4

This review covers the Kipling half of the school, not the French Voltaire half, which as far as I can see is an entirely different universe from the Kipling half. As mentioned in a previous review, the school is mostly staffed with unqualified Egyptian teachers. There are literally a handful of full foreigners/expats. During the past year, both the high school principal and the very qualified and innovative director (hired in November) were fired or left on their own - staff were never told of the details of their departures. The school has no discipline whatsoever, and the admin and higher-ups support the chaotic atmosphere by siding with the students and parents over teachers and their need for discipline to carry out their duties as teachers. The discipline plan of the school is as follows: just yell at the students. Never in my career have I been in a school where all you hear as you go through the hallways is yelling from teachers directed at their students. In my own classroom, I had one of the students the first week of school tell me that I had to yell at them to get them to listen during a lesson. The word pedagogy is not known at the school, and teaching methods for many teachers seems to be simply booklets and handouts and worksheets for the students. Trying to do a learning activity is impossible because the students are never introduced to these kinds of collaborative methods, and both parents and students do not see the value of these activities for the most part. Inquiry-based learning is not done, nor is it supported by admin (as one of the secondary teachers found out when they tried it in their subject-based course, and had a poor reaction from admin). The school is totally focused on exams, mainly the Cambridge exams that students write in each year (but not year 7) up until year 8. Once those exams are done at the end of the year, the students decided that they no longer needed lessons, and expected teachers to just give them free time from April onward, and in fact since their past teachers had done so, their expectations seemed valid to them. As a teacher, expect your time not to be respected. You will be given numerous cover lessons when another teacher is absent, and there are no supply plans given to you. If you are absent and leave supply plans, no matter how basic, they will not be looked at or implemented at all. During April and May, all school energies are directed at preparing for the year end show at the Cairo Opera House, and this means using your valuable instruction time to rehearse. Schedules will change and you will not be notified. Trying to fulfill the objectives of the Cambridge curriculum in a meaningful way is very difficult. Additionally, some teachers who are "favorites" of admin and the higher-ups are allowed to slack off whenever they want, coming late as they please, or talking on the phone in the hallway when they have a class. There is also an atmosphere of spying at the school - be careful who you talk to - and in May the staff discovered that a camera had been placed in the staff room, despite no one having complained this year of anything disappearing from the room. To get a photocopy, you have to run around every single time to find the principal to sign for your copies. Staff are not trusted to do their duties properly on their own accord. To sum up, if you are a passionate teacher who loves his or her job, who sees teaching as more than just a job, this is not the place for you. You will lose your morale like the rest of the staff and will start to hate teaching. While the pay offered is higher than many other schools and the holidays are plenty, there is a reason for it. It is an unfortunate situation for the few qualified and dedicated staff (both Egyptian and non-Egyptian) that the school is not run better, and it is a detriment to the education of the students there.

4.1

This school has had a lot of problems this year. It is run and mainly employs Egyptian unqualified teachers. There is complete lack of communication and lack of organization throughout the whole school. Discipline of students is obsolete. Salaries are deducted randomly and the school year has now been extended for the teachers (announced just 2 days prior to the last day). When you arrive you are placed in a bug infested hotel and on your own. I was only called on the day of arrival and had to figure out how to get around Cairo on my own. There is no orientation class. Four months after starting I realized that there was a canteen that served hot meals. Be aware if you come to this school that nothing is as it seems.