Crooked Private School Watch
- 2013-06-01
I remember walking into that back staff room, and catching Galea [edited]. He also stole salary. Its not a great place to work. Why all of a sudden are there great reviews cropping up about this school? Has something happened that they are trying to suppress from coming out? I know that the Police raided EF Moscow on a number of occasions, and that they were up in court on a number of occasions for dubious business practices, so why all of a sudden are there these bogus reviews concerning that school cropping up? It would be interesting to find out. As for Sarah, [edited]
Matthew Ferry
- 2013-05-31
I did, I didn't and I do work in an outstanding school; and I don't mean Outstanding by Ofsted definition, I mean outstanding in terms of student and staff fulfilment. Let me set my stall out from the start. This blog is "not" based on Ofsted definition, so if this is why you came here, you will only be disappointed, so I suggest you are better off reading this.
Many years ago I did: I was fortunate enough to be appointed to my first middle leadership position. Starting in 1999, I joined EF Moscow. Russia as an ESL teacher working with 60 students. Today, the school has approximately 260 members of staff and over 2300 students in Moscow alone.
I can safely say, my time at EF were the happiest teaching years of my career (to date); so let me tell you why. The luxury of a working for such a serious shcool allows all stakeholders to join a fresh ethos and a crisp vision. I recall the school motto quite clearly, "Success for All". But behind the scenes, the ethos amongst the staff was "the extra mile" and within such a young evolving cohort, a healthy zest of competitiveness remained. It was great fun and staff morale was epic!
Staff relished working, and I loved Monday mornings again. I couldn't get to school quick enough. Studnets on the whole, were excited about each new phase of the school's growth, as this made a significant impact on personal development, fully understanding this unique position of being "the first".
I loved every second!
Matt Ferry.
Magister
- 2012-02-17
I've actually seen the new courses & materials that EF has produced and they are pretty good. What i doubt is whether EF really have the business structure and teachers available to deliver these lofty ideals in the classroom on a consistant basis.
I don't have any knowledge of how EF is set up in Russia but here in China it's only the big cities (i believe it's Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou & Shenzhen but i may be wrong) that are actually run by the Shanghai Head Office all the other schools are franchises. From my own observations the franchise schools are generally run by people with little or no experience in the education sector. They are also staffed by teachers who generally have the bare minimum qualifications to work in China i.e. a degree (who doesn't have one of those these days!) and a 'teaching certificate' (that could be a 20hr TEFL on ESL which is not worth the paper it's printed on!). For a mulitude of reasons, i've also noticed that teachers at these schools don't tend to stay in their postion for very long. Therefore it puts pay to any idea that teachers can really become part of the decision making process with students, helping them set and acheive goals because these are medium to long term considerations which need to be worked through for years not months. You can produce fancy courses, talk about cutting edge methodologies, etc., etc. but when it comes to having the teachers and management to carry it out, EF and most other private schools in areas such as China, Russia, Indonesia & certain parts of East Europe (where there is a market for these kind of businesses) just don't have them.
It's certainly interesting that EF are looking to push these kind of ideas because i feel that most other private schools are looking to go the other way e.g. they realise that if your staff is made up of teachers with generally little or no experience then the last thing you want is them making decisions. Instead these other schools push "teachers" towards scripted lessons with which there should be little or no deviation.
EF have a long way to go to realise any ambitions they have about being the vanguard of how to teach in the 21st century.
EF English First are also using teaching smarter methods that clearly helps both teachers and students become part of the decision-making system in a classroom. Students and teachers are more likely to be engaged and supportive when they feel part of a system., have built goals through consensus and helped design how those goals can and will be reached using the language competency profile.
Teachers like being a part of the decision-making process – your work with students is a powerful concept that we must work to include in all classrooms. Those principals who become familiar with your effectiveness with students will see that class time is being used appropriately and behavior problems are much rarer than in the average current classroom.
EF English First is truly at the vanguard of the new ‘how’ we must teach for a 21st Century, Information Age World.
Mitch,