Trying to get into international school counseling. Had 3 interviews and an offer with this one school (in BKK) , then told me 2 weeks later after I called them that they went with another counselor. This was back in June.

Last week, they called and asked if I was still interested (wouldnt tell me what happened with the counselor they got). When I asked them to send me a proper job offer for me to read through since i already went through 3 interviews and gave them my expected salary, they said it was only for internals to read, and if I have questions about the role, they can set up a meeting for me with the headmaster.

So i have a meeting set up for this upcoming Thursday, but I was wondering if this is normal for international schools to be so secretive with their job offers? Back in June, they also sent me only a tentative offer showing only the salary, and if I'm okay with it, that I can come in and sign the real thing, which i already thought was odd.

I’ve just read that 126 Primary 1 classes were culled this year in HK. Wondering if that wave has hit mainland schools too.

How’s 1st Grade looking in your school this year? Has your school reduced homeroom classes in that grade or is it still the same?

Interested to see how many hours people are racking up of extra duties (supervision during lunches, playtimes, etc)? I'm on 3 hours and 50 mins this year.

Nobody should make a habit of accepting jobs and walking away. Your reputation matters. But teachers also shouldn’t automatically sacrifice a major career opportunity, their family’s interests, or their wellbeing simply because they already said yes or signed a contract.
10 reasons I think backing out of an accepted offer—or even leaving mid-contract—can sometimes be justified:
1. You get a genuine Tier 1 opportunity.
If you’re at a lower-tier school and an exceptional school offers significantly better stability, leadership, working conditions and career prospects, that opportunity might not come around again.
2. Your current workplace is toxic.
Bullying, intimidation, retaliation, extreme micromanagement, unethical practices or a seriously unhealthy culture aren’t things you should tolerate simply because you signed for two years.
3. Your health and wellbeing matter more than completing a contract.
No job is worth sacrificing your physical or mental wellbeing just so your CV looks cleaner.
4. The school isn’t what was advertised.
Sometimes the workload, responsibilities, benefits, curriculum, management or working conditions turn out to be materially different from what you were sold during recruitment.
5. Your family’s situation improves dramatically.
Better housing, healthcare, tuition, safety, location or financial security affects your entire family. Your employer isn’t the only stakeholder in your career decisions.
6. The new school offers genuine long-term stability.
I’d rather back out of one offer—or break one contract—and then spend 7–10 years somewhere excellent than technically honor every contract while bouncing between unstable schools every 1–2 years.
7. Teachers are replaceable—and so are schools.
It sounds harsh, but it’s reality. If you leave, the school will advertise your position and hire another teacher. Likewise, teachers shouldn’t behave as though one employer is their only possible option. Employment is a two-way relationship. Employers break contracts when is suits them so why not you ?
8. Schools make decisions in their own interests too.
Schools restructure, terminate, non-renew and replace employees when they believe it’s necessary. Teachers shouldn’t act recklessly, but they also have the right to make major career decisions in their own long-term interests.
9. Serious red flags sometimes appear only after accepting or starting.
High turnover, revolving-door leadership, constant firings, unreasonable workloads, parent appeasement or fear-based management cultures aren’t always visible during a Zoom interview.
10. You can leave professionally.
Backing out doesn’t mean ghosting HR. Breaking contract doesn’t have to mean disappearing during winter break. Communicate early, give as much notice as reasonably possible, complete a proper handover and meet legitimate contractual obligations.
And one more important distinction:
One contract break doesn’t define a 20–30 year career. A pattern does.
Someone who repeatedly accepts positions and abandons them is going to raise legitimate concerns.
Someone who makes one difficult decision because an exceptional opportunity appears—or because their existing workplace has become genuinely unsustainable—is a different situation.
My threshold:
Backing out before you’ve started → relatively low threshold.
Leaving mid-contract → much higher threshold.
Leaving for a slightly better job → probably not worth the reputational damage.
Leaving a toxic or dysfunctional lower-tier school for a genuinely excellent Tier 1 school where you could realistically stay for many years → I’d seriously consider it.
Schools expect teachers to understand that we’re replaceable.
Teachers should probably remember that schools are replaceable too.
Professionalism matters. Reputation matters. Contracts matter.
But so do your career, your family, your health and the next 10 years of your life.
Where do you draw the line? Would you back out of an accepted offer for a Tier 1 school? Would you ever leave your current school mid-contract for one?

Hi all, are there any South Africans who are currently or recently taught in China? Would you mind answering a few questions about your experiences and how much you missed home?

Would like to know what its like over there before I commit to a school.

Hello, I lead a club in Tennessee of 9th through 11th graders (14-16 years old) and I’m looking for a class size of 10-20 to exchange letters with in English. Unfortunately my club can only run from now until January. contact for more details. Please let me know if interested and we can get started soon!

We went out as a group with the new founding principal of NLCS Kobe recently. When he was adequately sauced up, he let rip on non whites in education, mocked accents, mocked their work ethic, and complained about how foreigners have ruined England.

We mentioned reasons for why we left London and he immediately went in the other direction. Talking about how Reform was terrible but that "Something needs to be done" about the boats.

