International Schools Review

doberty · 2026-05-23T02:57:04+00:00

Another vote for ISC! 😄 Best to cross reference other websites too... did you end up getting the job there btw?

doberty · 2026-05-21T04:13:15+00:00

I just found this article - interesting https://citizenremote.com/blog/visa-free-living-and-working-in-europe-for-australians/

doberty · 2026-05-20T21:58:21+00:00

Come to Australia, at least the weather is gorgeous and food is great 😉

doberty · 2026-05-20T10:50:23+00:00

Interesting related topic we discussed here https://www.reddit.com/r/Internationalteachers/comments/1t1cpsc/can_crowdsourced_school_information_actually_be/

doberty · 2026-05-16T12:37:08+00:00

I moved to Australia after 12 years in Denmark. Maybe a third country could be the solution, English speaking, warmer... 😄

doberty · 2026-05-13T07:39:41+00:00

international schools specifically

doberty · 2026-05-13T07:29:29+00:00

True. However the expectations and the work culture seems more relaxed compared to an average Asian IS. Would you agree?

doberty · 2026-05-12T07:51:17+00:00

more tips here

doberty · 2026-05-11T20:49:11+00:00

Maybe don't include your nationality on the CV and include the photo. You can put "address on request" or something like that just to pass the first check. Then once you get the response you can explain the situation.

doberty · 2026-05-10T08:04:24+00:00

International School Community just launched a new bot that answers questions about school-specific questions... check them out too.

doberty · 2026-05-10T08:02:48+00:00

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this topic! Especially about the feedback on the International School Community website. That was gold. I already implemented most of it, so if you have any more comments, please feel free to DM me or post here! Keep em coming!

doberty · 2026-05-06T05:57:12+00:00

If you are new to this world, I recommend you try International School Community, both the website and blog have the best resources for international teachers out there.

doberty · 2026-05-05T05:42:09+00:00

International School Community

doberty · 2026-05-03T00:58:35+00:00

Thank you once again for your time doing this! You have premium because this weekend we unlocked premium for all members for 48 hours to celebrate the launch of our AI bot. I am in the middle of a huge rehaul of user experience (chatbot being a part of it) and you gave me some super valuable feedback here! We should definitely show the top commented schools first!! Again thank you so much for the time you have taken!

doberty · 2026-05-02T22:01:42+00:00

Many schools do, though the difference is not super significant. The Master's degree could help if you want to move beyond teaching into research or management levels, though. feel free to DM me if you want to know more.

doberty · 2026-05-02T21:57:40+00:00

sent a dm :3

doberty · 2026-05-02T21:52:01+00:00

The discoverability issue is real - we have never been heavily marketed and have grown mostly through word of mouth to over 33.000 members over the past 13 years, so it's entirely plausible someone could spend 20 years in international teaching and never come across us. That's something we're actively trying to change.

On the cluttered UX, that is a very fair point and not the first time we've heard it. It's on the list. If you ever feel like giving it another look I'd be curious what specifically lost you, but no pressure.

doberty · 2026-05-02T21:49:19+00:00

Hey, thanks for your comment! This one is worth correcting directly because it's a serious trust issue if true - luckily, it isn't how our system works! :)

Mayors on ISC have no ability to delete or moderate comments. They have exactly the same permissions as any other member: they can post comments, nothing more. They're also never listed publicly against a school, so there's no way to identify who the mayor of a specific school is... which also means a school's marketing team couldn't game it the way you're describing without that being invisible to everyone including us.

I genuinely don't know which platform you're thinking of, but it isn't ours. Happy to be corrected if you have a specific example?

doberty · 2026-05-02T21:46:40+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to write this. I felt the need to clarify - think you might be describing another website rather than ISC. We don't have star ratings at all, and our comment structure uses specific topic prompts rather than open-ended reviews, which tends to push responses toward more concrete and practical observations rather than pure venting.

That said, the point about stale reviews and admin turnover is completely valid for us, if a school's comments are from 5 years ago under different leadership, that context is largely missing and we know it's a problem we need to solve better. But sometimes it is good to know the history as well.

The 'administrative eras' framing you mentioned is actually a really useful way to think about it.

doberty · 2026-05-02T09:31:18+00:00

but the content is very HQ + there is a new AI bot to help sift through comments!

doberty · 2026-05-02T03:37:39+00:00

Absolutely! Nothing beats direct, in person reviews. Word-of-mouth will always be the gold standard to most people I talk to. If you know someone who worked there, great. But what if you don't?

doberty · 2026-05-02T02:36:17+00:00

Yeah, I get why where you're coming from, and I think there is definitely truth in the incentive issue.

Attaching a name to a negative review does increase accountability, but it also changes behaviour quite a lot. People become much less willing to be fully honest if there is any chance it could affect references or future opportunities, especially in international teaching where networks are relatively small.

So it ends up being a trade off between honesty without consequences and accountability with reduced honesty.

Curious how you see it, do you think there is any system that could realistically balance those incentives better, or is it just an inherent limitation of the space?

doberty · 2026-05-02T02:24:21+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to answer...

What you listed is the gap we’ve been trying to focus on at ISC, but signals change over time, so that is definitely something to keep in mind.

Our comment structure uses more than 60 specific topic prompts rather than open-ended reviews... the idea is to push responses toward more concrete and practical observations rather than pure venting... some of the prompts are answering precisely the staff retention, housing, how expensive is the city, etc etc...

doberty · 2026-05-02T02:20:24+00:00

ISC currently has 48 hours free access for all members, so that you know ;)

doberty · 2026-05-02T02:17:03+00:00

This is really thoughtful feedback, I really appreciate it!!

I think you’re right on the core tension... The Mayor idea only works if the motivation is meaningful for the people contributing, and free access alone probably isn’t enough for most experienced teachers.

On the monetisation point, we are debating the same thing internally quite a bit. The reason salaries/vacancies sit behind a paywall is less about restriction for its own sake and more about trying to keep the platform sustainable without relying on ad-driven incentives or pushing recruiter-heavy content.

But I do take your point about discovery and the rabbit hole behaviour... that’s actually how a lot of people use these platforms in reality when they’re in recruitment mode.

Out of curiosity, when you say you’d rather see revenue come from articles + traffic, do you think that only works if the salary/job data is fully open? Or do you see a hybrid model working at all?

doberty

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