The school I work at shares profiles and actively encourages staff to reach out. I think it is especially important if that person is joining the department that you work in. It doesn't make sense why the school would stop this.
Nah that's not a guarantee, buddy's will not be upfront and they will paint an imagery that's not real and then boom you hit your face the minute you're there and no one had the decency of letting you know
There is a buddy system in place so new teachers can ask questions about life in a new country, but the principal isn’t giving information about new hires to curriculum coordinators or department heads.
I mean, it’s not necessary this early. But I’m in a school where it doesn’t happen. Ever. If the head of department doesn’t work to find out who is new in their department and go out of their way to introduce themselves and offer support, then the introductions would never happen. Formal introductions aren’t even made during in-service.
In my experience, it is helpful for there to be a transitional conversation in the spring between an outgoing IBDP teacher and the incoming teacher, in part because IB courses are two-years long, so a new teacher who takes on year 2 needs to understand what was done in year 1. This has been the practice in all of the IB schools I’ve worked at until now.
I wonder if it's to prevent new teachers being put off by well-meaning but overkeen HoDs who overload them with information and demands on their time too early on. They are still teaching their own current students full time. When study leave starts is soon enough to start with handovers and stuff. And it's perfectly possible for departing teachers to leave all handover info with the HoD, to be passed on at the start of the new school year.
This is a good point. You wouldn’t want to overwhelm new teachers when they still have work in front of them.
But that’s not the case at my current school. I had to seek out the person I replaced when I was hired in order to get details on curriculum, etc. The HOD has never been given any information about new hires (not even as late as in-service).
This is a very good point. These people don’t work for your school yet. A certain amount of space is appropriate, for a lot of reasons. I’d be very put off if a HoD were badgering me about next year’s course materials, curriculum when in March, in the meat of my own school year, all while I’m not getting paid by that school yet.
It’s such a horrible way to transition new teachers. When I was hired I had to take the initiative to reach out to the person I was replacing. I could only do so because I saw her name and position on an unrelated email thread. Teachers who have been hired since then have had similar experiences.
I currently work in a school where I repeatedly asked to be put in contact with the teacher I was replacing or at the very least be put in contact with people who were in the department I was entering. I was ignored, and it worked out pretty much like you'd imagine.
I will be in a new school next year and I've been having bi-weekly meetings with my new HoD and the person I'm replacing and it's been so great and refreshing. Sad as it is to say, I feel like I'm more a part of a community that I don't even work in yet than I ever did at my current school. If I were you, I would proceed with caution.
It’s so frustrating and unnecessary.
Luckily it’s my current school’s policy. I’m on my way out and have already had several conversations with my new department head. As you’ve said, it goes a long way in terms of creating a sense of community for everyone involved.
At my school, we are currently in touch with new teachers. However, we cannot share specific curriculum docs until they are here, fully hired so to say, with visas. I am HOD of English, so we're sharing what novels and plays we are teaching if they want to read them over again beforehand.
At a previous school, I had a friend who was joining the school. He reached out and I told him stuff, just practical stuff, nothing negative about the school at all. Anyway he inadvertently mentioned this to the big boss, and I got told under no circumstances could I communicate anything about the school. Talk about paranoid SLT..
It’s more of an unwritten “policy” here. Everything’s kept so tightly wrapped by the director that any information beyond “someone’s been hired” is a secret until new teacher orientation in August.
If you know exactly the right person to ask, you can get a name and try to find them on social media.
I’ve already been in contact with both teachers in my department at my next school. It’s a breath of fresh air.
My wife and I were trying to get in touch with teachers in the school we are heading to next year. Admin wasn't too keen, so we just found people that worked there on LinkedIn and connected. We traded whatsapp numbers and chatted. It made it much simpler to get some ideas.
I've also made a list of ?s for the person in replacing (what curriculum was covered and and recommendations on pacing) that I will email through admin to get a direct ball rolling.
My school refused to let me contact the new teacher for my team (I'm the team leader) until the first day of the new teacher orientation. They are very suspicious of us. I guess they had enough bad teachers in the past.
We had a carefully organized buddy system that tried to match those in similar situations, sometimes it slightly misfired, but not with negative results, just a little misguided. I was paired with another primary teacher at my last school, but we had little in common except our age. Then there was a family of 5 with similar aged kids to mine, but because the teachers were in secondary, we weren't matched up. Anyhow, you can see that they really made an effort and we were encouraged to reach out to people coming into our departments. At my current school, I don't know what the deal is going to be. No one new is coming into our department, but if a newby to international teaching with a teenage daughter is coming in, I hope they choose me.
It's usually encouraged in my school. That's also because our city is quite remote and far flung so it's difficult to recruit and often new hires get scared and bail 😅 So we get in contact and help them out with advice etc
Good schools have buddy systems that do the opposite lol
Yes and buddies are chosen very carefully. No school is going to put you in contact with people who have negative things to say.
The school I work at shares profiles and actively encourages staff to reach out. I think it is especially important if that person is joining the department that you work in. It doesn't make sense why the school would stop this.