He said he is so glad to be in Japan because they don't "Accept their type" and laughed about how many emails he gets with CVs, most of them going in the bin, but also laughing that some Indian, South African, and TEFL backpacker think they will get a job. He says he wants a 'good body' of staff aka white people who can bring in parents.

I don't care about consequences of my identity being discovered because I'm going back to England at the end of this academic year.

Hi all,

I got a last minute opportunity to teach Econ at an international high school in my town (in Europe). I studied Economics 10+ years ago so I am rusty with the concepts.

Anyway, what surprised me the most was that previous teacher did not use any book or materials - he sent me 2 pages of notes with main key words and told me he just spoke about them in class and watched YT videos with students.

Any high school economics teachers here, who could share what books they are using in classes? I'll be teaching 1st and 2nd year highschoolers.

Also, are you playing some games in class/making the lessons interactive in some way? :)

Thanks in advance, I'm all ears for any teaching tips! :)

Is it normal that every international school I've worked at - timetables are never done on time and the first week is an absolute mess?

Can someone who does timetables tell me why we can't have them ready for the start of inset? Like what's actually holding up an organisation from doing this and have it ready by start of August?

It's so frustrating that we basically shoot from the hip for nearly two weeks after term starts with conflicts in timetables and kids who don't know where to go. How is it allowed to happen?

Maybe it's just the schools im at. So my question is...

Was the start of your year, timetables wise, smooth sailing or utter (insert expletive)

A quick word of notice that if you pull out of the onboarding process for a job and have not signed a contract, you owe nothing regarding finders’ fees etc.

Recruiters may say it, but just ignore them

Hey people, in my last post everyone asked me to name and shame so here we gooooo for the tea

1) kuwait english school : had a nice interview and offer. Ghosted me after 2 follow-ups.

2) Ecote Montessori Casablana : interviewed me as if she worked for the police. Felt like airport customs. Ghosted me after one follow-up.

3) British campus Algeria : didn’t read my CV. Never showed up for the interview TWICE.

4) SAIS Abu Dhabi : was late to the interview and didn’t read my CV. It lasted 2 minutes when she realized I wasn’t a good fit BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T READ MY GODDAMN CV.

5) honorable mention, A russian school but this one was kind of mutual : had a horrible interview process and knew I messed up, so owned up to it, i am very happy they spared me the embarassment of why I was a shit candidate.

If you want a list of schools who actually followed up after their offer and were very lovely, let me know 🧚‍♀️🫶

I'm curious to know from people who have broken contract - what were the consequences from your school? (obviously I know that references, getting blacklisted from Search, etc. will be a consequence).

Did you have to pay back any money, such as salary or initial air transport? Will Search actually come after you for the placement fee?

I'm in a school situation I am not feeling good about at all, and I want to cut and run. I know this is a bad look, but I also know I can get a job at home in a matter of days because I have good references from all previous schools.

I'm sorry I can't be more specific - I don't want to dox myself. I'm not in the Middle East, if that helps.

Any recent info on the school from current or recently ex-employees? Feel free to DM me if you have any info on family living conditions, work conditions, pay vs. savings, etc. I have read through all the others and looking for more recent info. TIA

Hi everyone, I’m in a very stressful situation with my work permit for a teaching job in Abu Dhabi and I’m hoping to get some advice from anyone who might know how the system works. Here is my situation: Approvals & Documents: I have already received my official ADEK Approval (Teacher Pass). I have also fully attested all my required documents and successfully completed my Degree Equivalency. The Issue: The PRO applied for my MOHRE work permit, but it got rejected. The frustrating part is that nobody knows the exact reason for the rejection yet. The Police Clearance (PCC) Factor: I issued my home country Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) back in April. When the PRO submitted my work permit application, this PCC had either just expired or was extremely close to expiring. I am currently processing a brand new PCC just to be safe. My Questions for the community: Has anyone experienced a MOHRE rejection where the reason wasn’t immediately clear, despite having full ADEK approval

Hi! Would just like to seek some advice.

I am hoping to venture into a 2nd international teaching experience as my first one ended due to administrative issues that were unfortunately out of my control. It is quite discouraging as I was counting on that initial stint to build up my IGCSE portfolio, but was only there 6 months. Not fired, was asked to step down due to COI with a senior reporting officer.

I had 4 years of local teaching experience in GCSE O Levels but only 6 months international. I am a local in Singapore, but looking to move to the international track as my fiance and I have plans to possibly live abroad in the future and would like to build up my CV.

I now have a chance to teach IELTS EL at an international school, but am doubtful of the transferability of the curriculum. Would it be better for me to hold out for a position where I can teach IGCSE FLE and Literature in English (the two subjects I taught in my prev school) or would IELTS be a reasonable stepping-stone to other opportunities? I don't mind teaching either but feel that teaching IELTS preparation courses seems to limit my future prospects.

I’ve seen schools with 50% annual teacher turnover and others with only 10%. I don’t think there’s a pattern. As a teacher, the best hope is to find a good one until it’s ruined by new leadership.

