Hi there. We are coming to PP as a family (6&8 yo kids) in November. My wife will be working as a volunteer at calmette hospital so we are looking at schools that side of town. I'm a fully qualified teacher with a masters, 20 odd years of experience and have been running professional learning for schools (around pedagogy) for the last 5 years but my main job will be kid wrangling. So my questions...
- does anyone have any info on footprints or the new Australian international school?
- am i right i thinking that to avoid hours in traffic, living and schooling in the north will be the way to go (we are looking at toul kork) and how long does it take to get to the Oz school from Toul Kork?
- does anyone know if schools employ casual relief teachers at times?
- are there any other recommendations for schools (cant afford the ISP, northbridge type schools).?
Thanks in anticipation!
Some questions about schools in north PP
-
- 440 newbie - handle with care
- Reactions: 0
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun May 28, 2017 7:10 am
Some questions about schools in north PP
Last edited by CuriousLearner on Sun May 28, 2017 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
- Making Khmer girls cry since 2003
- Reactions: 130
- Posts: 21358
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 10:15 pm
You mention that you have young kids and don't have a massive amount of money. Perhaps you or your wife should seek full time income-generating employment.
Follow my lame Twitter feed: @gavin_mac
- chkwoot
- 2000+ Posts! Aghh I Have No Mates
- Reactions: 8
- Posts: 2007
- Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:07 pm
- Location: is everything
^Yeah. How much money will you have easy access to?
And why Cambodia? Have you been here recently? How long are you planning on staying? Do you already have excellent health insurance that will cover you and your family here? How is your wife going to get to and from Calmette? Do you both have Oz car/motorcycle licenses? Will you buy a car/moto or will you use motodops and tuk-tuks? Do you know the costs and dangers involved? Who's going to watch the kids while you're both working? Who will shop and cook? There are so many important questions that you're not asking.
Trying to plan where you'll live, teach, and where your kids will go to school, before you're here, doesn't really work. Too many variables that you can't foresee. You might think Toul Kork looks great on the net, but traffic for your wife is going to suck during peak hours. And you might find a great position in the central or southern part of the city, but will quickly hate your commute.
I recently recommended that a single teacher, without children, coming to Cambodia needs at least $12K USD to get started and survive through the first year. You need so much more than that. There are many costs that you won't expect. Schools don't want to hire casual teachers, and it can take a long while before you find a good position. You have the qualifications, but so do many others who have been here a lot longer.
Read as much of this forum as possible, especially the old posts of why people have left, and problems teachers have had.
Sorry if I didn't answer your specific questions. Maybe others will.
Good luck!
And why Cambodia? Have you been here recently? How long are you planning on staying? Do you already have excellent health insurance that will cover you and your family here? How is your wife going to get to and from Calmette? Do you both have Oz car/motorcycle licenses? Will you buy a car/moto or will you use motodops and tuk-tuks? Do you know the costs and dangers involved? Who's going to watch the kids while you're both working? Who will shop and cook? There are so many important questions that you're not asking.
Trying to plan where you'll live, teach, and where your kids will go to school, before you're here, doesn't really work. Too many variables that you can't foresee. You might think Toul Kork looks great on the net, but traffic for your wife is going to suck during peak hours. And you might find a great position in the central or southern part of the city, but will quickly hate your commute.
I recently recommended that a single teacher, without children, coming to Cambodia needs at least $12K USD to get started and survive through the first year. You need so much more than that. There are many costs that you won't expect. Schools don't want to hire casual teachers, and it can take a long while before you find a good position. You have the qualifications, but so do many others who have been here a lot longer.
Read as much of this forum as possible, especially the old posts of why people have left, and problems teachers have had.
Sorry if I didn't answer your specific questions. Maybe others will.
Good luck!
-
- 440 newbie - handle with care
- Reactions: 0
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun May 28, 2017 7:10 am
Thanks,
Maybe I gave the wrong impression, we're not starry eyed and launching ourselves naively into the unknown. We have the funds to support ourselves and pay schooling and whatever else crops up and have worked carefully through the costs and built in contingencies before we undertook this.!!
I take your point about not being able to sort it before we get there, I just want to do the due diligence as much as possible and thought people might have opinions about footprints school or some knowledge about the Australian school (as their website is not really very helpful!) and it's only just opening.