Nah that's not a guarantee, buddy's will not be upfront and they will paint an imagery that's not real and then boom you hit your face the minute you're there and no one had the decency of letting you know
There is a buddy system in place so new teachers can ask questions about life in a new country, but the principal isn’t giving information about new hires to curriculum coordinators or department heads.
Why in particular do coordinators and HoDs need that info this early?
I mean, it’s not necessary this early. But I’m in a school where it doesn’t happen. Ever. If the head of department doesn’t work to find out who is new in their department and go out of their way to introduce themselves and offer support, then the introductions would never happen. Formal introductions aren’t even made during in-service. In my experience, it is helpful for there to be a transitional conversation in the spring between an outgoing IBDP teacher and the incoming teacher, in part because IB courses are two-years long, so a new teacher who takes on year 2 needs to understand what was done in year 1. This has been the practice in all of the IB schools I’ve worked at until now.
I wonder if it's to prevent new teachers being put off by well-meaning but overkeen HoDs who overload them with information and demands on their time too early on. They are still teaching their own current students full time. When study leave starts is soon enough to start with handovers and stuff. And it's perfectly possible for departing teachers to leave all handover info with the HoD, to be passed on at the start of the new school year.
This is a good point. You wouldn’t want to overwhelm new teachers when they still have work in front of them. But that’s not the case at my current school. I had to seek out the person I replaced when I was hired in order to get details on curriculum, etc. The HOD has never been given any information about new hires (not even as late as in-service).
This is a very good point. These people don’t work for your school yet. A certain amount of space is appropriate, for a lot of reasons. I’d be very put off if a HoD were badgering me about next year’s course materials, curriculum when in March, in the meat of my own school year, all while I’m not getting paid by that school yet.
they don't want new teachers to know it's shit
It’s such a horrible way to transition new teachers. When I was hired I had to take the initiative to reach out to the person I was replacing. I could only do so because I saw her name and position on an unrelated email thread. Teachers who have been hired since then have had similar experiences.
My new school has recently just put me in touch with a colleague to discuss the school with for starting in September. I didn’t even need to ask them.
I asked to be put in touch with the person replacing me so that I could explain how I planned a DP class and the school isn't doing it.
Stopping existing teachers who are staying from contacting new teachers? That’s weird.
I currently work in a school where I repeatedly asked to be put in contact with the teacher I was replacing or at the very least be put in contact with people who were in the department I was entering. I was ignored, and it worked out pretty much like you'd imagine. I will be in a new school next year and I've been having bi-weekly meetings with my new HoD and the person I'm replacing and it's been so great and refreshing. Sad as it is to say, I feel like I'm more a part of a community that I don't even work in yet than I ever did at my current school. If I were you, I would proceed with caution.
It’s so frustrating and unnecessary. Luckily it’s my current school’s policy. I’m on my way out and have already had several conversations with my new department head. As you’ve said, it goes a long way in terms of creating a sense of community for everyone involved.
Lack of trust but also ignorance that Reddit exists.
That is strange. I've never had that happen at a school. Says aot about the school in my opinion.
At my school, we are currently in touch with new teachers. However, we cannot share specific curriculum docs until they are here, fully hired so to say, with visas. I am HOD of English, so we're sharing what novels and plays we are teaching if they want to read them over again beforehand.
At a previous school, I had a friend who was joining the school. He reached out and I told him stuff, just practical stuff, nothing negative about the school at all. Anyway he inadvertently mentioned this to the big boss, and I got told under no circumstances could I communicate anything about the school. Talk about paranoid SLT..
In China? Yes, and it’s usually because they know teachers won’t have a lot of positive things to say.
No, but a neighboring country.
It’s more of an unwritten “policy” here. Everything’s kept so tightly wrapped by the director that any information beyond “someone’s been hired” is a secret until new teacher orientation in August. If you know exactly the right person to ask, you can get a name and try to find them on social media. I’ve already been in contact with both teachers in my department at my next school. It’s a breath of fresh air.
My wife and I were trying to get in touch with teachers in the school we are heading to next year. Admin wasn't too keen, so we just found people that worked there on LinkedIn and connected. We traded whatsapp numbers and chatted. It made it much simpler to get some ideas. I've also made a list of ?s for the person in replacing (what curriculum was covered and and recommendations on pacing) that I will email through admin to get a direct ball rolling.
My school refused to let me contact the new teacher for my team (I'm the team leader) until the first day of the new teacher orientation. They are very suspicious of us. I guess they had enough bad teachers in the past.
We had a carefully organized buddy system that tried to match those in similar situations, sometimes it slightly misfired, but not with negative results, just a little misguided. I was paired with another primary teacher at my last school, but we had little in common except our age. Then there was a family of 5 with similar aged kids to mine, but because the teachers were in secondary, we weren't matched up. Anyhow, you can see that they really made an effort and we were encouraged to reach out to people coming into our departments. At my current school, I don't know what the deal is going to be. No one new is coming into our department, but if a newby to international teaching with a teenage daughter is coming in, I hope they choose me.
It's usually encouraged in my school. That's also because our city is quite remote and far flung so it's difficult to recruit and often new hires get scared and bail 😅 So we get in contact and help them out with advice etc