Dear Mr. []

Country Garden School is not physically nice, and most areas are desperately in need of renovation. Rats seem to be a major problem, not to mention the gigantic cockroaches that can be found just about everywhere (I've seen them all around the kitchen I once saw a dead rat under a trolley that had food all over it!!).I took a picture of it and presented it to D[], who was upset with me for presenting him with this picture.

In my opinion, the Chinese staff are treated like slaves and terribly overworked. Some are friendly towards the foreign staff, while most are very cold and seem to resent us for being here.

The teacher residence is decaying, and on the grey side in terms of outdated furnishings. Some flats, do not have washing machines or a television. Internet is VERY slow. The school provides a small housing allowance, but they reduced the teachers salary again this year, which is a pattern. Over the summer of 2017, a teacher went back home for 6 weeks. Nothing was on in the apartment aside from the fridge. When she returned, her bill was nearly 8 times her normal monthly amount. When she complained, they threatened to disconnect her electricity if she didn't pay immediately. A lot of other teachers have complained about their bills being high, we all speculate that there is some kind of corruption going on with the landlords, and cgs.

The medical insurance is a very bad deal, it only covers the basic school clinic, the doctors and nurses are country bumpkins so for anything serious you need to go to Shenzhen or Hong Kong at your own expense.

For any used sick day, you will be deducted a days pay.

The administration seems to look for any little excuse to deduct money from your salary, or sack you without a given warning.

For me, the Head of School D[] is a terrible person and the worst "leader". He lied to me on more than one occasion and I find him extremely unprofessional. His lack of leadership has a direct impact on the school. It creates a trickle down effect. I believe the school will never be a real IB School, or be viewed as a good school as long as he is there. I see him as obsessed with his inflated ego and profits. I think he could not care less about academics.

In my opinion, the principal, both Mr. M[] and J[], are incompetent and inexperienced, and I feel they really have no idea what they are doing. The only reason the school makes any money is because of the location, nothing else is around the school, but the area has quite a large number of Chinese families. The Teachers spend A LOT of time at meetings and at evening meetings and doing lesson plans. like 6 lesson plans each per week and I'm talking about tens of thousands of A4 paper!!).We have no resources, so you need to come in early each morning to line up at the copier and waste more paper.

The school's primary objective is profit in my opinion. This comes long before education. If you have no experience, need a job and don't care about being treated like a dancing white monkey, than apply at country garden school. On Mondays during flag raising, you are required to attend flag raising, and should have recited the Chinese National Anthem. Afterwards, all the western teachers perform a song, and do whats named the cgs monkey dance.

Life in the countryside of Guangzhou is boring. The pollution is just as bad as being in the heart of the city, so don't believe this nonsense of that being outside the city offers fresh country air, it's all the same polluted air! The factories are actually in the countryside. You can save money, but you spend quite a bit leaving the area just to keep your sanity. The only upside to the school's location is that it is 3-4 hours to Hong Kong and Macau, but its tiring working all week and travelling in China, you will see people, hacking and spitting everywhere, and children urinating and dumping all over, you will be stared at or even spat on.

I would never want to live in Guangdong, or bgy again. and if I ever did, I certainly would not want to work for Country Garden School again. It is the worst school I have ever worked for in my life and I cannot see it improving. Turnover is over 80%!