Job Discussion Forums

[Seditious]

Anyone have information on Al Rowad in Riyadh? Also, what is the rental situation in Riyadh (looking for single or two room apt)?

[TheGood1]

Good Luck

[veiledsentiments]

[Seditious]

This is one of the places I interviewed with recently. Ultimately I ended up rejecting the offer.

Story time
When I sent my CV to them I was contacted by the head of their science department. We did the back and forth with me asking questions about the position/school and him finding out more about my classroom management practices and teaching strategies. I was then quoted an amount (the offer from my other post) that the position would offer. When I indicated that I was willing to continue with the application I was told I'd be contacted by the deputy principal.
I was then contacted by the assistant deputy principal (ADP)who setup and conducted the interview. The interview was done by phone. At the end of a short 20min interview, I was told that the job was mine, that I'd be teaching secondary school students, and I'd be contacted by the deputy principal with the official details of the offer.
I was contacted again by the assistant deputy principal who informed me of the details of the package:

Following our discussion, and having discussed the interview and available positions with my colleagues, we would like to offer you the position of grade 5/6 science teacher for the coming academic year. Should positions in the higher grade science become available, you will be given priority.
The package that we can offer at the moment, is as follows:

1) Monthly salary: SR 7,500
2) Annual housing allowance: SR 18,000 (for a couple with/without children); Half the allowance for a single person
3) Health insurance for you and your family who are under your sponsorship in the kingdom.
4) Flight tickets for your wife and you, as well as two child tickets.

Let us know your thoughts.

Many regards


Needless to say I sent in my counteroffer:

I am excited about the job offer you extended and look forward to accepting it. I feel I will make a significant contribution to Al Rowad International Schools both in the short and long term. The terms you described in the offer are acceptable with a few minor changes. Please see the attached word document. Also, I am open to discussing this further with ------ when he arrives in Florida. Thank you again and I look forward to hearing from you.

and was met with:


Thankyou for your interests. Unfortunately, the school will not be able to meet the demands you have made. If you are willing to accept the package as it stands, then please confirm by responding to this email.

Regards,
ADP

I regretfully informed him that I would not be able to accept the position at this time and would look forward to working with them in the future when they were able to table a more robust offer.


The School-
From what I was told and deduced from the interview with the assistant deputy principal-

1) The school has a small budget
2) Teachers don't have their own classrooms (they walk from class to class)
3) The school is renting the building and needs to clear out by 2PM (this part confused me but never got a chance to clarify if I heard correctly)
4) There is no in class technology (the ADP was very excited that I had my own LCD projector and would be bringing it!).
5) There is a discipline problem with the older kids (ADP spent much of the interview on this part).
6) Doesn't have a functional science Lab (was told it was too small for an entire class to work in by ADP)
7) The school needs more K-5 teachers than secondary
8 ) Mostly non white staff

THE Staff
1) Other teachers are slackers IMHO (ADP said most of them either lecture the entire period or hand out worksheets and seem surprised when I outlined a typical school week for me)
2) The head of the science department seemed like a straight forward guy (was very honest with what he knew and said when he needed to ask someone else)
3) ADP does the typical Indian thing and lies to avoid conflict (saying I would be given a position as a secondary teacher then failing to deliver). Low balling the offer while claiming it was the best they could do when I was already told that it wasn't. Became defensive after my counteroffer and misconstrued it as demands.
4) As the deputy principal never bothered to contact me... he's at least good at delegating to his staff.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Have you considered the King Faisal School? The two main apologist have apparently moved on to (I'm sure) much greener pastures. Maybe KFS can offer you a decent package...minus the lil' demons, of course.

NCTBA

P.s.- I just realized that the lil' ones that tormented the staff when I was there are probably having their (literally) lil' princes "learning" there by now. ... ...

[Seditious]

I think I'm going to follow the advice I got on the other post and go ahead and complete my field experience in the US so that I can apply for a standard teaching certificate. I'll then be in a better position for the following year. DFW job fair is May 3, hopefully I'll pick up a position there.

As much as working overseas for a few years is appealing, I also don't want ruin myself by going into a bad situation (one where I won't at least have the benefit of friends and family to ease the stress).

Keep up the good work NCTBA and VS (yea yea it's pity love, I can't stand to see so many of these new guys piling on you's), hopefully some of the people who've been attacking you guys recently will go back and take a holistic approach when trying to understand your posts.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[7atetan]