Job Discussion Forums

[malu]

I have had a very reasonable offer from this school with a good salary, and all contact so far has been very friendly and helpful.

Has anyone here had any experience of this school and/or Bejiao, Shunde where it is located?

Thanks in advance.

[HunanForeignGuy]

This school has a decidedly above-average name here in Guangzhou.

It is located in Foshan, however, and is rather distant from Guangzhou itself.

It is a well-manicured self-contained campus - a world unto itself.

I have colleagues who have returned to work there year-after-year and that says something about the place. And yes, all things given (meaning for China), they do tend to be very helpful.

They have an International High School, where if you can teach IB programmes with an IB certification, you can easily earn RMB 14,000 - 16,000 per month.

For their regular ESL programmes, they generally pay in te range of RMB 6,500 - RMB 8,000 per month.

They are part of a much larger conglomerate that is still family owned.

They operate shuttle-buses for their staff between Foshan and downtown GZ daily.

The teachers' apartments are NOT bad at all by Guangzhou standards and they make a very reasonable effort to keep them well-maintained.

By all standards, this is a school well-worth considering. I had an offer from them last year to teach in their IB programme -- in the sciences -- but I had already signed on with another university by that time and was not willing to break the first contract.

I dealt with a Julia-something-or-other but I do not know if she is still the hiring person / FAO first-line interviewer.

For a first-time job in GZ, I would say "yes".

[Steppenwolf]

I know the school fairly well although I have never worked there.

As HFG says, they have a certain reputation though I am not sure it's hard won!

They are part of Country Garden Estates (there was on Monday another thread on this big business!); that says a lot: it says that money and connections play vital roles.

IT's a private K12 school with two sections, the more interesting one being the International Section where Chinese students get taught in English with a view of going abroad for further studies.

This is a big illusion for most of them as you can imagine...

But parents pay willingly to maintain their illusions, and the school managed to get Baccalaureate International accreditation (they teach to the BI exam which, if the student passes it, opens doors to European schools).

Yes, they have a well-maintained and well-appointed campus but it is a kind of boot camp as so
The location is not FOSHAN but SHUNDE (officially the two municipalities have been merged but it's somewhat misleading to say it is in Foshan which is a good 20 kms away).

It is true that some teachers have been there for several years, but it is also true that the majority quit after one year. I hear management is aloof and uncaring.

If you don't want to stay in a campus apartment you can claim a housing allowance and take up an apartment in the estate beyond the school gate. You will have the pick of many choices.

[malu]

Thanks, guys, for such candid replies. The job I have been offered is as a science teacher in the IB diploma program. I have also been in touch with an existing teacher who pointed out both positives and negatives but on balance said that it was a decent job. I suspect that subject teachers and ESL teachers may have different viewpoints, with the subject teachers being most upbeat.

The self-contained campus in a gated community actually suits me as a first timer in China.

[beautification]

One of the girls' I work with has a boyfriend who teaches there (I think he teaches music). From what she has told me the school is very nice and there are lots of people that speak English (both Chinese teachers and Foreign teachers). Everything the other people said above is pretty much what I have heard.

But, as for the location,I find Shunde quite boring. Foshan is all right but nothing that special.

[The_Hanged_Man]

[kev7161]

First off: No offense to Malu but . . . .

See? See? This is exactly the kind of thread I was talking about over in "Isn't it weird . . . ?" Someone comes on (at the time, a "newbie" although pleased to say that Malu has stuck around and actually contributes to this forum from time to time), asks about a school, gets some good feedback, then we never hear again on if the poster took the job, how did things turn out, happy about the decision, life at the school, etc.

No this poor "The_Hanged_Man" is hoping for some input on it. Will he get it? I suggest he PM Malu but hope that Malu will come back to this thread and give an update.

[malu]

I'm happy to report back, though you must understand that as a teacher in post at a particular institution I can't easily give salary numbers and contractual fine-print on the forum - PM me for these.

My experience so far is that all contractual stuff has been honoured without quibble and the housing is really quite good. When there were problems - my refrigerator died, for example - they were rectified swiftly.

The school is actually many schools sharing one campus. The IB section is in a swanky new building with AV equipment and wifi internet in every classroom. Resources are good - 1st world standard - but as you might expect there is still a long way to go before the mindset of traditional Chinese schooling gives way to modernity. IB helps, though, because it is structured such that you can't pass exams simply by rote memorisation and independent thinking skills are essential.

Like all upscale private schools in Asia this one suffers its major problems in terms of student intake. Students are enrolled via the ability to pay high fees and not necesarily on academic ability. English language ability is also very variable. Subject teachers who don't have an ESL background would struggle.

Fringe benefits are good - such as free shuttle buses to Guangzhou, Foshan and Shi Qiao and there is a free bus service around the gated community.

So yes, on balance I'd highly recommend the school for a subject teaching job, and the number of experienced and qualified FT's who come back year on year probably bears this out too.

Purely my own opinion, but I just wish I had this job in another country! I'd previously worked in SE Asia and I suppose I expected southern China to be quite similar but it certainly isn't. If I had this job in Malaysia or Indonesia I'd never ever leave.

Hope that helps.

[The_Hanged_Man]

Thanks Malu! Once the PM feature is working I again I'll send you a message.

[malu]

Former colleagues have asked me to provide an update. I can be free with my opinions as I left CG in the summer and moved back to Indonesia.

I stand by what I said in that all contractual obligations were met by the school and I was paid in full and on time. The housing was reasonable for China, though I found the tiny apartment rather cramped after living in proper houses in SE Asia for years. Items were fixed as required and electricity and water were generally reliable. They did everything that they said they would, so by China standards that's pretty good.

Last year, I commented that the traditional Chinese mindset was still a barrier to progress at CG. Unfortunately, as the year progressed this situation grew steadily worse as the Party faithful of the old guard usurped the power of the young turks (mostly those educated abroad) and brought the international section firmly back to the Party line. As an employee I was content with my rewards, but as an educator I became increasingly disillusioned. It is difficult to encourage enquiring minds and creative thinking in the classroom, and blind obedience outside it.

They also made a determined (and very successful) effort to reduce the number of highly paid IB specialist FTs so the average salaries have gone down a lot since last year. Of the teachers that had been there multiple years before I started last year, very few remain. Two of the most experienced teachers were offered a salary CUT of RMB5000. Both walked.

In short, CG remains a reliable employer but the good days are long gone and salaries are now best described as 'average'.

[eddy-cool]

Thanks, Malu, for the update.

It's good to get such feedback.

I recently met a laowai teacher with no specific teaching bgackground who was hired by a branch school of CG and is making ca. 300 kuai an hour teaching there. I didn't ask him what he is teaching but I suppose, it is oral English.

This means they do pay handsomely, but on the other hand, this may just be a commercial offshoot of CG School specialising in English for adults (i.e. a training centre).

The fact is that they have a pretty high turnover of teachers.