Find the familiar. This might be a shopping mall with familiar stores, fellow expats, anything which can connect you with home. For me, it's having the BBC iPlayer radio app, so I can still listen to Radio 2 or 5 Live when I want to. For my wife, it's Starbucks, and for my daughter being able to find tins of Heinz Baked Beans.

Adapting is really about how you deal with your new situation. At first, it will all seem wonderful - a bit like a holiday. Then the reality kicks in and you start to get a bit fed up with it (why are people always late? Why does the logical thing never happen?) and that's when the homesickness can kick in. I'm quite a laid back person so the irritating parts of life tend to wash over me anyway, but it's really important not to let them get to you. Eventually - and this is different for everyone - you reach a point of acceptance, even if it's just accepting that you're going to have to be irritated by those things for the next couple of years.

Find out how to get around. If buying a car's not an option because the driving is too crazy stupid, then who are the most reliable taxi drivers? Does Uber or Careem work in your city? What's the public transport like?

Speak to other teachers as soon as - or even before - you get there. Second year teachers were the most helpful, as they had the most recent experience of arriving.

Finally, as others have said, watch out for the "naysayers." They will drag you down with them - and you'll probably find they return year after year anyway. Make your own mind up about the country and city.

Sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

You have an offer from a school, confirmed and signed. On the other hand, you have the possibility that maybe the "dream school" could potentially have a position which you might be considered for.

Read that second sentence carefully.

Do nothing until any offer from the EU school is confirmed and in writing. Then consider the risks.

Personally, I'd be pissed off, but I'd stick with the original offer with a word to the EU school that because I have signed a contract elsewhere I'm unable to join as I have to honour the contract signed, however if the post comes up in a couple of years please let me know as I remain interested. That way, you come out with a job, your current school gets the teacher it recruited, the EU school has been let down gently.

@heyteach - some good advice, but I suspect the OP's problems really stem from the first two bullet points - much of the ethos of a school flows from that so if it's broken, there's not much they can do about it other than suck it up until the end of the contract if they're not going to run.

overseaslifer wrote:
> I heard of one IT who made a policy of not looking for a job until the last
> minute, every time he moved on. He waited until June or July, when schools
> get really desperate. When I heard this story he was teaching at an
> enviable tier 1 school in China.

Not sure I could cope with the stress of that!

If you're in the UK and concerned about references, try a Data Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act. They then by law MUST release the information to you - though, of course, they may well then choose not to represent you.

www.filmon.com

This has all the UK freeview channels, all the French channels bar TF1, and a number of others too. It has apps for iPad and iPhone too, so really useful just now for the rugby ;-)

@PsyGuy, @Martella:

There could actually be an EU legal issue which is preventing this. Under EU law, member states (and organisations within them) must treat all EU citizens identically to those within their own country, as a form of anti-discrimination. That means that if the school in Warsaw wants to pay its Polish teachers less than the US teachers, it would not be allowed to pay UK teachers a higher salary than their Polish staff.

I kind of get the point about teachers - it was a bit of a shock coming from an environment where planning, preparation and marking time were "at a time and place of your choosing" (a direct quote from our contract which is burnt into our brains!)

It's more the justification for kids - traffic jams I know are a problem where I am, and the culture of late nights means the kids are frequently tired at 8am as well as not performing to their best.

Just wondering about this. I've noticed most international schools start at around 7.30 - 8am for pupils - I realise in some places this is because of the temperature but in others it leads to a long day with a finish still around 3pm. Given that most research now indicates that teenagers don't actually perform well in the morning until after 10am, why is this?

With SG, can you live across in Malaysia and commute - does this save money, or is the commute just too stupid to consider?

OK, so in the hope that I'm not adding fuel to a fire, I'm going to chip in!

I'm relatively new to teaching. In my previous career, you did not tell your employer about your resignation before you had another job and until you were ready to hand in your notice. The reason for this was two-fold; firstly, it avoided any potential problems between you and your boss, and secondly (in the UK at least) a verbal confirmation of resignation can be accepted in lieu of a written one, so even if you later changed your mind your employer could hold you to it.

Moving in to teaching in the UK, it was a bit of a shock that you were expected to tell your manager that you were applying for a job in another school if you wanted to move. This causes difficulties if someone is unhappy, doesn't like where they work, or simply just fancies a change. However, references given by employers in the UK can only include very basic information about attendance, sickness, formal disciplinary matters, etc. and not personal statements about the individual - they can and have been taken to court if the statement is defamatory and cannot be justified. They are also subject to the Data Protection Act in the UK in that any personal documentation an organisation - employer or agency - holds on you can legally be requested and must be provided, so you can get a copy of your reference.

I get why international schools want people to indicate whether or not they are leaving before they get a job. From their point of view, they need to know who is staying and which positions they need to recruit for. Speaking personally, if I was in a Head's position where a teacher I liked was leaving, I would give them a good reference being a fair person, but if that teacher then (after a fair, for example) said that they wanted to stay I would keep them on and withdraw any offer on that position made. I know that's unfair on the person to whom it's been offered, but I always prefer the known to the unknown.

It will be interesting to see how schools cope this year, as it lands directly in the middle of the exam season. It could be worse though - back home in Scotland, daylight in June is often from about 3.30am until 11pm (or later) so it's actually more of a problem for Muslims there than in the ME!

Rkvp, teaching jobs in Scotland generally aren't advertised through agencies - have a look on myjobscotland (Google it, I'm afraid I can't remember the full address!) and all jobs in Scottish state schools are advertised there.

Before you go, though, I would strongly suggest speaking to GTCS about what your wife has to do - there are registration requirements which are significantly different to England which you will have to go through. Good luck!

rkvp - your wife is a primary teacher? Get thyself to Scotland, I say! If you're prepared to consider a move to one of the more remote areas (and by remote, I mean Highlands & islands / Aberdeenshire) then you're more likely to have a chance of getting a job. The Canadian and Scottish systems are very similar (many Canadian teachers get their qualifications at Scottish universities such as Strathclyde and Edinburgh) so although she'd have to register with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (www.gtcs.org.uk) she'd have a good chance of getting something because primary is a shortage subject in those areas.

Thanks, psyguy. A lot of useful info there - a lot to think about too before August!