triswebb

Thanks for the long reply - really interesting read!

We had, I guess you could say considerable luck when we decided to move to NZ - Both my partner and I had been working in NZ for around 2 years (working holiday visa) when we were offered a job managing a dive school in Tonga, at this point we felt it was to irresistible and decided to leave and have since spent the next 18 months out in Ha'apai, Tonga - as beautiful as it was, we eventually found it too isolating and missed our friends we had made whilst living in Tutukaka, near Whangarei.

To cut a very long story short, my partner had been out of nursing for something like 2 years and my previous background was in IT, again, I had been out of this for over 6 years, so when we decided to move back we were not exactly getting much luck with our applications, then as life tends to do, a bad thing turned out to be rather lucky. I fell sick, not badly, but on our way back to the UK to continue our application for residency and hunt for jobs, I was admitted to the Auckland hospital for a few days where we happened to befriend some guys from human resources and some other nurse managers - low and behold we emailed them when we got back to the UK, my partner had an interview for a new ward opening in Jan and suddenly we had the allusive job offer!!

This was all back near the end of October and since then it has been a mad panic trying to get everything organized, such as Nursing registration and the endless amount of documents you need! Over £60 just to get some documents certified - I know what you mean about the cash vanishing!

Anyhow, we shall be in Auckland for the foreseeable future and although we really wanted to be a little further north, it was really a case of anywhere just to get back there!!

I left the UK over 6 years ago to various destinations and since coming back I have not warmed to the place at all - after so long in the Pacific and NZ my small little village in the west country seems crowded! The ONE great thing though is at least I able to watch some football (and its still called that :-)

All the best with your new adventure - its a small world and NZ even smaller, so who knows when we will be in your area!

tris

thedtb

It's funny how things happen isn't it? Who'd a thunk that a trip to hospital for you would work out as well as it has (or is doing).

In a vaguely similar vein, one of my Internet Services clients had a heart attack a few years back. At the time he was working all the hours he could trying to keep his hotel in Chester afloat and aside from the pain and suffering, the heart attack couldn't have happened at a worse time for him.

However, he had some kind of critical illness cover, which paid out to such a degree (so he says) that he cleared the mortgage on the hotel, which in turn freed up a massive financial commitment, freeing him up to spend money on the hotel where it needed it. He then managed to sell the hotel shortly afterwards and is now living the life of riley (as they say). His opinion now is that the heart attack was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Anyhow I digress... if you ever are in the Masterton area, please do give us a shout.

TheDTB

Cadibel

Hi Thetb,

Glad your wife has now got a job and the work permit has been sorted. Both dh and I are secondary school teachers, and did on one occasion fall foul of the board of trustees not rusting anyone form outside of NZ (no pun intended!)

We both managed to get jobs in NZ from the UK - basic teaching jobs mind - I am currently a HOD. I got mine off my own bat and had several interviews but dh found the agancy fab at helping him get a job - one interview and it was in the bag. I guess it may depend where you want to settle, but for any school teachers out there, getting a secondary job in Auckland was relatively easy (primary, I know, is another kettle of fish!)

Has your wife started work now? Would love to know what she thinks - how it compares to the UK - paperwork etc. We both start at the start of Term 1.

Keep us updated!.

thedtb

Hi Cadibel,

Sorry for the delay, somehow I completely missed this message

Formally the wife's position starts (teaching new entrants) at the beginning of term 1, however the school requested that she do some supply etc, sooner than that, so she got her work permit sorted as quickly as possible in order that she could "start" (and earn some money) as soon as possible.

By the end of the term (it's the last day tomorrow) she'll have worked 10 full days.

In terms of differences, she's commented to me that she's been somewhat disappointed (on some levels) so far.

Given that the New Zealand education system was "sold" to her/us as being more advanced than that of the UK's, she's been surprised at the much lower standards expected of children here than in the UK, the far less time devoted to numeracy, and she's dismayed that it seems the school appears to make all the right noises in terms of what they *should* be doing but she has seen little determination to see those intiatives through to conclusion at ground-zero (so to speak).

It doesn't mean to say that this is the case nation-wide, it's entirely probable that it's just this individual school.

That being said, she's not "defeated" by any means, and she's approaching this as an opportunity to shine in terms of showing the school how to roll-out the various initiatives entirely and get the best from them, based on her experience of those very same initiatives back in the UK.

I think the main issue I'm getting from her at the moment, is a concern that she would naturally both demand more of and provide more opportunities for the kids, than her counterparts appear to be doing and subsequently she's concerned that she could send her kids on to the next class in a more advanced state than the teacher is expecting and subsequently cause problems for the other staff higher up the school.

There's a whole debate here of course... i.e. should the wife suppress her own natural skill and ability to assist kids with their education (I know I'm slightly biased but she is an excellent teacher) in order to maintain the status-quo for the rest of the staff... or should she drive the kid's potential and embrace her own ability to educate in full, in the hope that the rest of the school will catch up?

Naturally, it's easy to say that she should drive the kid's potential to the absolute best of her ability (that is surely the purpose of a teacher afterall) but as I'm sure you're aware, there's no point one teacher excelling (especially early on in the school) if the seedlings of that potential are not nurtured in the later years of the school also, because this would just cause problems for the kids.

