The International Schools Review Forum

Hello,
I received 2 comparable offers to teach ESL.

1 from a somewhat established IS with average reputation and very average reviews here.

2 from a brand new IS without a reputation but a brand new beautiful campus.

Which one is better for my beginner career?

Thank you!

Established.
New schools are chaotic and lack support for new teachers. They can be great for certain personalities and certain career points, but aren’t good places for inexperienced teachers to hone their craft.

Thank you Sid!

What you said definitely makes sense.

Does it change anything if the brand new school is part of a small chain of schools and already has a running sister school in the same city? What attracted me about the new school is a couple of people I met who will be working there in the next school year.

The principal at the established IS sounded a bit stiff, but it maybe a good thing.

I know a few terrible schools that have great-looking campuses, so I implore you to not choose a school based on them having a brand new beautiful campus.

@Sid makes some good points.

Chains and sisters make no difference in my opinion.

@Heliotrope and @Sid,
Thank you for responding! My logic tells me the same since I really want to have some support of experienced colleagues when I need it.

How strong is your craft and what kind of experience do you have?
Have you researched the reputation of the HOS and the chain/sister ISs?

I concur with @Heliotrope, lovely campuses mean very little.

Under normal conditions if you know your trade skills and craft, than I would concur with @Sid, for all the reasons stated. Where I disagree is if your craft and trade skills are weak, you very well may be able to camouflage your ineptness or lack of ability among all that chaos and lack of support.
You will have no idea what support or experience your colleagues may have or are willing to share.

Chain and sister ISs only makes a difference if the new ISs really is a cookie cutter of the sister/chain IS. If they essentially copy and paste everything from the other IS and the founding staff are transfers from within the organization that can significantly reduce some of the growing pains as thy will already have established policies and protocols that work. This only happens if the new IS is effectively a 'branch' IS of the chain/sister IS.

@PsyGuy - Thank you! Yes, it all depends on a variety of scenarios. I have done as much research as I could about both schools.

I have very little teaching experience, but I'm very upfront about it with the schools' administration.

Last week I was notified that the position at the established school did not open up after all. The teacher who was leaving decided to stay.
I guess I'm going with the new school after all. The good thing is that the person who ran the sister school for several years is now moving to the new campus and several teachers are moving to the new campus from the sister campus as well.

Either way, I'm looking forward to living in Asia and thank you all again for your replies!