lunny

Hiya,

I'm an NQT,Irish,living in the UK. I wanted to go to Oz this year, but with financial commitments at home, in the guise of student loans, I feel Oz would be too risky, as I do not wish to default on repayments. Supply work is not guaranteed to pay the bills! I'm secondary trained, but would love to go into primary - I have been informed by agencies in Oz this was a good decision, as there is more work in primary supply (Melbourne anyway). Does anyone have any suggestions of where I could go? I have been looking into Dubai, my b/f will be with me and his field is Sports Mgmt. We really just want decent weather and decent pay, is that too much to ask? In case it makes a difference the monthly payments I will need to making back home is aroung €400 per month, minimum. If anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it. We will go anwhere

hilasbat

Your best bet for highest wages is Kuwait or similar. Danger money you see.
If you want to not get blown up (which isn't guaranteed in Q btw), Dubai and similar are your best bet however you won't be able to go with your boyfriend whilst he remains so, you would have to be married. There are no ifs or buts on this one, it is not a country you can try and bend the rules in.

So if you don't want to get married, but want to teach and have better weather, Oz is probably your best bet in terms of actually being doable - NZ is equally doable to get to, but imho the weather isn't great - either too similar to the UK or far too humid and sticky (and rotting clothes aren't fun). Canada and the US are pretty impossible to get into for teachers (from my research Canada, whenever, the US particularly at the moment, in a few years when the economy has recovered in this area they may be hiring from abroad again via VIF - you can check them out anyway, but they have serious recruiting shortage on at the mo, and even if you get taken on by them it is very very unlikely you will actually be placed at the moment from what friends in the system have said to me.) You can always look at International Schools across Europe as well, however you may find that any international school worth it's salt will only employ you with 2 or 3 years experience (not counting PGCE year).

Your student loan payments are linked to your wages though, so it doesn't matter how much you earn, in the respect of if it's not enough, you simply defer payments.

Good luck, if you don't already now about it, the tes website forum for teaching overseas can be quite good for info.

lunny

Thanks for that hilasbat. However, I can safely say 'Kuwait is not for me'. Student loans are in Ireland, so not linked to wages unfortunatley. Have to be repaid no matter what I'm earning The issue with Oz is that I don't think I can be reasonably guaranteed work anywhere...or can I? I would do rural teaching, no probs - would that make a difference? I definitly do not want to be located anywhere near Bondi or Sydney for that matter.

hilasbat

Oz isn't really my area I'm afraid - the extent of my knowledge really goes to 'teachers there are treated more like professionals than in the UK' and 'teachers there aren't observed constantly like in the UK' (both of which I guess are more opinions formed from what Oz collegues have told me, rather than facts). Other than that I'm afraid it's pretty spotty my knowledge - I keep hearing there isn't any work etc etc, but then I keep hearing that about supply teaching here in the UK and to be honest I've got far more than I can cope with (I have been offered three full weeks worth of work for this coming week from my agency, for eg).

I can't think that work would be impossible in Oz - if relief teaching work isn't forthcoming there's always backpacker work (if you are in the right area) if you are on a WHV for eg. Sorry I can't be more helpful on the Oz front, but from the little bit of research I've done, I'm not sure it's a route to money - it seems to be you live for the lifestyle and certainly won't get rich (not that this is your motive, but don't know if this will leave enough for your student loans.) (sorry also, didn't realise IR had a different system for student loans - how annoying!)

The middle east is the way to go for £$ tbh. Dubai, Saudi etc....

lunny

Thanks for that Hilasbat. I'm not enough of a risk taker to just land in OZ and see what happens....unfortunatley! It's looking like the middle east so. Must do some research on Saudi - haven't really looked at it. Funny about the Irish student loans 'system'. They don't even have a system! You just get a minimal APR reduction-that's it. Don't get me started on that, I based my final year dissertation on it
Anyway, take care

coolerkingcooler

My last HOD earned a very good wage in Egypt - has a Porsche now.

