Job Discussion Forums

hihowareya · Joined: 06 Jun 2007 Posts: 6 Location: USA

Hi just wondering if anyone has any comments on ENS at the moment. Good points, not so good points? Love to hear from any current or previous staff. What is the overall package the school offers expat teachers like, quality and location of accommodation, relative pay, morale of staff and admin, general behaviour of students and quality of resources at school. Any comments would of of great assistance. Thanks Very Happy

rosyanna · Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 25

Hi. Can't tell you much, but in the absence of any other replies.....
ENS is just off Abu Dhabi island. The facilities are excellent. It is used mainly by wealthy emiratis. I know staff have been unhappy in the past, mainly due to the owner. As far as I know, he is still the owner. Money - around dh10000 a month - not bad for AD. You will find plenty of schools that pay less than this and not many that pay more. I imagine you could pick up plenty of tutoring work if you wanted. Sorry, don't know much else.

PTTeacher · Joined: 10 Feb 2008 Posts: 7

Hi there.
I've been in an interview in this school and I was surprised with the facilities. A very rich school in all meanings.

Now... how good is the school in real life, staff, administration, kids, parents, etc? This is what really matters sometimes, right?

Thank you.

Madman · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:48 am Post subject: ENS - AVOID

Plenty of threads about this place but I thought I would add to this one -

ENS looks impressive and certainly has money but you would be ill advised to consider working here. Morale is terrible and staff meetings (when they happen) are jaw-droppingly depressing and largely consist of you being told how awful and useless you are. At one meeting the MD read out emails he had receievd from a member of staff who had been fired.
There is a bad us and them situation with the management (mostly Jordanians) and there seems to be a clear trend to replace western staff with local hires (more Jordanians). Some departments have very few western staff left now.
Management overall is poor with no clear definition and little in the way of forward planning. Clear incompetents have been promoted in some cases - including a HoD who revels in his many titles but who does very little work at all.
Conditions of service and contracts are changed mid-agreement and the school gets away with it - claiming to be above the law because of its royal connections.

incalilly · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 10:54 pm Post subject: New teacher possibly

hi there

I was wondering if there is anyone who is currently working at ENS that can give me some recent info about the school etc. Ben offered a post there and ben rather frightened by the posts ive read so just wanna chat a bit if possible. I'd appreciate any replies.

Kind regards
lee

hihowareya · Joined: 06 Jun 2007 Posts: 6 Location: USA

Hey Lee,

I really wish I had someone had told me what ENS was like before I taught there. It is a horrible, horrible school.

The administration is horendous, MOD EDIT the Director is incompetent, arrogant and just trying to hang in as long as he can to suck as much money out of the school as he can.

There is a MASSIVE divide between the Western and the Arabic staff, really difficult to overcome.

The students are out of control, the main problem being that the administrators are too scared of the students and the wusta AKA "influencne" they may have, not realising that they are digging their own graves. Students constantly physically fight and are disrespectful to staff with little to no consequences.

As far as academic credibility is concerned, the more important your family, the more your marks are changed. Sheiks who EARN poor marks have them increased despite the protest of teachers and department co-ordinators.

The school's principals are puppets with NO power, they just pass on commands from the administrators who are not EDUCATORS.

Last I heard the Primary School was 13 teachers down, all specialist teachers (PE, Music, Art) were acting as class teachers due to the school's inability to attract staff.

You can make reasonable money, live a comfortable life (outside of school) if you go there with the mentality that no else cares why should I, but if you care about the education of students I would really REALLY recommend you do not teach at ENS.

Hope this helps.

J.

mishmumkin · Joined: 01 Sep 2007 Posts: 929

I can't speak for the teacher perspective, but I know parents who've had their kids there (native English speakers), and they were quite pleased w/ the school, though it wasn't their first choice. We all know that teacher and parent experiences vary wildly, though.

hihowareya · Joined: 06 Jun 2007 Posts: 6 Location: USA

Word on the street is that the EXAMINATION OFFICER and Physics teacher "Dr" Rami has been fired for being less "Dr" and more "Rami."

Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke!

FatFreddieFoxx · Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 24

I found a blog here that might be useful.

http://ensabudhabi.blogspot.com

adorabilly · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 430 Location: Ras Al Khaimah

I find it interesting that this blog you found was started yesterday. It has one post which just says what a previous poster here said.

I am not doubting that this school may have issues, but I wonder how much it is from the POV of a very disgruntled former employee.

(I am reminded of CHUCK D's rants vs ADU)

hihowareya · Joined: 06 Jun 2007 Posts: 6 Location: USA

I too find it very interesting that one of my posts has been added to this blog, someone has obviously cut and paste my post and placed it into their own blog, not that I mind, glad to see that word is getting around about ENS, as I have stated else where, I hope the working conditions at ENS do improve however I can't see this happening in the immediate future.