What you described regarding salaries at your last school is what the SABIS school I taught at did. Salaries were confidential. At the beginning of the year, the director made it clear at a staff meeting that salaries were confidential and that we could actually get in trouble if she found out that salaries were being discussed between teachers.

From what I heard from other teachers, the native English-speaking teachers were paid more than the teachers from the host country. This didn't really create problems, but it was sometimes awkward if the topic of money came up in conversation in the staff room or outside of school. Also, there wasn't a pay scale. We had to ask for a raise if we wanted one.

Again, from what I heard from other teachers, the salary at my school was similar to other 3rd-tier (and maybe 2nd?) schools in the area. I thought the benefits package was good for Europe, so I didn't really care.

If you have any more questions, ask away.

I mostly agree with you, PsyGuy. However, you DO have to create your own monthly (or bi-monthly) tests. I heard that they were going to change this so that you wouldn't have to create them, but I don't know if that's true. You also have to grade composition exams, i.e., marking papers. Yes, SABIS is good if you just want to travel and forget about your job when you go home for the day. If you want a job that will help you career-wise, then it wouldn't be a good choice.

I taught at a SABIS school in Europe this past year. I chose to teach at the school because of a few reasons: I didn't have any teaching experience, I wanted to live in Europe (I'm an American), and I needed a job to pay bills back home.

The planning is super easy. You basically read over the material you need to teach, then you just go and teach it. Almost everything is planned for you. This was good for me during my first year because I kind of just wanted to travel, so the job wasn't so bad sometimes.

The other posters would be correct in saying that the SABIS curriculum isn't "best practice." Every class period will be entirely taught using whole-class teaching, i.e., teaching the whole class at once. This was frustrating for me because a lot of my students clearly needed differentiation, but the school frowned upon that. The students are also tested weekly, so if you deviate from the content at all, then your students might not do well on their weekly tests, and you will be blamed.

Teachers at SABIS schools aren't treated like human-beings, but rather, a cog in the machine, which was stated previously by PsyGuy. They only care about results and not about a student's progress.

In conclusion, if you really need a job and want to move to a different part of the world, then maybe taking this job wouldn't be such a bad option. If you think that you will be frustrated (like I was) at the bad teaching practices that must be upheld at a SABIS school, then don't work at a SABIS school. After teaching at one of these schools, I would never go back.

I finished teaching my first year of teaching (overseas) for a SABIS school. All I can say is...never again. Anyone have any stories about working for one of these schools?