Perhaps the majority of negative posts were made by one disgruntled person? Therefore, it's not actually reflecting any sort of reality of the situation in Clifford. Many of the posts above and in a different section of this site show up on other review boards at the same times they show up here. Either it's coincidence that all these posts are posted and responded to by these random "teachers," "parents," and "neighborhood observers" or an individual is trying add credence to his own personal issues by posting his complaints over and over in different venues.

Case in point, when "john" posts a positive comment - after seven months of inactivity in this thread - a person who lives in Clifford happens to post a negative comment that same day.

I work at Clifford School. While there may be some complaints to be made - i.e. the package is lower than most other international schools (though the workload is far less), it's not an international curriculum in the bilingual school (IB/PYP), and, as with most schools in China, flexibility and patience is needed (i.e. things change at the last minute and communication can be improved) - but certainly not about any one person or group of people (i.e. the administration). There are good things too - the contract is always honored (which is odd to be considered a "good thing" but when in China...), housing is wonderful, it's a relatively stress free job if you know how to teach, and the location is great (Clifford Estates is nice - swimming pools, recreation center, food court with 30+ restaurants, a market...).

Whatever complaints can be made, they aren't what "teacher from...," "trent," and "jack taylor" write (by the way, there has never been a "jack taylor" working at the school - I understand "pen names," but why make one that sounds like a real name unless you are trying to add false credence to your argument). Like "John," I smell the BS. I'm on this site, and others, often. I rarely post, but think it's unfair to jump to conclusions when, at least to me, it seems somebody has a grudge. So, I don't think the argument is over. You can have your opinion - I'm not trying to convince you to change it - but, I want to make certain that these posts are taking with a grain of salt when forming that opinion.

As per the argument that there aren't any more positive comments found here, there are likely two reasons: Very few people post when something is favorable. However, if a person is unhappy (perhaps for being fired for pouring water over a student's head), that person wants to make everybody know how unhappy he is. The other explanation is the venue itself. The majority of teachers working at Clifford School probably do not go on ESL sites/forums as they are looking for jobs in International Schools (not ESL training centers, univsersities, or Chinese public/private schools).

Happy holidays ESL Teacher's Board!