Cooler

roamer25

Best wages at the moment are in rural towns in Western Oz. Significantly better money than back in Ireland or Scotland and certainly better than English salaries! I'm earning more than I would in Dubai, but the downside is living in a remote town very far from anything!

However...

I have never seen so much classroom observation and lack of professional respect as I have in rural WA. It is so bad, it has actually made me wonder if I want to continue teaching at all!

Of course we do! We're a different country. Why would the UK student loans scheme apply there?!

hilasbat

Keep your hair on! I didn't read slowly enough and didn't realise the OP was in Ireland, for which I have apologised for already. And it's not too much of a stretch of the imagination is it? Its similar language, similar weather, similar la-la-la, no need to be quite so upperty about it ....

Gems

International Schools are good we have done it.
Check out TES.co.uk website it has jobs for all the international schools.
They all should be advertising around now.

However here is the catch most International Schools require 2 years teaching experience first. Basically if your NQT you may struggle to get work.

If you do go the International School route, go on TES website forum as plenty of shonky international schools that pay a pittance and con the staff.


Gems

Ellie and Jason

Halisbat, not sure where you are getting your information from about the Middle East. I was offered a job in Kuwait for 800 GBP per month and shared accommodation. I'm in Saudi now earning over 3 times that amount and in a 3-bed villa.

Also, how many people have been 'blown up' in the Middle East compared to the UK? How many people are attacked, raped or mugged in Saudi compared to the UK? If you're going to give opinions about the Middle East, base them on some type of factual evidence.

Victor Meldrew

You say you are Secondary trained but want to go in to Primary. You don't say whay subject you are and/or how you are ging to adapt to being a Primary class teacher.

This is not easy unless you are teaching a specialist subject (PE, Music, ICT), and unlikely as an NQT as there will be Primary trained teachers who will be in the Queue ahead of you.

Regards countries, like another poster has mentioned, the Middle East is a difficult one if you are not married to your boyfriend. He won't even get into Saudi to visit unless he has a job to go to.

One possibility would be Cairo, particularly at the British International School Cairo (BISC). Their salaries are very good, and they are tolerant of 'partners' accompanying if they feel you are a good enough teacher to warrant it. The potential downside of this is that Cairo is not to everyones taste, the school is out of town and the majority of the children are (rich, spoilt, loud) Egyptians.

kar-kier

We are in WA, and as someone else says, the wages here are much better than in Scotland, and we aren't even rural!

2 of my friends got work in international schools in Shanghai, that was directly after their NQT year. They got paid HUGE amounts, plus extra bonuses at the end of each year taught. There accomodation was paid and they were paid to fly home twice a year. One of my friends is still there 4 years on. They also both had very small classes, 8-9 kids, all English as first language, but differing ages and abilities!

dave0

You can get good money everywhere. It depends what you are working.

dave,

saoghalbeag

I'd second the comment about Shanghai. International schools in Asia can be fairly lucrative - I recently worked there and earned about the equivalent of a beginning teacher in Australia (22000RMB/month), with flights, visas, insurance all covered, as well as free furnished apartment, tuition, meals at school etc etc. Although on my own with a child and only there 5 months I saved loads. I had to return to Oz as my daughter was only 4 and really unhappy, but financially it was a far better deal than being in Australia.

And apparently some of the posher/more established international schools pay a lot more/have more perks than this. I was warned off the Middle East due to being a sole parent and not having 2 years of continuous experience. Teach Anywhere (also called Select recruitment or Randstad) have a lot of international school jobs listed, but to be honest I found them pretty unhelpful and in the end I checked out the jobs on their list then did some devious googling to find the ads on the school webpages. The first school I emailed took me on straight away.

There are a lot of pitfalls with working in China/Asia which I'm sure you'll uncover, but one of the other bonuses that I didn't hear about until I got there was the opportunity for management experience. As teaching staff are fairly transient, if you are switched on you can soon get involved in initiatives you may never get a chance to at home. If you're in an IB school there's also quite a bit of PD in Asia. There are also networks etc etc. As you can probably tell I was quite bummed to have to leave, but child comes first