Maybe I gave the wrong impression, we're not starry eyed and launching ourselves naively into the unknown. We have the funds to support ourselves and pay schooling and whatever else crops up and have worked carefully through the costs and built in contingencies before we undertook this.!!
I take your point about not being able to sort it before we get there, I just want to do the due diligence as much as possible and thought people might have opinions about footprints school or some knowledge about the Australian school (as their website is not really very helpful!) and it's only just opening.
Sorry. This doesn't really help you either, but in what capacity is your wife volunteering at Calmette?
To offer a little help, find a nice guest house or hotel in the area of work when you arrive and then work out logistics from there, I'd say.
Not really my business to say but the kids might be more freaked than you and so a soft landing might be good.
To offer a little help, find a nice guest house or hotel in the area of work when you arrive and then work out logistics from there, I'd say.
Not really my business to say but the kids might be more freaked than you and so a soft landing might be good.
- chkwoot
- 2000+ Posts! Aghh I Have No Mates
- Reactions: 8
- Posts: 2007
- Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:07 pm
- Location: is everything
Thanks for the reply. I'm sorry if I sounded cynical. So many naive, starry eyed westerners have been coming here with little or no funds, which is fine. They will have experiences that might change their lives forever. But it makes me really sad when they have children. I'm glad that you're financially prepared.CuriousLearner wrote:Thanks,
Maybe I gave the wrong impression, we're not starry eyed and launching ourselves naively into the unknown. We have the funds to support ourselves and pay schooling and whatever else crops up and have worked carefully through the costs and built in contingencies before we undertook this.!!
I take your point about not being able to sort it before we get there, I just want to do the due diligence as much as possible and thought people might have opinions about footprints school or some knowledge about the Australian school (as their website is not really very helpful!) and it's only just opening.
My 5 yr old Khmer niece started at Footprints last year, but her mother wasn't happy with them for some reason. She now goes to ICS (the main campus on 214 near Norodom) and they both love it. They live directly in front of Toul Kork market, and mom takes her by taxi or tuk-tuk, waits 4 hours at a nearby coffee shop or goes shopping, then takes her home. Each one-way trip costs about $3 and takes 30-60 minutes. The only way I'll go to Toul Kork is if I'm allowed to stop at Mike's Burgers!
What's the link for the Australian school? Google brings up a few different ones.
I agree with what RobW said above.
There's an Uber-like app called Exnet that can help you get an idea of what travel times and costs will be when you get here.
Please keep posting. We need more reasonable, mature, non-trolls on this forum!
Cheers!
-
- 440 newbie - handle with care
- Reactions: 0
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sun May 28, 2017 7:10 am
Thanks that's really helpful... The Australian school has a website (http://aispp.edu.kh/en/) and a facebook page and whilst there's lots of smiling people and some carefully staged shots I'm struggling to get much of a feel. They are just opening I believe but I thought there might have been somebody who has heard something on the expat grapevine. Thanks for the exnet heads up...some idea of travel times would be great...even though I'm sure the only way to really know is to be there.
- Miguelito
- Ordinary Schmo
- Reactions: 219
- Posts: 7053
- Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 11:19 pm
- Location: Penh's Hill
Yes, it's impossible to gauge travel times by looking at a map. Certain roads become total clusterfucks at times, and you can get stuck sitting in place for long amounts of time. A few examples can be St 2004 heading to or from Northbridge; at certain times it could take 90 minutes to get into town, at other times it's a breeze. Up in the Toul Kork direction you'll want to avoid St 598 (heading north off Russian Blvd) like the plague.CuriousLearner wrote:Thanks for the exnet heads up...some idea of travel times would be great...even though I'm sure the only way to really know is to be there.
Correct Miguelito - st.598 and also sadly for the OP the Camko roundabout is a disaster zone during rush hour. Some bright spark built a load of "boreys" (gated communities) up north without consideration that there's only two routes south that go through Toul Kork, and one heading east past the old stadium. Construction traffic uses 598 all day long, the main drag through TK has also been made worse by the retarded traffic light situation at the old TK roundabout near ANZ (then again, that roundabout + idiots with no comprehension how to use a roundabout ...)
If I had to get to that school, and also have my wife get to Calmette, I'd definitely be living in one of those boreys up north - choose Grand Phnom Penh, Borey Peng Huot or at a stretch of being near civilisation consider Borey Sunway (st. 337) ... but most crucially find a driver/tuk-tuk capable of navigating the back streets in the area to get across without touching 598, Camko roundabout and even st.273 (old stadium road, or "Phlauv Srey Coit") during rush hour.