That's a nice way of titling this post. It could be "Why Do Terrible Administrators continue to get jobs around the world?" or "Why Do Directors Who Do Awful Things To Others continue to get jobs around the world?"

Many of us have seen it happen time and time again. Good things happening to bad people. Horrible directors landing yet another plum job after leaving a previous post under a cloud of incompetence and/or ugly behavior.

Don't get me wrong. I've been lucky to work under some exceptionally amazing principals and directors in my career. Those people should be getting the good positions to run schools. But even then, sometimes the good goes up against the bad, and a board or a director choose the worse candidate for reasons never confirmed or which are hollow.

One answer is, it's an Old Boys Club. The members are sometimes quite obvious. And they go from school to school to school even when bad reputations are well known through the international grapevine. I don't mean rumors, I mean friend-to-friend reports from negatively affected teachers which get out into the world. I've seen terrible behavior and pedagogical decisions which go directly against what's best for students. But the Club is strong.

Another answer, there's no global organization keeping track of the many bad apples or policing them in any way. Many slip through the cracks. This is true of teachers too. For example I read the confidential references of a candidate to my department some years ago, and there were two clear, independent concerns from previous administrators about the candidate's "trustworthiness to be left alone in a classroom with a student". WTF. We crossed this candidate's name off our list of course, but how is he even allowed to teach with two such extreme concerns from principals at two different previous schools? There's no place to report such behavior broadly. 

And, the search agencies (e.g., Search Associates, Carney Sandoe, ISS) have no incentive put a plug in the dyke. They handle the majority of top-tier international leadership placements. Headhunters have strong financial and relationship incentives to keep established candidates in circulation, often relying on formal reference checks from fellow administrators rather than lower-level staff feedback. 

And, international school boards are often composed of corporate expats, diplomats, or wealthy parents who prioritize financial stabilization, capital projects, or enrollment numbers over internal staff culture and teaching climate. An administrator who delivers on financial targets may be viewed favorably by a board even if teaching staff morale deteriorates. 

And, when a board decides to part ways with a head of school early, they routinely sign non-disparagement agreements and offer clean professional references to avoid costly litigation or public scandal. This allows the outgoing leader to market their departure as a "mutual separation" or "seeking new challenges."

It's not that different than the rest of the world, sadly.

i'm currently in the application / document upload phase of the AOR to QTS with Sunderland.
if you have already completed the process, can you tell me how it went and what is to be expected. Especially what the opening interview is actually about, and what the observations are like.

Hello all. Just wondering about joining some talent pools. Has anyone ever actually got a job this way?

I've been curious about teaching abroad, specifically in Asia but I always thought teaching English was sketchy as hell, at least in Asia. People looking for jobs on facebook groups, "midnight runs" in Korea, it just didn't feel like a professional industry... when it comes to international school, is it actually legit or just relatively better? I don't hear much about international schools but I constantly see posts about "hagwons" or like cram schools, and it's almost as if by default it's a terrible job and you're lucky to find a good one. Do people have that same mindset when it comes to international teaching or its a whole different industry altogether

From generic AI emails that say very little with a lot of flowery words, ill thought out activities clearly from an AI prompt to AI slop images used around school and as "infographics" given to teachers and parents- how much AI, is entirely too much AI? Some of the posters on campus this year look great, and show the good potential of AI, while others just look like a fever dream.

As a teacher, I refuse to use it for student comments (feeding a child's data into an AI construct seems wrong morally to me) , grading work and making most materials. I did not train for years to out-resource myself to a computer. I do use it to communicate to SLT members who never read the email anyway, so thanks AI for that. It can be helpful for brainstorming some class activities, but find they all need to be fine tuned with a human touch to really be effective.

Name and shame post:

School has just begun and hiring season is around the corner. I want to caution people looking at jobs at Australian International School of Phnom Penh (AISPP).

They have required staff to sign multiple amendments to their contracts in recent years as the school has faced financial mismanagement. Contracted housing and pension benefits were not accurately paid. Some staff positions were made redundant for financial reasons, but then they just hired new (presumably cheaper) teachers for the same roles. Payment to hotels and community partners for schools trips are often missing or severely late. Salaries were often paid late.

The school did officially "sell" to new management in May 2025, but it was a shell transaction to the brother-in-law of the previous owner. This month, the long-serving director was forced out by the board, and the HR manager was appointed director without any traditional global search for qualified candidates. The school ownership is still facing several lawsuits from unpaid creditors.

It's a nice city, but be careful with your expectations, as they have a dishonorable/unethical reputation with staff and faculty.

I've taught for 6 years now, primarily Geography in UK curriculum schools, with experience in the Middle East and UK.

I moved back to the UK in 2023 and unfortunately have only had maternity or supply contracts since. I think this makes my applications much less competitive. I'm currently a 1:1 online/in person teacher for out of school students focusing on Geography, English and Maths exam preparation.

So I'm interested in hearing what attracted you to candidates? I'm hoping to use this information to make my applications stand out more. I'd also be open to teaching biology/maths as my degrees have some crossover (environmental degrees and using statistics).

I do have a BSc, MSc, teaching qualification and QTS.

Thank you in advance for any pointers!