Bulgaria with Noodles

It was nearly ten years ago that we left Qatar, but I still get e-mails and other messages from teachers who are interested in teaching there. Dear Simon, I hope all is well with you, the wife and the dog.  I have been following your blog and the badminton 'court' looks great. You probably don’t remember, but I was due to go to Haileybury, Almaty with my family before Covid and then Hangzhou this year.  Hangzhou didn’t happen, as the school could not get visas for the kids, so we have ended up in one of your old stomping grounds, Qatar. To say we are underwhelmed is an understatement.  Both Qatar and the school area are major disappointments. The positives about the school is that it is truly international and our two primary-aged kids have settled well. We were told that the school was one of the better schools in Doha and had a good reputation.  If this is good, I wouldn’t want to see a bad one! From a teaching perspective, it is tough.  They have the lo...

I have had a lot of teachers contacting me through the TES, asking me what it is like to teach in Qatar. This is the "standard reply" that I have sent to many, many teachers around the world. Thank you for your e-mail. Welcome to the exciting world of international education! The first thing that I would like to say is that I am not an employment agency – some people seem to think that I am – and therefore my advice, help and opinions are free of charge. They are, however, not always reliable and up-to-date. I was just a Year 5 Class Teacher! I try to give accurate and honest information to people, but of course I am not infallible. Now I want to tell you a bit about who I am and what I did. My wife and I were both teaching for two years at Newton International School (West Bay) in Doha, Qatar. Next I was at Newton British School for two years and then I was at Newton Lagoon. We do not have any children. I was the KS2 coordinator at West Bay and so I had a mont...

Dear Mina, First of all, yes, I had the misfortune to teach at Newton and in fact I was in Qatar for five years altogether. Before I go on (and on!) about the negatives, here are a few positives. Firstly, my wife and I both had some fairly serious surgery while we were in Doha. The care we received was excellent and it did not cost us anything.  Secondly, we did save a bunch of cash. I have to be honest and say I do not know how much exactly, but we did manage to build up some fairly good savings (not something that most teachers in the UK can do, alas). We had some nice holidays (Sri Lanka and Malaysia) and we were running TWO cars as well.   Thirdly, the accommodation was, on the whole, not too bad and the school picked up the tab for the utilities (electricity and water).  Fourthly, there are some fun things to do in Qatar, although not that many (it is quite a small place, after all). Now onto the negatives. The Newton Empire was founded...

Yet another teacher has contacted me through the TES, asking me about teaching in Qatar. Well, it gives me an excuse to include lots of my old photos of Doha. Dear Casper, To be brutally honest, the Gulf English School does not have a good reputation. Yes, I might consider teaching there, if the alternative were to be unemployment and starvation, but not otherwise.  Yes, it is true that the ISR reviews I sent to you are quite old. If you want to read more recent ones, then you will have to pay your twenty dollars or however much it costs these days. Then you will be able to read the lousy new reviews for the Gulf English School, as well as the lousy old ones. Yes, in theory it might perhaps be possible for the Gulf English School to improve, but in reality that is most unlikely. If the school has the same Qatari owner or owners, then my guess is that nothing is going to change. In addition, most of the students will be Qatari and that is seriously bad news. T...

Even though we left Qatar more than five years ago, many teachers still contact me through the TES and ask me what it is like to teach there. Hi Hippo I hope you don't mind me pre-emptively sending you a conversation about my job offer. GEMS Wellington Qatar have offered 13.5k which I think is reasonable for three years' experience qualified (five including unqualified experience). However, they are not offering medical insurance for my family nor are they covering flights for them. At the interview, the Director intimated that my family might even have to stay here in the UK while stuff like permits got sorted out. My gut instinct tells me not to accept the offer as a result. Also, I've heard Qataris can be quite racist towards non-white people. How true is this? I've always fought against this sort of thing in the UK as an Asian man and don't want any trouble when I go out to work. Is the cost of living higher than Dubai or London? Obvio...

Quite a few teachers write to me because I often scribble posts, as "the hippo", on The Times Educational Supplement website. Here is a recent email I had from a lady called Sajeda. Hello again Simon. Thank you for this wealth of information. I apologise I didn’t see this until after I’d sent my initial email. In answer to your question, I have three children, 2 of whom are school age. The other is still only 7 months.  So I would be looking for a school that would pay school fees for the first two, otherwise it would make no financial sense for us to move abroad.  Our main aim for moving abroad is to be able to spend quality time together as a family as here in the UK, we just can’t seem to do that.  In order to make ends meet, both my husband and I work around the clock. I was hoping with moving over to Qatar, we’d be able to have a good work/life balance as well as save some money for our children and the future.  Being Muslim, we don’t drink ...