I was recently offered a position at Beanstalk International Bilingual School in Kunming. I was wondering if anyone works/has worked there who would be willing to share their experience. There are a few reviews of Beijing BIBS campuses and campuses elsewhere in China on Glassdoor, and most of them are very negative.
@wifi
You've already seen the signs of administrative problems. The fact that you're asking for more feedback - means you're trying to convince yourself to take the job, despite the warnings. Move on - look for an alternative employer...dodge the bullet.
@wifi were there any reviews of the Kunming BIBS campus? It could be totally different there. I've never even been there but I've only read good things about the place. They have a listing on Gokunming... seen it yet?
www.gokunming.com/[...]
@michael2015
I think this is good advice in general, but in my experience there can be lots of variation from campus to campus with big corporate/franchise schools like this. I've worked for two large and well-known schools in Korea: one school has an okay reputation, and the teachers currently at my campus are apparently very happy there now, but it was hell for me and many other teachers the year that I was there; my second school has a pretty bad reputation and other campuses are constantly getting bad reviews, but I have really enjoyed working here and have a great relationship with my boss. It's not easy to predict whether a particular campus is going to have all the same problems as another campus.
@debaser
I haven't seen any reviews of the Kunming campus, probably because they're so new. The offer is fair and Kunming/Yunnan seems right up our alley so I will probably take it to be honest.
there's one review on the link I posted... it's pretty good but it's from the parent of a student.
Dodge the bullet ... and go to another school and swallow another bullet at another school filled with problems and backstabbing aholes.
I'm a teacher at the school, and have been since it opened two years ago. There were a lot of teething problems at the beginning, as you would expect from any start up school. A new management team was brought in just over a year ago and they have really helped improve things. The school has just made a massive capital investment recently to build two new cafeterias, student numbers have been expanding healthily, many younger siblings have been enrolled into the school itself or our kindergarten so obviously the parents are happy. If you're not sure, come down to the school and take a look round :-)
Hi @wifi, I too am a teacher at BIBS and can vouch for everything that Andy8 has said. I moved here from Qingdao in September 2017. A leap of faith that has paid off very well.
A big reason why I moved to Yunnan was the air quality - I have 2 young kids. So glad to be living here. It's wonderful.
Also I struck the luck big time with hooking up with the BIBS crowd. It is an IB school which frankly is not only a very good thing to have on the CV but is a way in which we can truly make a change in the world for the better. Research IB to get a better understanding if you don't know it already.
I have had nothing but support from the management, the parents and my fellow teachers. Yes we were a start up school for a while but now we are more working towards solidifying everything, and with great success.
As Andy suggests come down and take a look. Chat with the teachers, the students and why not be there for 4:30 so you can talk with the parents also. I came here in May to scope it all out before I took the job. I had a good feeling so I made the jump. Glad I did!
As someone mentioned, it is a franchise. The franchisees are the management and vary. Some places good, sometimes god aweful.
