New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparation.
 

Myself, my (french) husband , along with our 6 y.o son are planning to make the move to Spain.After living in Japan for 6+ years and in france for 10+ prior to that,we moved back to England 4 years ago, and now we have had enough of the weather and the country that England has become. We have decided to move back to the mediterranean basin(hubby is from s.france) as we miss our 'old ' lifestyle and at the moment are researching Mallorca or Meediterranean coast as a suitable place.I would love to hear from any of you who has advice on how to get started! OH is a builder and I am a TEFL teacher as well as brit qualified teacher-what is the job situ like over there, and can any one recommend good web sites to start researching from, also what about schools in the area for our son? (we are early 40's)
Sorry for so many questions, but I am hoping this will kickstart our plans.
Thanks to any one who answers.

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Sorry I can't advise you as we are still waiting to move ourselves. I just wanted to say I admire you for 'getting on with it' (re already living in different countries) and honestly can't blame you for wanting to leave England. Hope you find somewhere suitable and soon, also Good Luck with your move :beer:

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Thanks Lionda, hope you manage to move soon.
Where do you want to go?

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

We will be moving to the Costa Blanca, we have bought a new-build on an urbanisation called Castella International it is about 30 mins from Alicante, inland. We should have been moving at the end of October but there has been a delay (paperwork!) so it could now be March....if we are lucky! :rolleyes: We are flying out on the 18th of this month to have a holiday away from this awful weather and to see our solicitor and also the agents to see what the delay is.

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Just one question. Why not move back to France?

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Hi TEFL LADY,

Look up some posts by Kieth Walters on the subject of employment. He is a TEFL and has made some useful comments on the job situation. Or you cold always PM him for advice.

Regards, ;)

John.

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Welcome and good luck with your move!

:beer:

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Hubby should have no problem - plenty of building work around but many set up on their own. I would recommend the mainland as opposed to the Islands if you're coming over on-spec - more opportunities, really.
As you're child is six, the absolute best for him would be to move him into the local Spanish school as soon as you arrive. He's still the right age to do that. He would need to find friends and pick up Spanish as quickly as possible and there's no better way to do that than putting him in a Spanish school. He'll pick up the language incredibly quickly and from day one he'll have a network of friends. Over the years I've seen English parents insist on putting their kids into International/English schools and I believe this is not in the child's best interests. Usually, these schools are far from where you live or even if you're close, his classmates will be spread out over a large area. Making friends outside school becomes harder, especially as picking up Spanish will be harder. At an international school, he's learning Spanish as a second language whereas putting him directly into a Spanish school he's picking up the language almost as a mother tongue. As a language professional, I'm sure you understand the importance of this.
On the downside, forget the TEFL salaries you were earning in Japan. Spain is notoriously bad at paying TEFL teachers. To make money out of it, you need to go freelance and pick up as many business classes as possible - however this means being near a major city. Madrid currently pays about the same as what it was paying around 6 or 7 years ago!!!! The average seems to be 22 € per hour. You'll see ads saying from schools saying they'll pay 30 € or even 40 € per hour, however they'll only give you a few hours. When I did it, I ended up with a group of my own clients topped up by working for a decent school (who operated more like an agency) where I could get blocks of classes in the difficult hours i.e mid morning.
The other option which I wholeheartedly recommend is to find yourself a nice-sized village or small town where there is no language school (or even an area of a big town or city which doesn't have a school near). Get yourself a nice sized premesis (or many people choose to use flats but me and the missus went against this idea) and run after school English classes for kids. You can do adults as well but they are not as reliable customers as the kids. Once the parents put them in around September, you've usually got them until June. Makes financial planning much easier. Adults flit in then flit out. We do adult classes but we don't vigorously promote it. Besides, we have enough on our plate.
The criteria we took for choosing where to open up was to find a place that didn't have a language school but had a high number of children. Our town has 20.000 people with 30% under 20 year olds according to the national statisitics office. This is incredibly high - not every town is like this. There are 6 primary schools and 3 high schools. Unfortunately they're not that keen on education down here (it's better up north or nearer the cities) and loads of kids drop out to go to work at around 15 years old. It's a shame, but thankfully not all of Spain is like this town.

In terms of websites, I honestly can't recommend any of them. One site would be infojobs.net however I don't know whether it will direct you to the Spanish version if you're accessing it from the UK - it won't let me do it the other way round. You can get an idea what they are paying teachers at the moment and what availabilty is like.

Hope this helps and if you want more specific advice PM me and I'll get in touch.

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Hi Tefl lady.

My missus is a TEFL teacher in Jerez. I agree with a lot of the things that Fortaleza has already said - ie, aim for a town without any or many language schools. You´ll find the level of English amongst the Spanish will be apallingly low and you´ll almost have a monopoly. Anne got offered a job in a Spanish International school (different to international schools you find on the costas) and was offered a fixed salary of 1200 euros (for which a TEFL qualification is not valid, but that didn´t seem to matter!). That was about 4 years ago. She decided not to take it and and went solo doing mainly First Certificate and Business English freelance to adults. Demand far outstrips supply so she can pick and choose her customers.

I would avoid trying to settle on one of the Costas as the Spanish speak English much better there and they have far more opportunities to practice English with all the tourists so the need for a proper teacher is much less.

I would also forget about looking for a decent website advertising jobs as I have never seen a good one. Unless perhaps you are thinking of Madrid or Barcelona?? Most ads seem to be via word of mouth!! or in local press. If I were you and I was looking for employment in a language academy I would just do a google search on ingles/clases and the town of your choice. That should bring up the academies and you could send them your CV.

Good luck.

Keith

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Fortaleza, have PM'd you.
Thanks Keith for your informative response. The TEFL situation is exactly as it was in France-(and in Japan, too) generally by word of mouth- the more you do , the more offers you get.I did a lot of first cert..etc.. -and miss it so much- not much call for that in the north of england!!
I am pretty sure I will be able to build up work. It is an ambition of mine to run my own school, so will be looking in this direction, but will probably do freelance teaching for places until I 'build up my contacts!!'
Does your missus have a teaching qualif other than tefl?
thanks for your information-very helpful and kind.
as they say in France- "Bonne continuation"!!

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

No, Anne only has TEFL so only teaches adults. But that is her choice, she prefers that. If she wanted to teach children, or in a Spanish primary school then the lack of another qualification wouldn´t matter as she almost has zero competition in this town.

As long as you choose your town well, you´ll have no problem finding work. They will be biting your arm off to get a qualified TEFL teacher with years of experience - either as your own business, or in an already established academy. But I must stress the importance of picking the right type of town for your trade.

Fortaleza - just out of curiosity, where are you?


Keith

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Good luck with your move xx

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Thank you Miss Naughty-won't be for at least a year yet, though.
Good luck with your imminent move and new beginning-Hope you feel more positive and cheerful-it will be so exhilarating!

As Deepak Chopra wrote-"Without uncertainty and the unknown, life is just the stale repetition of outworn memories...step into the unknown, and you will step into the field of all possibilities...You will experience the fun of life and the exultation of your own spirit."
All the best-go for it!!

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Well done to you !!! Hope you find out all you need to know to make this move as easy as possible.

I got to say this site has been wonderful :)

So many helpful and supportive people.....

Good luck to you and your family

Mich x

Re: New to this site and planning the big move-Would welcome any advice on preparatio
 

Just out of interest if you were considering teaching children part time as your own business, what other qualification would you need apart from TEFL

Helen