I was there for a total of one hour . Seemed like an insurance salesmen conference , utterly toxic. A self righteous group of mostly white privilege career teachers looking to teach the elites and maintain neo feudal economics. Good luck to all candidates but I'll take a rain check.

I would agree that the comparison is not really a comparison but a complete contrast! Bogotá has some excellent nightlife and travel options all at a reasonable price and if you are single you have a V good lifestyle.....

I am in Bogotá at the moment. What school are you looking at ? I can give info if you need ?

I am applying for jobs for which I am qualified however I am rejecting mega-city placements or hardship areas as I have a young daughter . I know that means I'm picky. I think SEARCH is a racket; they do not offer candidates any services beyond the database or the Jon fairs. Other recruitment services have screening interviews and actually touch base to see how the job search is going. I don't pay for SEARCH as I'm British and never would either. I have had one interview and it's been through an application on TES. I feel like of the Jon is on TES it actually exists, has a clear JD and a closing date.

Just my opinion based on experience.

I have nowhere near your experience and I am Social aStudies so very competitive. I have had no replies apart from automated ones to the applications I have made. I have read on TES forum that there seems to be significantly less postings this recruitment cycle; I am worried and can foresee a competitive January job fair in London in January. I always have the UK as back up ! Worse places to live .

My original post opened up some great debate. I think ultimately for me I want to be the best at my job I can be; this means that i want to be valued , trained, challenged and paid well, this is after all a career. So for me working in a tier 1school is a goal and something to aim for. But I also get the work life balance argument and when I think of a return back to the UK I do shudder. Having said that , a good school in the UK state system would put my current 'tier 1 ' school in Colombia to shame. This does make me wonder whether the best teachers are in fact not abroad but at home. It's counter intuitive to say that on a forum like this but perhaps it's true.

I would share the frustration. I am only using SA because it is free; I think the best schools have thier own application system and it seems that many of the posts on SA are 'likely' ; It's hard to know if there is a position or not. I use TES as my main source of vacancies now and hope that SA will be a back up when I attend the fair in January.

A the OP. this is an interesting debate. It seems then that I am in a tier 1 school already. However, there must be a list of schools world-wide which represent the best schools to work at. I would say that only a few countries would have schools that would be in a ´Top Ten schools´.

I have to say I don´t think money is the motivator for me. I am looking for a progressive educational environment; is this romantic, as a teacher?

Once again, thanks for the replies and I am feeling confident I know what tier I am in and know I have a more focused search criteria.

Bobbydylan84

Thanks for all the posts, especially to Psyguy.

What really suprises me is that not one post attached weight to the curriculum. I am in a tier 1 but not elite school in Bogota, Colombia but do not teach IB or AP as I am in middle school. I am British with 6 years experience, 2 abroad and 4 in a large school in London.

I want progression and more opportunities in the future and i have decided to leave an excellent school with an excellent package to do this. I hope i have made the right choice!

Thanks for your posts once again.

I am new to this forum and I wanted to ask about references made to tier 1 or tier 2 or even tier 3 schools. I don´t quite see how this is decided apart from reading between the lines.

My guess would be:

Tier 3 schools are national schools often not accredited by CIS or NEASC and who offer poor expat packages.

Tier 2 schools: Mostly national schools with national students and administration. May offer IB and IGCSE and usually have accreditation. Expat packages will vary but offer flight and savings potential

Tier 1 schools: An international student body offering the IB , AP and?or British curriculum. Accredited and hire mostly expat admin and teachers. Package is competitive and dependents can be supported.

Is this more or less correct. Would anyone add anything.