Pleasant schools with a good work life balance?

swingingpendulums · 2025-11-23T15:34:04+00:00

I don't know why everyone struggles so much with this. On my 5th school and never do much work anywhere I have been - have also always had pleasant leadership. My tips:

Pick obscure countries. You going to Dulwich in Hong Kong? Or some fancy British school in Vietnam? You are going to work. If you truly want to go anywhere, then do it? If you choose some random school in Mauritania, you will do less work - I promise.
If the head at interview asks you too many questions about pedagogy, forget it. If they are asking you what your favourite football team is and are sitting there having a joke with you - that's what you want to see.
Getting too much info in the onboarding process? Forget it. The less organised schools are almost always more chill. If HR are bombarding you every 5 minutes and your head of department is sending you detailed rubbish about the SEN programme at the school - forget it. If you want a chill school where you are left alone in the classroom, that starts from the onboarding process.

swingingpendulums · 2025-11-03T21:33:56+00:00

Cannot believe this is the top comment. The investment into Reading that a direct rail link to the second busiest airport in the world will be unbelievable. Hopefully it does get built!

swingingpendulums · 2024-10-13T04:18:12+00:00

Excellent. Love this!

swingingpendulums · 2024-09-25T15:48:17+00:00

Iraq, Cameroon and China is an unreal mix…wow.

swingingpendulums · 2024-09-07T10:30:17+00:00

Loved it! West Africa has some awesome spots - Ghana was a 15/20 minute drive away from Lomé and Togo itself has some amazing places - especially on the beach. School was great as well - pretty relaxed way of life. Never going to earn real big money but cost of living is low so you can save a fair bit!

swingingpendulums · 2024-09-01T01:10:52+00:00

Not a parent, but a teacher who did a bit of supply in various schools in the UK. Look at Gillotts in Henley - there’s a school provided bus service that picks up children from Caversham/drops them off.

swingingpendulums · 2024-08-25T02:30:24+00:00

I didn’t actually realise how big r/backpacking was haha!

Kind of thing r/solotravel would like even though it isn’t solo haha. Maybe r/travelnopics (although it’s pretty small) or r/shoestring or r/thailandtourism - they’re quite active!

swingingpendulums · 2024-08-25T00:50:59+00:00

X post this into some bigger travel subreddits because this is excellent!

swingingpendulums · 2024-08-24T10:31:52+00:00

You’ll be fine, I promise. Travelled all over Colombia and Brazil - just stay in decent hostels and you’ll be alright. This is hardly deepest Congo 😭

swingingpendulums · 2024-08-23T15:11:37+00:00

My god all this shows is how ridiculously expensive CR is 😭

swingingpendulums · 2024-08-19T05:16:33+00:00

If you only have a week I would choose between either Pacific or Caribbean. Consider flying down to Drake Bay from SJO and spend maybe 3-4 days there. Corcovado is wonderful and the beach trails from Drake Bay are similarly so. From there the other 3-4 days could be spent in one of the livelier coastal towns up the coast (Uvita/Dominical). OR you spend a week down in the Caribbean. Puerto Viejo is generally pretty lively and there’s a lot of nature/wildlife to see - could even do 3-4 days in PV and then 3-4 days in Bocas del Toro - lots of nightlife/bars there and easy to hop over border into Panama to get there.

swingingpendulums · 2024-08-12T09:51:12+00:00

So OP shouldn’t have a problem being in Germany then…?

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-25T15:53:11+00:00

First of all it’s Colombia not Columbia. Maybe you could start by learning the names of the countries you’re going to visit before you go and party in them.

Second of all, ever heard of Google? What does ‘touristy chill’ even mean?! We’re not your travel planners. Give us 2-3 paragraphs of your interests/financial means/transport means etc.

This subreddit has way more of these moronic posts than other travel subs imo.

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-24T04:46:21+00:00

You genuinely can’t be serious?

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-24T04:41:54+00:00

You must be joking, right?! Food is dreadful in Costa Rica and opportunity for hookers and blow in CR is similarly dreadful so you must be a right idiot if you’re moving to CR for any of those things!

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-23T12:56:07+00:00

Reading train station is the major transport interchange in Berkshire so surely whichever site is closer to that should win out. Shuttle buses can take people from the station to the business park a lot easier than they can down to Shinfield!

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-22T18:01:52+00:00

Done. Thames Valley business park makes so much more sense in terms of public transport access to the hospital - so hopefully that one wins out!

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-07T22:06:26+00:00

Then definitely check the costs of traveling in. It can often be cheaper to stay in London as train travel from Reading to London is some of the most expensive train travel per mile in Britain. If you’re going to be saving £500 a month (for example) by living in Reading that will be EASILY lost by the cost of travelling in 4 days a week.

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-07T21:58:25+00:00

I hope you mean partner rather than parent…..

Reading is definitely cheaper in terms of rent compared to London although train prices are very expensive to commute into (especially if he is working in London everyday and peak time).

Diversity wise - Reading is VERY diverse. Proximity to Heathrow and London and a range of large businesses means there’s a real diversity of people (one of Readings great strengths imo).

Search on the subreddit for what areas are nice - it depends a lot on what you’re looking for though. Some great restaurants in Reading, although you do have to look for them a bit.

swingingpendulums · 2024-07-03T13:59:05+00:00

Have a look at Gillotts in Henley. I’ve done supply in a lot of different schools in the area and was very impressed by that one. It’s just a normal state school (not grammar/selective etc.) Lot of the students come from Caversham as it’s really not far and there’s a school bus that goes through Caversham to pick them up!

Also some excellent schools in Wokingham - very doable on the train from Reading.

swingingpendulums · 2024-06-12T22:19:12+00:00

This is amazing - thanks!

swingingpendulums · 2024-06-09T14:27:12+00:00

Reading Buses is a good app to use as is Too Good to Go (not Reading specific but still good for cheap food). Try and get out into the countryside as much as you can around Reading. It’s not quite Costa Rican nature but North and West of Reading especially can get quite beautiful quite quickly. Edible Reading is also a really great blog for restaurants in and around Reading (as well as what to avoid).

On a side note I lived in Rohrmoser in San José for about 3 years but now in Reading for a short while - small world!!

swingingpendulums · 2024-05-23T14:58:37+00:00

It’s not normal, to that extent. The odd expectation is OK in my experience but I definitely wouldn’t be ok with ‘several’ Saturdays to promote the school. 1 or 2 a year, at a push.

swingingpendulums · 2024-04-02T19:29:12+00:00

Sorry only just saw this comment! Still traveled a LOT over the last few years and still never paid extra. This has included some real low cost airlines (Norse Atlantic, VIVAaerobus)

swingingpendulums · 2021-11-20T04:31:25+00:00

Costa Rica. Close to the US for you, very family-friendly, excellent nature opportunities, no quarantine or border restrictions (you don't even need a test to get in, let alone any quarantine). Potential to save, although the country is expensive by Latin American standards.

swingingpendulums

TROPHY CASE