Teaching Advice
 

Hello all! New to this forum so please bear with me! My fiancé and I are both teachers (he is a PE teacher and I am a primary teacher) in Scotland. We are considering a move to Dubai after our wedding next year but were looking for some advice...

- what kind of salary should we be looking for inorder to live comfortably while hopefully be able to save some?
- we have read in job applications that schools pay for teacher accommodation, medical insurance etc. Considering we would be a married couple, would we be able to live together? Would a school pay for this?
- how does the working day/job requirements compare to Scotland?
- is it likely employers would look favourably on our eventual return to the uk (as in we have gained different experience) or unfavourably (as in we have missed how ever many years of the Scottish curriculum).

We have visited Dubai and loved our time there and also have friends who currently live there. If we could make this work for us we feel it would be an amazing life experience and the right time in our lives to do so. I apologise for the long post and thank you in advance for any comments/advice you can give! :thumbsup:

Re: Teaching Advice
 

- what kind of salary should we be looking for inorder to live comfortably while hopefully be able to save some?
You'll get what they give you - depending on years of experience. It's a pretty rigid scale like the UK appears to be.
- we have read in job applications that schools pay for teacher accommodation, medical insurance etc. Considering we would be a married couple, would we be able to live together? Would a school pay for this? Yeah,
part of your package, you'll get accommodation provided. After a few years (rules vary) you can sometimes take the cash and do it yourself. Just be wise / careful about whether you work at the same or separate schools and what accommodation you both get offered. Sometimes schools will look at the woman and say - she's married, she goes on her husbands visa and accommodation. Others will treat both as singles, all depends. Worth being very clear about.
- how does the working day/job requirements compare to Scotland? Dunno. Is Scotland full of relatively wealthy Mums who don't work so can spend all day at school prying and demanding and moaning but also supporting,
cheering, chauffeuring etc? All I know is that my Mrs works really flippin hard,
but she did in the UK. Schools are competitive here and in hers (rated Outstanding by inspectors) if you aren't at or near the level they expect you won't get a contract for the following year. So coming out and working hard is the attitude. BUT you will still have a lot of fun.
- is it likely employers would look favourably on our eventual return to the uk (as in we have gained different experience) or unfavourably (as in we have missed how ever many years of the Scottish curriculum). Yes and no.
I know a chap who returned from here to Scotland and struggled massively.
But I don'tthink he was great. Depends who you are and if you're any good.
Same for any industry, experience can be valuable but if it's attained by a moron,it's worthless....right?

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Thank you for your reply, that gives us things to think about. We are trying to make
sure that we are using our heads and not just following our hearts, I know working in a country is hugely different from going on holiday there.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Salary would depend on the school, for a teacher with no management points the range should be AED 15k to 20k a month for a British school out here with a good reputation. Add AED 1,500 a month for each management or special responsibility point. Try and get into a good private school with a British curriculum. This wage may seem decent based on the current exchange rate but always work on the basis that the normal exchange rate is usually 5.50 - 6.00 rather than the 4.65 it is at the moment. This will mean any future exchange rate shocks will not blow any plans you have out of the water.

I know lots of teachers here and they tend to be having a ball, cant think of one I have met that has regretted the move. You will tend to get the better package if you work for the same school. If you work different schools then one of you will have to sponsor the other one and this would mean only one of you would get married allowance for your accommodation. Generally you should get enough for a 2 bedroom apartment although I have heard that some schools are now putting married people in 1 bedroom apartments. Your allowance should be around the AED 120k mark although lots of schools will just provide furnished accommodation with no choice as to where you live.

Working day wise the school day starts early, normally first lesson around 7:15am working through until 2:30 with a slightly earlier finish on a Thursday. You will be expected to put the hours in after that a few time a week to support extracurricular activities. As a PE teacher your hubby would be doing lots of weekends at tournaments and matches although that is the same as UK so he will be used to it. There are not the same pressures here with OFSTED and the like although inspections, learning walks and observations do happen, although they do not seem to be to the same intensity. Holidays are pretty much the same although you may not get half terms as much as you do in the UK. This year schools close on the 22nd June and return on the 10th September but that is unusual, you can expect 8 weeks in the summer, 3 at Xmas, 2 at Easter and 3 half terms (but they may only be a couple of days sometimes).

