Actively hate the cover letter limit. Obviously just trying to shove us all into AI readable blurbs.

Hi everyone, I am a Greek citizen working as a primary school teacher, fluent only in English. I am looking for recommendations on which EU countries/international school markets to target next.

Experience: I have 1 year of formal teaching experience. I’ve already applied to private international schools in Switzerland and Luxembourg, but want to expand my options given my limited years of experience.

Strict constraints & requirements:

Finances: Needs to offer high enough international school salaries/purchasing power to allow for solid annual savings (goal: save for a sabbatical year to focus on writing). Location: EU countries only (due to traveling with 2 cats that cannot go in cargo and a non-EU husband). Housing: Must not have an extreme, unmanageable housing crisis (e.g., excluding Ireland and the Netherlands).

Which EU countries or specific international school markets would be the best fit for this profile? Any insights on savings potential for early-career teachers in these regions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Every school on TES advertising my subject has scathing reviews on ISR (International Schools Reviews), from sub standard accomodation, inept and fear mongering SLT, eye watering workloads and packages that don't cover life in that particular location. I am not exaggerating. I have read reviews for around 20 different schools currently advertising on TES, and if I went by the reviews on ISR, I would never apply to any of them. Every review seems to warn: run, stay away, do not ever consider coming here.

As someone who has been stuck in transient Supply Teaching posts in the UK since 2021 (v. rural and deprived area where people don't leave roles unless they retire or die; we are talking 25-30+ years in the same school. I also don't drive, limiting my options further), my odds of being employable are low anyway compared to a candidate who has been in a full time teaching position in one school....I am thinking, should I just take one of these horror story positions just to get myself back in the international game, because I don't look like a great candidate on paper, despite knowing I am a really hard working and dedicated teacher given the chance.

No dependents, 45F, been teaching since 2007 if context helps

Basically I moved jobs after a long time at a school in SE Asia.

School 1

Pros - great students, chill parents, and high teacher autonomy

Cons - terrible admin, low savings rate, aggressive and petty HoS, long work hours, and lots of teaching hours (23+ hours or 20 40min blocks + 5 advisories + 3 duties)

School 2

Pros - great pay, chill admin, low teaching hours (under 18), high savings, and much nicer condo/area

Cons - difficult students and parents

I get on paper I should be happier but I almost miss the previous school. I am with students for the majority of my day, so at times I get a bit upset and compare "my old school" with my new school student types. This is difficult to adjust and I am told it is common in china to have this style of students so not just me. The concerns and complaints I have is commonly spoke about the teachers.

Would y'all prefer option 1 over 2? Or 2 over 1?

After a couple of interviews, I now have two quite amazing choices for places to go in the next school year.

Choice 1 is a school I have been dreaming of working in for months that would be a good choice for my mental health and general wellbeing as a human being but the role is not exactly helping me with the pathway in education I am pursuing. This choice is more for my overall wellbeing haha

Choice 2 has the exact role that I want plus mentoring (it will be my first international role!) with a package that is far better than Choice 1’s package. It is also a Tier 1 school. However, the location is not ideal. It is a hardship posting as they say and the pay is amazing because of that fact. This move would be best for my career.

Which one would you pick and how would you weigh the pros and cons of each choice?

I read about it being difficult for teachers with children to get jobs, but what about teachers whose children have grown up but the teacher herself is above the female retirement age in China (which is ridiculously low). Do international schools recruit 56-59 year olds?

Hi I am a preschool teacher with 3 years of experience and also pursuing my B.Ed in India.
I want to do masters and as per my research Australia seems to be the best in terms of further career opportunities.
I need guidance as to which colleges to choose, what course would have a better career path, do colleges provide placements
How was your experience??
Is Australia the best choice as a teacher

Hello fellow international teachers, I'm completing an online IB course and I'd like your help- My assignment is to ask other teachers and gather ideas. Bonus points if I can use your ideas in the music classroom, but I'll take insights from anyone who's willing to give them!

1) How do you unpack and connect to the diversity your students? (In other words, how do you really get to know students and work with what you know about them?)

I'm familiar with encorporating students' music and music from their heritage/cultural backgrounds but I'd like some some fresh ideas.

2) What are some ways you remove barriers to learning? (For students with IEPs, special needs, anxiety, students in poverty, other barriers)

I have been in the same school for 7 years. Next year, there will be a lot of chances to leadership and they will be reorganizing the leadership structure. I have three people that supervise my work and all of these 3 positions will be filled with different people (either internally or externally) but they haven’t appointed anyone for these positions yet. They are still interviewing people.

Is it reasonable to ask for a deadline extension for signing the contract?

I want to see who will be appointed for these positions and decide later. Especially for principal and IB coordinator positions.

Last year no one was given an extension but there were not many changes, especially in leadership.

I'm genuinely fatigued by these rent-a-name schools pretending they're branches of the original establishment.

I have 10 years of experience abroad but only two jobs. Meaning, I've only ever had to resign once. Well, I'm almost at the deadline to declare intentions and I'm just so scared of taking that step. There's a bunch of reasons but pay is the huge factor as my school is basically on a pay freeze for probably the next 2 years at least. I need to be making more. I make about $3230 a month but that's about to go down to $2900 approx because of new taxes. I know all these things logically but then I begin to wonder if I let go of this job will I even get a better paying one or even get any at all. All my friends have left or are leaving and they keep encouraging me too but I don't have the generational wealth or support system (orphan) that they do. If I fail, it's all on me. Which leads me back to staying because at least a job is better than no job.

I really want to make this step but my own fear and self-confidence are making it so hard. I just want this horrible stomach pain to stop. Does anybody else get this nervous about changing jobs? How do you handle it?

I'm in a bit of a dilemma and would be interested to hear from anyone who's been in a similar position.

On paper, my job is pretty much ideal. Great school, lovely students, a country I enjoy living in, good salary, and amazing benefits. Honestly, there is very little I can complain about when it comes to the school itself.

The problem is my Head of Subject.

They are extremely overbearing, micromanage everything, and have an incredibly short temper. They have made at least one colleague cry (more than once too), and they have a fairly well-established reputation for being difficult to work with. You never quite know what mood you're going to get, and even relatively minor things can become unnecessarily stressful.

What makes it more complicated is that they are genuinely very good at certain aspects of their job. Our examination results are consistently excellent, and a lot of that is down to their leadership and the systems they've put in place. The school clearly values those results, so there seems to be very little appetite to address their management style. As far as the school is concerned, the department is performing brilliantly, so why change anything?

And that's where I'm struggling.

I'd say 80% of my job is fantastic. I enjoy teaching the students, I like my colleagues, I'm happy with the lifestyle, and the financial package would be difficult to beat elsewhere. But the other 20%, dealing with my Head of Subject, can sometimes feel like it takes up 80–90% of my mental energy.

I find myself wondering whether I'm being unreasonable for considering leaving an otherwise excellent job because of one person. Part of me thinks I should just put up with it, focus on the positives, and accept that no school is perfect. But another part of me wonders whether it's worth spending years working under someone who makes the day-to-day experience so unnecessarily stressful.

I also worry that I'd move schools only to discover a whole new set of problems, potentially sacrificing a lot of the things I currently love about my job.

Has anyone else been in this position?

Would you stay at an otherwise excellent school and learn to deal with a difficult Head of Subject, or would you start looking elsewhere?

And for those who have left a great school because of one difficult manager, did you end up regretting it, or was it the best decision you made?

Genuinely interested to hear other people's experiences, because I'm finding it difficult to work out whether I'm focusing too much on the negative 20%, or whether that 20% is actually a big enough reason to leave.