Job Discussion Forums

[canadiangirlie]

Anybody know anything about or have any experiences with this school?

[Roger]

Ja, I happen to know this school. Live within a ten minute walk from them.
It is the core of a huge estate but a separate business from the estate. The school is fairly large, and it caters to some obviously affluent Cantonese. They have to stump up over 30'000 RMB per year in fees for boarding school.
The pay for expat teachers is 4000 to 4200 - the same as 4 years ago, which means it has been stagnant. They usually hire some 60 to ten expats, but they know how to scrimp and scrunch. SOme get sent by a charity and work for free!
Two girls I knew saw their salaries halved once they had been through the first three months of their sojourn, with at least another three months to go before they could ask for their airfare home.
One Aussie girl complained to me that she had to attend to the school owner's kids alone. She also felt the school was snooping on her. When she applied for or enquired about a job in another school the administrator pointed out to her that if she was looking for another job she must serve the school notice in good time and forfeit one monthly pay! How did that person know she was considering leaving?
Of late, the complaints have become fewer. I talked to a bunch of these expats a couple of months ago. They did not corroborate these observations, yet 4 of them did leave prematurely.
The working hours seem to be long too, what with several hours you have to spend in office daily (so that you can't make money on the side). Housing is adequate, in 7-floor rises with no lift.
The school that advertises is some 20 kms from Guangzhou; there are two more communities called Country Garden that run private schools, though considerably smaller: One is in Guangzhou Huanan, and the other is in Luoxi, Guangzhou South. These have not advertised in international markets yet, but I know they have had expat teachers in the past, probably recruited locally! One runs a kindergarten, which pays much more handsomely than the school does!

[tgb]

I've accepted a contract there and start in August. i think they are increasing their intake of foreign teachers to 30 (if they can find that many). They offered me 4000 a month which i thought was pretty good with my lack of qualifications so i didn't get scammed on charity work thankfully!

i can send you a copy of their contract if you want. for what it's worth.

James

[canadiangirlie]

I've also just signed a contract! I start on September 1st, and boy, am I excited!!

[yaco]

Canadian girl, I share your excvitement with visiting and working and working in China for the first time.

There will be many bumps along the road.

Make sure ' you have a thick skin'.

Good luck.