Returning to the UK shouldn't present too much of an issue although people tend to move back to work in private schools rather than the state system. I imagine this is due to having private school experience and also not wanting to face state school
kids behavior and management support issues.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Thank you so much for your detailed reply - that's helped us a lot. Can I ask how the sponsoring of a husband or wife works? Sounds like something we maybe would rather not do? If you are sponsored by a spouse can you still work? TIA x

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Sponsoring your partner will be handled by the school so will not require much effort on your part, it just means the school your partner works at dishes out less benefits as duplication of benefits such as housing is generally avoided. If sponsored partner gets a job at another school they would be classed as local hire (as opposed to overseas hire) so would not get housing and they may not get an annual flight allowance. Really depends on the school and the package.The school you work out would pay you married persons accommodation, medical and annual flights for you and your sponsored partner.

This is all general info though as any package you get offered is open for negotiation bearing in mind the school will do their best to minimise what they give you. Best to get an offer first and work out the details from there.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Great. Thank you for taking the time to respond - we appreciate it x

Re: Teaching Advice
 

i gotta slightly disagree - i have a few teacher friends out here and the sh*t they have to put up with (both internally and with parents) is definitely not worth the penitence they are paid. Most teachers i know barely earn around AED 15k and their accommodation allowance is around the 50-60k and so i am not sure where you are getting 120k for accommodation.
Being a teacher in the UK is bad enough, but over here it's tenfold worse from what i know.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Yes and no.

ON a bad day my Mrs ****ing hates it.
On a good day it's the best job in the world.

She's not on 15k and is a head of dept. But she's only been teaching 6ish years.

Put it another way:
Let's say it's 15,000 a month. Fix the e/r at 5.2 for a balance.
That's 2,884 quid.
Add 70k housing (that's what my mrs gets)
Add 5,500 flight.
Add 290 housing fee monthly.
= 78,500 = £15,096
TOTAL
= (2,884x12)+15,096 = 49,704 (nett)

To earn that amount in the UK, you would need a salary of £72,283.
Even if you round down some of the costs, take the flight out, maybe lower the general amounts, call it £60,000.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Surprised to hear that, I don't know any good quality British curriculum schools out here paying less than 15k a month.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Are you saying she is on less than 15k as a HOD? If so is it a well regarded British curriculum school?

Re: Teaching Advice
 

I think so. Pocket change below, I think it might be 14-something.

British curriculum. Part of a very, very large group.
Recently rated Outstanding by KHwhatever they're called.
By all accounts a decent school, but not a not-for-profit where the bucks are bigger. She joined 5-6yrs ago having only just done her NQT so started on low money.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

err converting to GBP means nothing since the fx-rate is totalling wack and hence you can't compare a salary over here to a salary over in the UK for the same job.

Re: Teaching Advice
 

Am very surprised at that, I was under the impression 15 was standard for British schools up to 20+ for HoD, and another payscale altogether for the SLT. Certainly I know of offers of 15k+ for a standard teaching role, maybe salaries have been dropping recently for new entrants. Hope the OP has not booked their flights out on the strength of my info!

Re: Teaching Advice
 

You couldn't be more wrong and I even jacked the FX rate higher.

You have to be able to compare if you can't then why would anyone come here to work? How would you know if it's worth your while?

I don't really know. Remember - she joined 5-6yrs ago as a 1yr-experienced teacher, so the bottom of the bottom. Annual increases are buttons and she's limited to 3 'management points' and I think HoD only gives her 1 or maybe 2 at most.

Anyway, she enjoys it, is getting some good experience and doesn't struggle month to month. :thumbup: