Shane English School Wuxi Dongting was the first English school in China at which I taught, and I'm very happy it was. I read many horror stories online, I was jerked around by many recruiters, and I was already nervous about the whole private language school system anyway before coming to China. Luckily, I landed at the Dongting branch which is under Phil's guidance.
I found over the course of the year that the management of an English cool greatly influences the quality of the time a teacher has while at the school. A good manager cares about their staff and students and parents. Phil embodies this balance, trying to make every group happy without sacrificing the quality of the education. He and I have different views on what's best for the kids, but he was always willing to hear my thoughts and he always acted with everyone's best interests in mind, even if it meant he had to work long hours with no thanks but the knowledge that he was doing a good job.
Phil made the office a pleasant place to work and promoted unity with the Chinese staff and the foreign teachers. He took us all out to dinner a few times and even invited me to his house for lunch and cards when I first arrived. He only raised his voice when something was seriously out of line, and he doesn't get off on power trips.
As far as the Shane method and teaching materials go, I'm sure they're pretty standard for teaching materials in China. I've looked over the books for EF and Wall Street, and they look pretty similar, honestly. There's a lot of student drilling for new vocab. A LOT of drilling. The basic assumption in China seems to be that the teacher pours knowledge into the student's head and the student simply soaks it up. Phil makes this process fun and teaches new teachers how to do so. Robbie, the general manager and part owner of all the Shane schools in Wuxi, also excels in teacher training. They teach how to make dull materials interesting, for the teacher and the student.
All in all, I had a great experience at the Dongting school. There are four or five Shane Schools in the Wuxi area, and every school is very different. I can't speak for all of them, but teaching at Dongting is something I would suggest for any first time English teacher.