In answer to this review we would like to point out the following :

This teacher had serious health issues which were never explained. We can only list a series of episodes :
forgetting lessons, arriving late for lessons, collapsing before & during lessons (the school called an ambulance & they was taken to A&E), smelling of alcohol, going missing for 2 days without explanation twice (cause unexplained). After these absence without notice episodes she was reprimanded by management but failed to give any real explanation as to the cause of these problems. Despite everything she was kept on until the end of her contract even though there was plenty of grounds for dismissal. She never asked to leave and at no time was she blackmailed to stay. She was on a legal contract & as such her salary was paid accordingly.

As to accusation of unfair treatment of other members of staff, this is completely unfounded. All staff members are on contract & when they are ill they obliged to stay at home - the school has never & will never oblige a member of staff to return to work if unwell. Indeed, it is worth pointing that the owner of the school went & picked up an employee from his home & took him to A&E herself.

The teacher concerned who came for a face to face interview was made fully aware of their timetable requirements (working on saturdays etc). There were times when we are very busy (January to May) & others when the was very little to do (October to December & June).

In no way is one obliged to speak Italian (although it obviously helps) at the school - however efforts to do so are appreciated by those who have difficulty with English - the comment is somewhat surprising as the teacher did make great efforts to learn the language & this was recognised by the staff.

As to benefits, these come with time & professionalism. If a teacher wishes to work with this school in a constructive, professional & open way there are many possibilities. We are a Platinum exam centre for Cambridge Assessment & so there are possibilities to become a speaking examiner . We also run both the Cambridge CELTA & DELTA courses & thus teachers have the opportunity to further their expertise.

Whilst we recognize that young EFL teacher wish to see the country we are a business & we take on teachers to do a job. However, there were various public holidays such as 1st November, Christmas (over 2 weeks), carnival (3/4 days) & Easter (1 week) in which teachers have the opportunity to travel.

In conclusion we strongly reject the accusations level at this school.

Never think of applying for the Cambridge school of English in Verona in Italy...Please! It is run by a complete [edited] who periodically screams at you that you are nothing or completely ignores you out of existence. The school does not allow you to be sick. She has screamed at us that if our legs are not broken we must work. She has also blackmailed colleagues in hospital who were very ill to come back to work or they would have no job left, of which they came back to work high on morphene and unable to walk. She deducts money illegally from your pay claiming it is tax, you work from 9 in the morning til 9 at night most days with some breaks but no time to really do much with yourself so you are basically in school 12 hours a day most of the year. You also have to work Saturdays. You can kiss goodbye to travelling and learning Italian at this school. If you try to leave they threaten you with thousands of euros to pay for all the hours you won't have done if you leave, which is financial blackmail and basically slavery. If you are ever sick you are screamed at and bullied in the workplace by all the italians and you also get in trouble if you try to speak English to the receptionists, managers or admin staff....in an ENGLISH SCHOOL you are in trouble if you speak English. The school gives you absolute no benefits to the job and has blackmailed us out of money in the past and totally discriminated us and bullied us, we cvouldn't leave because we were blackmailed to stay.

If you don't want to lose your freedom, self-esteem and sanity....don't, I repeat, don't work there!