Ichiro, however I had an interview at Wells, not ASB. What do you think of Wells?
Yes, I am a spouse type (I haven't been teaching for a few years now, making me unemployable by the top ones), so I have more insight about the schools by the parents living around....
What strikes me is that all parents I have talked to are mostly positive, or even very positive, about Wells, whereas teachers seem to be treated badly by the management and seem to hate the school. I had a look at the pay portion of the website and it is a bit scary. However it seems due to the big changes which have occurred last year which has made teachers bitter.

I have also met Kindergarten children going to Wells and found they language and literacy level pretty good, better than the ASB kids I know; I also had a look at their homework/weekly schedule and from that the curriculum seemed ok to me.

I understand the pay makes it a 3rd tier. However, does that make it a worse school? As I wrote above I simply cannot understand how parents / employers afford to pay 1000000 bahts to get their kids at NIST for example. As a parent I would just never pay that amount of money to have my children in a Kindergarten, it seems totally insane. Besides the ratio children/teacher is actually much better at Wells / ASB than Pattana/NIST.




[quote="ichiro"]I've really only just scanned through the above posts, so here goes:

ASB has been around for a long time, and too bad it's not better, but it is indeed a 3rd tier school in Thailand. I applied there a million years ago when I was looking to come to Thailand and they basically offered me a job with nothing more than that...but the salary they quoted was such a joke. Now that I've lived in BKK for several years, I don't think so much that ASB is a glorified English-language school as they are a bottom-end international school. You could do worse than ASB for overseas experience, not to mention international school experience overall in Thailand.

NIST (New International School Thailand), BPS (Bangkok Pattana School) and ISB are without a doubt the top three in all of Thailand. If you're a trailing spouse type, than ASB would probably be fine. The main difference being that 2nd and 3rd tier school in BKK pay about 1/3 to 1/2 of the top tier places.[/quote]

Hi,
What about the international Kindergartens located in Sukhumvit such as:
* IPC
* Ladybird
* Ivy Bound
* ELC
* First Steps

Cannot find any info on this site...

Hi Psyguy,
what about Stims?
They claim to be a Montessori international Swedish curriculum school, with focus in English and Mandarin.
Just the whole thing makes me wonder....
Previously they claimed seeking for IB accreditation but this has disappeared from their website.
No idea whether their Montessori accreditation is real or fake.

Thank you very much for the useful inside info.
Just a few points:
* Wells has closed a location but opened a new one in Bang Na
* I feel everything depends on where you come from. I have been a local teacher in Europe. I had 30 Western or immigrant students in my class. Most of them did not have any sense of respect for the teachers nor for themselves. I had no assistent. I had to do all subjects. At Wells, classes are limited to 15/18, there is an assistent in every class, and specialist teachers for half the schedule.

Aren't international teachers too spoilt somehow?
I understand the pay is normally the usual concern, and as I explained above, due to my family situation, it is not an issue for me. I am more concerned about whether it is actually possible to teach on a good level or not, which I felt was impossible in my previous career.

As regards the for profit/non profit, sorry, but when you see that parents have to pay 1 million bahts the first year they enrol at NIST and that they are 22 / class in Kindergarten, I feel Wells is not the most "for-profit" school of Bangkok.

I have always been wondering how parents, or their employer, think it is worth to pay so much money at Pattana or NIST just for a Kindergarten, or actually even primary curriculum. They are just buying a brand, but I am not sure you can objectively tell the content is necessarily better than in so-called tier-3 schools.



[quote="gr8teach"]I've heard rough things about both schools. I know people who work for both and one who has spent time in each.

Wells seems to be having a tough go as of late. They have closed one location and have had many staff leave. Some staff who have left claim to have been wrongfully dismissed. I've heard from various friends in fact that they are suing the school. The Headmaster from what I hear doesn't have an Education degree. He is an Engineer. Furthermore, (according to my source) most teachers that claim to have certification are just taking the masters program at Framingham (common in Thailand) to become certified. In fact its common in Thailand with such a glut of international tier 2 & 3 schools that they hire some some un-certified teachers ( particularly in the Nursery and Kindergarten). The school, from what I hear, is very proprietary-- run by a Taiwanese man who is looking solely at profit margins.

ASB has had significant problems in the past. See there profile on the pay portion of this site. However, people I know who have worked there recent seem to say it ok and generally on the up swing. Not a bad place to start your career. The school has grown a lot and in some ways is struggling to keep up with numbers. It is run by a family and although their ideas are misguided at times they do care about education. That said they do also care about profit. I know many teachers leaving there this year for much better opportunities in other locations- so perhaps its a good stepping stone?

Frankly, all low tier two and tier three schools in BKK lose they top staff (and have higher turnover) as the pay scale is just to low- particularly if your in the Sukhumvit-Silom area. Only people who stay are those who just won't leave Thailand for lifestyle reasons.

I have a friend who has worked at both schools and she believes ASB is a better school. More professional, better structured and you don't fear for losing your job.

Both schools I think are certified by WASC and offer AP. Be wary of IB accreditation-- I believe what they are claiming is they are becoming a candidate school with is a three year process.[/quote]

[quote="PsyGuy"]Its hard to describe an "international school", as international when the student body is homogeneous. Kind of takes the international out of it. I cant tell you which to trust, as I know neither the gossip, nor your gut. Personally, if there are a number of teachers with the same story and complaints, i have to believe that there is some credibility in numbers.[/quote]

Actually the student body is not that homogeneous. It does look that way because 99% of the kids are Asian but that includes Japanese, Koreans, Thai, bi-nationals Thai+Western, Thai with Indian descent, some Chinese, some Filipinos..

So the culture is "Asian" whatever it means... but I would not say it is not international. In pre-school level, Thai nationals are the exception, Japanese kids outnumber others. In primary/secondary levels, Thai nationals rise in numbers, up to the point where it becomes an almost 100% Thai school in G11-12. Looks like many Japanese parents wish their kids to have an exposure to the English language before they start their primary in a Japanese school, whereas Thai teens hope to get into a better Thai university if they have graduated from an "international" school.