That said, on a motorbike I get from Borey Sunway TK to work south end of Monivong in 20-25 mins - via Boeung Kak "lake" roads and Monivong all the way. The only jams I hit are in TK and occasionally at the Pharmacie de la Gare "me first!" junction. If you're in a car, forget it unless you're out before 7am and home before 3pm.
If I had to get to that school, and also have my wife get to Calmette, I'd definitely be living in one of those boreys up north - choose Grand Phnom Penh, Borey Peng Huot or at a stretch of being near civilisation consider Borey Sunway (st. 337) ... but most crucially find a driver/tuk-tuk capable of navigating the back streets in the area to get across without touching 598, Camko roundabout and even st.273 (old stadium road, or "Phlauv Srey Coit") during rush hour.
That said, on a motorbike I get from Borey Sunway TK to work south end of Monivong in 20-25 mins - via Boeung Kak "lake" roads and Monivong all the way. The only jams I hit are in TK and occasionally at the Pharmacie de la Gare "me first!" junction. If you're in a car, forget it unless you're out before 7am and home before 3pm.
Meum est propositum in taberna mori,
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
As the website states, aispp will be offering the IB. Woman in all the photos on the website is the founding head mistress and won't be around for long. I've heard they headhunted a head of department from Northbridge to lead when they open in August. They're currently offering mixed year group grades (e.g. year 1,2,&3 all in the same class) as they are not expecting to be immediately successful. They're providing their teachers with full international packages (top $, housing, flight allowance, settling in allowance, pension contribution, bonus, etc.) and will be recruiting suitably qualified and experienced teachers.CuriousLearner wrote:Thanks that's really helpful... The Australian school has a website (http://aispp.edu.kh/en/) and a facebook page and whilst there's lots of smiling people and some carefully staged shots I'm struggling to get much of a feel. They are just opening I believe but I thought there might have been somebody who has heard something on the expat grapevine. Thanks for the exnet heads up...some idea of travel times would be great...even though I'm sure the only way to really know is to be there.
Footprints are on the wrong side of town for the OP I think? They offer some international curriculum of some sort (Cambridge?), and have been 1 day inspected by WASC. They aim to offer affordable education to the Phnom Penh middle class.
They pay their teachers a starting salary of $1300-1500 and scant benefits.
OP should look at and compare the above two schools with iCAN, Canadian (comparable to aispp), then East-West, and CIA (comparable to Footprints) If his family are Christian there is also Logos and Hope, but I know little about them.
Travel wise, Phnom Penh is so small I wouldn't really let it affect your choice of school.
- Lucky Lucan
- K440 Knight Captain
- Reactions: 761
- Posts: 22525
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2011 12:24 pm
- Location: The Pearl of the Orient
598 has improved a lot with the new surface, it still does get jammed up around the junction of 315/ 608 though at rush hours.Miguelito wrote:Up in the Toul Kork direction you'll want to avoid St 598 (heading north off Russian Blvd) like the plague.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post
-
-
What's up with the ship wreck north of Japanese Bridge?
by aem » Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:34 pm » in Questions and Answers - 4 Replies
- 1831 Views
-
Last post by NotABogan
Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:42 am
-
-
-
Looks like casinos will open before schools
by Bong Burgundy » Fri Jul 03, 2020 11:19 am » in Cambodia News - 10 Replies
- 3050 Views
-
Last post by Miguelito
Sun Jul 05, 2020 3:50 pm
-
-
-
International schools set to reopen from July
by Bong Burgundy » Mon May 25, 2020 10:48 pm » in Cambodia News - 18 Replies
- 6988 Views
-
Last post by slavedog
Wed May 27, 2020 9:09 am
-
-
-
What are some training centers/schools you would recomend to work for?
by ÖzBeg Khan » Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:36 pm » in Careers in Cambodia - 3 Replies
- 1883 Views
-
Last post by ÖzBeg Khan
Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:58 pm
-
-
-
Public schools will reopen for grade 9 and 12 students in September
by Bong Burgundy » Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:18 am » in Cambodia News - 0 Replies
- 2061 Views
-
Last post by Bong Burgundy
Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:18 am
-