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Brays English School – “For A Better Future !” ----- jjejjejjejejjeje

Santander is a quiet little town, although the people are very “cold” compared to other parts of Spain.
When you interview for the job they will make everything sound relaxed & perfect. They will crack jokes and appear to be “cool” in order to pull you into their web. After you first speak to them you will be looking forward to arriving and starting the job.
When I did the interview I was told that they needed me to come “urgently”. So, I got a ticket as soon as possible and arrived within a week.
I soon found out all that had gone on prior to my arrival. The official story was that the previous teacher, who I was to replace, was “sacked”, but some of the students told me that he had “walked out” after arguments with the managers. I also quickly found out that the teacher before him had also disappeared under similar circumstances.... and there were others too!

Very quickly I began to realize the reason for the quick turnover of teachers.

Some of the students are quite nice, and friendly – especially the older ones. But, many of the younger ones actually have no interest at all in being in the class and will make life difficult for you. (For example, when you ask them to do an exercise or a task some of them will refuse to do it, and if you insist they will give you a very “dirty” and grimacing look, as if they are snarling at you).

The school is completely chaotic – run by the Bray Freak Show. It’s a “family affair” and you have several family members who all act like they are the “boss” and each tell you completely contradictory things about how things work and what is expected of you. Actually, the father and son who each think they are the “boss” are both psychopaths, and the son, particularly, is clearly a narcissist. He has all the signs of Narcissistic personality disorder.

He screamed at me several times in front of the students, which is completely unprofessional and uncalled for. (He was berating me for paperwork which apparently had not been done correctly. He also called a former employer who acted as a reference for me. He was extremely rude to my former employer and demanded that he resend the reference letter correcting a few minor errors and also demanded that the letter be stamped. The mentioned letter had already been sent several times and I informed Brays that I was perfectly satisfied with it and would not hassle my former employer for any further modifications or “corrections”. Brays were furious with me about this. Of course, disobeying the narcissist, even in an apparently minor or insignificant way, will always produce a fit of Narcissistic Rage).

Brays School will mislead and manipulate you in order to get you there, then they will toss you out when they feel they don’t need you any more. They are ALWAYS advertising for new teachers on ESL Base & other sites. It’s only a small school with maybe 2 or 3 members of staff who are not “part of the family”. So, why are they CONSTANTLY advertising for new staff? Hopefully, now you will understand why.

I should also point out that I had offered to leave earlier, but they insisted that I stay on. Then, after I waited for the new term to start they informed me that my contract was terminated. They did this only a couple of days before the new term began, as they managed to bring another naive fool over at short notice. I asked them for a reference accounting for my time there, and they said that it would not be a problem. However, in reality they refused to write any work reference for me and I never received one from them even though I requested it several times.
So, the main point I want to highlight is that they are not straightforward or honest people. They will not play fair and they will lie to you. They will also consistently blame you for their own shortcomings and failures.

The other two “non-family” teachers who were there at the same time as me also left a short time after. I also noticed that the school managers tried to prevent the teachers from talking with each other during our breaks. Of course, it is painful for the Narcissist to see other people talking about the obvious nonsense and their own arbitrary and infantile behaviour. (It felt like a reign of terror hung over us, and we felt afraid to be seen “cavorting” with each other in any way. Even minor chit-chat between us was prohibited).

Well, the Narcissist is an expert at generating an atmosphere of fear and will always try to terrorize his “insignificant Underlings”. Don’t forget: you are only really there to serve the egotistical needs of the Narcissist. In their eyes you are not a human and don’t deserve to be treated as one.
Just to give you an extra taste of what kind of characters you are dealing with, I should let you know that there is usually a pretty, and very helpful, young girl who does the reception and some of the admin duties. While I was there the girl was replaced for another cute girl. Owing to obvious my naivety I couldn't understand why one girl was replaced by another so quickly. So, I discreetly asked somebody about this and they informed me that the girls are only taken on as “interns”, which means that legally they are not even entitled to the measly salary that is offered in Spain. I thought that this was a very crude and unfair arrangement, as these young girls are clearly doing a full day’s work and not getting paid for it. The school is taking advantage that people are desperate for work in Spain and they will take anything. It is quite disgusting that the Bray Freak show think that this is acceptable behaviour, but it just demonstrates what kind of people they are.

Spain is a beautiful country, and this is a problem because many teachers are willing to sacrifice their dignity and be mistreated, verbally abused and underpaid simply to be able to experience the “real Spain”. English schools actively take advantage the willingness of naïve foreigners to come and live in Spain. At the end of the day, it is simply not worth teaching in Spain under such conditions. They don’t want employees. They just want slaves. If you do insist on going to work in Spain, you would be advised to stay away from Brays unless you really enjoy working with psychopaths in what is truly a family Freak Show.
(Please note: Here I am referring to their school in SANTANDER. Please be warned, for your own health and wellbeing).