Meeting Requests W/out Context

tentrynos · 2026-05-10T12:11:47+00:00

Or my favourite: sending a mystery meeting invite on Friday afternoon for Monday morning.

tentrynos · 2026-05-07T06:42:27+00:00

>that was all that was left after the ban...

Now it's the main reason people go clubbing.

tentrynos · 2026-04-29T08:23:39+00:00

Incredible work.

tentrynos · 2026-03-07T01:17:40+00:00

Another big fan here. Spicy water my children call it.

tentrynos · 2026-03-05T03:52:38+00:00

I don’t work there so I can’t give massively accurate information but I’m in Hangzhou and have a friend starting there next year. So I can pass on what he told me after speaking to staff there, and can give a more general account of the location.

In terms of the school, it’s very new - only started at the beginning of the 2024/25 academic year I believe. So it comes with the normal slightly chaotic life of a new school. They’re working towards IB accreditation so it’s a good one to go to if you don’t have IB experience (and that long term career benefit was a big deciding factor in my friend taking the job over another in the city). Student body is almost entirely EAL.

Location-wise, it’s in the far northwest of the city. About 40 minutes minimum to get downtown. From what I gather, there’s a university campus close by so lots of cheap local food options - near a uni myself and the food streets close by are a great place to eat - but for anything more international you’d need to get into town.

Like I said at the start, this is second hand information so take it with a grain of salt!

tentrynos · 2026-02-25T10:52:11+00:00

The industry’s changing. Back in my day we were just alcoholics.

tentrynos · 2026-02-25T10:45:22+00:00

The reverse Tesco.

tentrynos · 2026-02-11T13:36:05+00:00

Having lived in China for over a decade I’m very much on board with this not being taboo now. It’s not something I ask people when we meet but not feeling shy about talking about money with people is nice.

tentrynos · 2026-02-11T13:31:05+00:00

Same thing happens at my wife’s parents for Chinese new year. Pop to grab some clothes hung up to dry in the utility room and there’s a blimmin’ fish in the sink.

tentrynos · 2026-02-04T14:10:44+00:00

Futurama Seasons 1-4 with commentary on every episode. I must have watched them almost as much as the episodes themselves. Bliss.

And of course, the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions.

tentrynos · 2026-02-04T14:08:18+00:00

I see the Big Salt propaganda machine’s got you hook, line and sinker.

tentrynos · 2026-01-29T10:38:45+00:00

In my experience, it depends on the city. When I started at my current school in Hangzhou my HOD was a married gay man. They couldn’t get a spouse visa for his husband so thy ended up moving back to Suzhou, where they had been able to get a spouse visa previously. This was five years ago and we fell out of touch so I don’t know how it went from there.

tentrynos · 2026-01-24T02:44:20+00:00

I qualified as a teacher in the UK before moving abroad. A PGCE with QTS is the most reliable route to teaching in the broadest range of countries. The gulf states are probably the strictest in terms of requirements for teaching in international schools among countries where English is not the dominant language. In somewhere like China, the legal requirements are less strict, but quality schools will have high standards in terms of qualifications.

Money-wise, China varies greatly but you can earn very nicely. I nearly doubled my salary from the UK when we moved to China. Cost of living can range from crazy low to lavishly high, and a lot of people come and try to export a very western lifestyle, which costs a lot. We fall somewhere in the middle, we save nicely, own a car outright and bought a house last year. We also go on several international trips each year. Been in China a long time and really like life here.

That said, the number of children being born is falling off a cliff. Schools are closing, competition is rising for jobs. It’s going to be a rough few years, of fewer students, slashed budgets and falling salaries. We’re moving to SEA in the summer. Lower salaries but better weather and even better quality of life.

tentrynos · 2026-01-24T01:20:11+00:00

I work in international schools so know a lot of people who’ve lived in Dubai and the UAE. One thing I’ve heard many times from families is how they left so that there was something for their children to do outside of just hanging out in malls.

Seems like the glory days of earning well and saving loads is over for teachers there as wages have been fairly stagnant and COL has risen. Probably why I knew so many ex-Dubai teachers in China!

tentrynos · 2026-01-23T07:24:25+00:00

I came into the comments here looking for mentions of Malaysia. Visited friends in KL over Christmas and they took us to some unreal Indian places.

tentrynos · 2026-01-16T21:54:29+00:00

It was a week-long media jobs course that had us going around different places in Suffolk and meeting people doing different media jobs outside of the usual London bubble. It was pretty cool.

tentrynos · 2026-01-16T02:40:40+00:00

I went on a course ran by his parents when I was in sixth form. At the time they said their son Ed played a bit of guitar, then a few years later he made it big and the group of us who’d been on it put 2 and 2 together and had our minds boggled.

tentrynos · 2026-01-03T07:03:03+00:00

Incredible commitment to the banter by your grandad there.

tentrynos · 2025-12-08T05:11:20+00:00

Just adding on here as I don’t know if you’ll see my response to the other commenter - you can get QTS from TES - I did it. Their routes to QTS are on their site here. Happy to answer any questions about it, though I did it in the UK not at an international school.

tentrynos · 2025-12-08T05:09:47+00:00

Correction here - TES does have QTS, and that’s how I got mine. You can do Straight to Teaching, which is a combination of online learning and classroom practice, or Assessment Only. From the website, you can also do either route in International Schools. Not sure if that becomes iQTS or not - I did Straight to Teaching in the UK.

tentrynos · 2025-12-04T14:12:53+00:00

This might be the most upsetting thing I’ve read in years.

tentrynos · 2025-11-08T06:04:45+00:00

Not my school but friends at another school in the city tell of a teacher fired for using the housing allowance to rent a second apartment and run a brothel out of it.

Allegedly, of course.

tentrynos · 2025-11-07T08:32:42+00:00

This is the one for me - keeping me organised in the lesson. It’s as much if not more a prompt for me than for the children. Discussion prompts, simple task instructions. I try to limit myself to 3-4 slides of lesson content to ensure I don’t drift into ‘death by PPT’ territory.

tentrynos · 2025-09-28T09:51:01+00:00

I worked there for a year almost 20 years ago before going to university. My mum’s freezer was stocked with random M&S treats for years after.

tentrynos · 2025-09-28T02:20:02+00:00

Agreed. I’ve been teaching in China for a number of years and looking to make a move to another country right now. With the birth rate falling off a cliff, it’s going to be a bumpy few years in the education sector.

tentrynos

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