The International Schools Review Forum

I'm hoping that those of you with positive experiences at your international schools are leaving appropriate reviews on this site. There's a preponderance of negative reviews, as one might expect: people are more inclined to vent in reviews when they're frustrated than they are to take the time to write about being satisfied. Would be nice to see a balance.

As balanced by what, the glowing reviews by leadership and cheerleaders? I always find it very telling when there are a couple negative reviews around the same time and then a positive review that is the opposite of everything in the negative reviews.

I've been on ISR for roughly a decade. I've probably read just about every review ever posted. From what I've found, there are only two schools that consistently get superlative positive reviews. One is in Switzerland and the other is in China.

I think people can read between the lines fairly well. I have reviewed in the past and would do so again if I felt the reviews did not paint an accurate picture.

People tend to moan and complain loudly when they're unhappy, but not usually when everything's going well. Because of that, I tend to look at the dates of reviews and the number of them. A cluster of bad reviews around the same time can mean that the school has a problem - it could also mean that one person has posted lots of negative reviews, though! Equally, no reviews recently could mean that things are at least generally OK. Like PsyGuy says, a cluster of bad reviews followed immediately by a couple of stunning positive ones should ring alarm bells.

ISR is a useful tool in a school search, but shouldn't by any means be the only one. If you're already teaching internationally, sound out others - if they don't know the school, they might know someone who does.

I've posted reviews that were balanced. I included the strengths and the weakness of the schools as I saw them. Overall, my last school was a place I'd recommend for others to go as the overall experience was good, but there could be issues that someone else would have with the place that would be a dealbreaker for them. I try to include those elements too, so if that's an issue the readers can see it and avoid it.

I have a concern that overly glowing reviews are just as useless as overly negative reviews. Each of us has qualities we look for in schools that are particular to each of us. I take very negative reviews more seriously when they do include some positive elements because it appears that the reviewer isn't blinded by their bad experiences.

Eion