Can I ask you the initials of this new principal?
Firstly, my response was not a "school" response but mine. Sorry if having a pride in the school you work in and finding people sniping about it who know nothing about our particular school is somehow "indicative of education in China". Actually it couldnt be more different. I've never before worked in any school, China or before , where the school tells parents that tutors after school should not be used and that their children will be at a disadvantage if they do not allow them to be children while they can, that the school will get them there through active learning rather than rote, that if they want their kids to succeed at uni ( ie when they leave home and have to survive without them) they should let their kids come to the prom, school discos, sleepovers, spend time volunteering at the healing home or one of the other school charities. Not work into the night in a frenzy. Our students join the sports teams/eca teams after school run by staff volunteers. Our students go skiing, DoE, scuba diving and safari - doing work for universities in South Africa, MUN and WSC around the world. Our students do well academically ( and sorry but if parents have come out of the local system they need to know they will reach uni in the west as there is no safety net ) but they get offers from these unis because they are not number machines/ work horses but because they are proactive socialised young people. I'm sorry if your experience has been bad in China. I'm sure I'm not going to convince you that not all schools in China are the same. You have obviously had a bad time. I'm just asking that you spend time assessing the schools you know rather than supposing that our school fits your mould. I know I'm not going to convince you though which is a shame. I wont spend any further time doing so. Needless to say our kids are a credit to us and their parents.
Gubei had 10 (yes 10)students in this years CIE IGCSE exams who received Top in Yhe World scores,
I cannot speak to the quality of SUIS, but the school's response is indicative of education in China.
If you walk by High Schools in small cities and towns throughout China you will see Chinese characters and numbers, sometimes even photos inscribed on the exterior walls.
These are the names of students and exam results on the GaoKao, not only for the current year, but for decades of prior years, names of 'students' who now are in their 40s.
The belief that exam results are the 'fruit' of academic effort is ingrained in Chinese culture. Almost all teaching activities are directed to adding new names to the school's street-front wall of fame.
I've taught at several '3本' colleges, the lowest level universities, or a portion of a good university where the students who have 'bombed' the GaoKao attend, paying 3 times the normal tuition, too often for teachers and facilities that are inferior to those offered the 'good' students. These 3ben students arrive with little or no self-confidence in their ability to learn and frequently display diminished self-worth.
Teaching in such a college is a palliative effort, restoring the student's self-esteem and instilling in them a value for life-time learning where standardized tests are meaningless.
If SUIS schools are so bad ( and by the way there are 7 secondary schools all different so which one do you mean ?) then why has Gubei had 10 (yes 10)students in this years CIE IGCSE exams who received Top in Yhe World scores, one IB student with 45 points and 34 points average with 1 in 5 of a large cohort over 38 points ( that weren't massaged by pulling students out), 2 students last year at Cambridge and 6 going for Ivy League/ Oxbridge with all G12 getting offers from s top 100 this year. In response to other post, a teacher was sacked for inappropriate comments NOTfor having an affair. Doesn't that show a school with good safe guarding standards? Really - do you all work for our competitor's SLT trying to do us down? We have a happy staff room and we work our butts off for great well behaved students. Work is pressured at times but where isn't it in a good school? Fed up with the moaning s general comments. If you've got something to say about s school that I have worked for for last 4 years and hope to continue with them at least get your facts straight and gave the accuracy to say which school you are working for..... and when you say it us a money making school - it's actually half the fees of other international school but giving the same experience and prospects for both staff and kids.
New Principal at WanYuan campus is a HITLER! Avoid this school or you will pay with your life! Horrible, horrible, horrible!!!
The management of this school: BULLIES. To be absolutely avoided!!!!!
Does anybody know if this school provides Z visas to all its teachers?
I heard a lot bad things about the schoool's administration before and had an 'opportunity' to experience that recently. I will withdraw my children from the schoo at the end of the term. A few of my friends are doing the same for various reasons. I just can't see how the school will get better under the English headmaster's leadership. Go to see him and you will know what I mean.
Hi, I'm an ex-teacher that was with the school for quite a few years. Here is a little info you should know about R.[edited] before you think it was him who turned the school around. First, he smoke [edited]. Alot. Second, he was a [edited] and [edited]. And it was his [edited][edited]that got him kicked out of the Hong Qiao Campus. Now he is getting kicked out of the Gubei campus because he was caught again [edited]. These aren't rumors. These are facts that people have seen, caught, witnessed, or admitted to. The school experienced a huge rebound from the very clever marketing, the very impressive guangxi from Professor H[edited], and the new breed of hard working teachers that actually care about educating the students, while the school's only concern is with profit. I hope that makes things more clear for you.