It's rather big-headed I grant you and time will of course tell, but from the first 10 days in the school this is the thought process she's been relaying to me. Which is frustrating because she was really looking forward to rising to the challenge of teaching in New Zealand and furthering her career accordingly... so to be faced (potentially), or even just to be vaguely considering suppressing that desire to succeeed is not really something that sits particularly comfortably.

Personally, I don't actually think she'd be capable of suppressing her own ability (nor do I think it would be beneficial for either her or the school), nor do I actually think it's what the school principal desires. There's been plenty of staff changes this year and the school now has what appears to be a very young teaching team... (being in her early 30's the wife is one of the oldest members of the teaching staff)... therefore my (from-a-distance) gut feeling is that the principal wants people like my wife (along with the newly qualified teachers that have recently started there) to come in and make some waves of change.

I just hope I'm right.

Cadibel

Hi Thetb,

Sorry also for the daly - Christmas kind of got into the way! I am sure you are right and that is why they employed your wife - I know my new school have been asking me about suggesting literature texts to study (am in secondary). I think that English teachers are well regarded and NZ schools are keen to recruit them for their ideas/ experience.

Roll on term 1 for us too!

mudblood21

I can't use the 'quote' thing- I thought I had, but it didn't work! - you said.....

In our experience (and understandably so) the schools much preferred to be able to see the candidates face-to-face and I'm sure this is not something unique to teaching positions. This being the case I'd recommend anyone to grab the bull by the horns and just get out here, but do so with your eyes VERY wide open!




Thanks for your advice. this is just what I am thinking of doing, but as I am a widow and bringing only my youngest child (16 years old) with me, I need to reflect on whether or not I can hack it. Really useful to get your opinion on 'jumping', thanks!

thedtb

We did it with a 2 and 4 year old! So I'm sure you could do it with a 16yr old - although I guess plenty would rest on how *good* your relationship is with your 16yr old.

E.g. we've had our fair share of disagreements with them (the four year old now likes to stand his ground and at least attempt to jusify his actions and the 2 year old is fast catching up), but all in all they've coped extremely well.

By comparison, I have an 18yr old brother and just through knowing his current attitude to the world in general there's absolutely no way I'd ever contemplate doing anything like the "jump" we did, if he was our son.

All in all, our "jump" has been a mixed bag of emotions. As much as it's been an exciting, almost exhilerating adventure, it's also been mighty frustrating and at some points quite depressing and upsetting (in terms of our desire to provide a great life for our kids whilst fending off the state of limbo that we have imposed upon ourselves).

We came out here with a hotel booked for the first week and a vague booking to stay with some friends of a family member shortly after for a week or so. The wife had a job interview lined up for the day after we landed (which was unsuccessful). We bought a car on a our third day here and the wife applied for jobs almost daily thereafter, applying for over 50 teaching positions in total before the elusive job was acquired. The amount of times that we packed the car up and set off without actually having the first clue where we'd be stopping that night is untrue.

One advantage that we've had, is that myself and the wife have almost always had our "down" days at different times to each other, therefore the other has been able to step in and provide the "support" required. If you're on your own with a 16yr old for company my initial thought is to wonder who you'd turn to for that much needed support, but again this would come down to the strength of the relationship between the two of you.

All the above aside, things are now coming together for us... the job's in the bag, the container's due to arrive on Jan 22nd, we're moving in to a new (rented) house on Jan 23rd which is within the zone of the school we want the boys to go to, our youngest is enrolled in with the local play centre, our eldest is enrolled with the local Kindergarten, they're making friends and slowly we're making friends and that state of limbo is finally showing signs of coming to an end... but I strongly believe that this all comes down to the fact that we're both strong-minded, targeted, individuals who will do our utmost to make things we want, happen - as neither of us ever want to say "what if..." or "if only...", we'd much rather say "we tried it and it failed" than never bother at all.

That being said, I must confess that this first Christmas in NZ has been an eye-opener for us... but I'll post up a new thread about that shortly.

To sum up, my opinion on "jumping" is that we debated for quite some time whether we'd be able to hack it or not. We debated enormously whether it was the right thing to subject our kids to... but if you don't try it... you'll never know!

I'd recommend that anyone should do it, but do so, as mentioned, with your eyes VERY wide open. Also, do it with an (for want of a better phrase) "escape option". Whether that be funds in the bank or a return flight ticket booked and paid for, have the option to get out if it doesn't work out.

If you don't do it, you'll only be wondering "what if" or "if only" etc, and if you ever find yourself in Masterton, do give us a shout!

Of course if you have any questions about our specific experiences, please do ask.

carterfamily

congrats!!! Looked for ur update fr a while n finally found it

mudblood21

Thanks!

I spoke with the agency, and they advised strongly against the jump - because they have always posted people straight from the UK, and the cost of being in NZ waiting.

I'd very much prefer to have been in place for the start of the academic year, so that my 16 yr old (Mikey) could start 6th form again. It looks like it might be later, never mind, we'll manage.

As far as support goes, I am in the UK without anything much in the way of family support (i.e. a father in law who never fails to post a cheque for Christmas presents) I have some lovely friends and luckily we seem to manage to take breakdowns in rotation !

I couldn't lean on the kids, I managed two terminal cancer patients ( ma in law and hubby) and I think I probably depended on a lot of people for a little support, rather than use a couple of people for everything.

who knows?