Wow! What a pile of moaning minnies! Parents who want an international education for their child and their child can't speak English - and the school principal gets criticized for advising extra English lessons! My children have been at Shanghai United International School for four years, and I have nothing but praise for R S. He took a failing school and turned it round. The school size has doubled in four years and the quality of teachers has improved a lot. There are still lots of problems with the Chinese administration. After all this time they still do not know what international standards are. But Mr R and his senior teachers have been very successful in giving us a good bilingual English and Chinese education at a much lower price than the other international schools. A year ago we lost R S to the secondary campus and hear that he has developed just as good a reputation there as he did here at the primary school. Good with kids, good with parents. We now have a new principal from the UK. Very quiet. Hope he keeps up the good work. I am looking for an ESL teacher for my friend's kid and came across this website by accident. I couldn't believe some of the stupid comments!
I have heard a lot of bad things about SUIS on this thread....are there positives?
I was hoping to move from Australia to work there as i like the idea of the dual modes of language.
As a PE teacher who speaks pretty good Chinese, i wanted to use this place as an educational experience for my own kids to learn Chinese quickly.
I haven't seen a contract yet, maybe tomorrow, but all reports on expat sights by parents seem very positive.
As a teaching couple who want to get an experience for us and our kids, we do not expect to come out with $10000+, just want to come out ahead.
Any chance of that??
Concerned, that's what crap schools do. Do you think they are going to tell you on the phone "We are crap, come on down."
It doesn't work like that. The crappier they are, the more they know it, and the more their going to try and reassure you everything is kosher. That't not to say that if a school tries to sound good and reassure you that they are crap, that would be circular logic. No, what I am saying is that, so what if they tell you everything is great, what else are they going to do?
Your better of trusting the reports from other FT's on this board who have worked there or had first hand experience than you are in trusting the school. The school is too hevily invested and has too much to loose to be telling you their crap if they indeed are.
Do your homework, and if you read even a handful of bad reports, avoid the school. One or two are explainable, anything more, and you should definitely avoid. Also, trust your gut, use your instincts, and be discerning when you read reports about a place. Even one repoprt can scare me off from working for a school if it is credible enough, and if my gut confirms the truth of it. Basically, proceed at your own risk always here in China, and use your instincts, trust them, don't ever ignore them. I have at times and seriously regretted it.
Can this be true. I have been approched to start work with them in August, but what they said to me on the telephone is the total oppersite of this. Now I am concerned about how I will be treated when, and now if, I choose to go there. All the people I have spoken to on the telephone have all been reassuring and made me feel very welcome and gave the feeling of a professional school. Has anyone else had bad experiences with this school. Is it really as bad as these post make it out to be.
You guys really think you're the cats meow, don't you. Get over yourselves. Oh, by the way, Choatle, I've got a bet going with a few teacher friends here on how long it will take you to figure out how to use "your" and "you're." My bets on never, since you've been misusing "your" for so long now and even though you've been advised on how to use it properly, you're still not doing it, so it's apparently way beyond your level of comprehension. How could anyone, other than a New York misfit take you even half seriously? The next bet is whether or not you're even actually a teacher. My bet would be on you being some junior high school kid that pops in now and then just to see who you can fool. Bottom line; get a life.
Thanks BigAppleBob, what I wrote has sadly ended up being the truth at far mroe schools than not, you just have to, from the first, let them know what your made of and that you can't be bullied. Bottom line, often they will treat you however you let them.
Excellent, astute advice, Choatle! No matter how many questions I asked, possible scenarios I anticipated and probed, I always missed a few critical inquiries. One must be incresingly creative with qurestions as employers are inceasingly clever and ambiguous.
Choatle is absolutely right! Getting clear, understandable, and agreebale terms is reasonable, and if the employer can't handle it -- go! Employers in China constantly force us to draw a line in the sand. Be prepared to do at times; otherwise, you're stuck. Avoid being pressured as much as possible. It's not easy.
Beaker your experience sounds like a relatively normal one. As for all the deductions, what are you talking about, tzes, apartment bills like electric and water, what exactly?
I would say you did not read the contract carefully enough, or did not know what to look for. Chinese contracts are often intentionally vague and ambiguous, giving the employer a wide berth to screw you royally should the need arise. Funny how that need almost always seems to arise, isn't it?
Folks, make sure that you read your contracts before hand. Don't be pressured into signing a document you have not had at least a night to read and think over. Most schools pressure you into signing right when you get off the plane or train. Often if you don't sign right then and there they will threaten not to hire you. If that happens, simply tell them you need a night to look it over, and if they can't handle such a reasonable request, pick your bags up and walk out. If they are that pushy, and scared to give you time to read it thoroughly, than something is wrong. Most schools will give in of course and give you the time you need, but if they don't, your better off. Next step is to get a hotel room, spend 3 days online, and find another, better job, shouldn't be hard.
Bottom line, stand up for yourself, and for simple reason, from the first, they'll will be a heck of a lot less likely to take advanyage of you if you do. One, because they know you have a set of big brass balls between your legs from the start, and two, because you read the contract and amended anything that was vague or just total BS.
Make sure they change or remove anything ambiguous or unreasonable, and make the contract quite clear, so as to not leave you open to exploitation. Again, if they won't do this, leave. All your really asking for is to be treated fairly, and know what to expect in your future employment. That's not only fair, but quite reasonable. If they won't give on simple points that are clearly wrong headed and too biased in their favor, than walk.
That's part of how you find a good job here. A fair amount of it is up to you, and what you do or don't agree to in the beginning. You have to realize that the Chinese employer will try to get away with as much as possible, if you don't object, so much the better in their eyes. If you do, and your right, generally they will give in. Lot's of people working bad jobs out there could have had pretty decent ones had they just had the balls to stand up for themselves and demand to read and than change parts of the contract that were clearly not fair. I agree there are a lot of bad schools out there, but some of the time the teacher creates their own bad situation simply by not reading what isn't even fine print, or having the courage to demand better.
Reportedly Shanghai Americian School; Shanghai Singapore School; Rego International School; Concordia International School & Yew Cheng International School are noted to be the best of the best for formal education in Shanghai along with Shanghai Middle School. For training centres I would say Global IELTS; New Oriental; Wall Street; English First; Web International but there are so many good ones out there that I am really not doing just to by not mentioning them and of course there are bad ones as you can see above.
Its worth a search online and a few hours research prior to falling into the same traps wehave here. However under the privious management things worked smoothly and FT's were treat fairly, just the current management and staff have turned it into a "bordello" for senior/middle aged men or a "hive of unqualified fraudsters" rather than a school.
I'm sorry to hear that the school is not worth the money the contract is printed on. You said that this is the worst school you have worked at, thank you for the warning by the way. Did you work at other schools that were of better caliber? Any that you would recommend?
Do not know which campus you are at but I have had nothing but problems with double talk form the managers since coming here. Hours grew out to unmanagable levels, competent managers have all been replaced with incompetent managers. Weekly INSETT training turn out to be a farce. Monday to Friday has now turned into and most Saturdays. My line manager not only isn't a qualified teacher or manager but has a dipolma mill degree from some obscure fictious UK university. Unless you are willing to take advances and inuendos aimed at your personal life and willing to "come across" then your time is going to be hard here. I cannot and will not stand having "sexual" remarks and "advances" made towards me so like you, and most of the others, I have choosen not to renew my contract with them again this year. Odd thing was only a few years back it was a real joy to work here now it is a real nightmare.
After working for almost a year there they now are saying that we will not be getting our Summer Holiday pay as there is some clause vaguely written in our contracts. This in itself is not a big thing, but added to the compounding list of errors and cheats. I now know why they have such a high turn over, this year has been the worst year at any school I have worked at. The management is only money focused and coninually get teachers to do more and more ... worded in the contract is that teachers "may" be asked to do additional work, and the problem is the additional work became the norm. The offered pay rate was very high but with all the deductions and fees taken out it worked out to be pittence compared to working in a Government School with less hours, less stress and more free time. The students control the system and the teachers are told to "just suck it and see, this is a business not a funded school" .. how can you argue .. it really is a business and there are many mangers getting very rich while teachers clean up all the dirty work they leave behind. A big word of warning to anyone thinking about the "goldern carrot" they offer... its not worth your soul .. its not worth one year of pain anguish and heartache ... unless you like to lie, cheat and be lied to and cheated as your doing it to someone else... all that is writen on paper is purely paper .. no chops no true offers... just open words that can and do change weekly
I am out of there this year and as normal so are most of the "real" teachers..leaving a school full of washed out sexpats .... poor students