Topic: Siam International School- opinions?

[schooner]

Just wondering what the scoop is on Siam International school.  What are the conditions like for teachers?  I see that they have many jobs advertized.  Is that a bad sign?  I know there was a lot written about it on the shut down forum, but it's inaccessible now. 
Thanks!

[brian_q]

I have no idea about this school but some of the questions you might want to ask are:

1. How many farang teachers do they have?
2. Do they insist on verified credentials of their farang teachers (i.e. no "University of Kho Sarn Road" diplomas)?
3. How many students do they have from countries other than Thailand?
4. Where does there curriculum come from?

Sadly, the most "international" thing about many "international schools" in Bangkok is that the only thing "international" about them is the use of the word "international" in their school name.

Cheers

Brian

[Bangkok Phil]

Schooner,
May I ask if you've answered a job ad from Siam International School or if they are using an agent?
Currently this is the only school barred from posting jobs on the ajarn board and so I'm just curious.

[NukeThemSlowly]

This place was on the previous board as a major thumbs down.  Do any of the mods still have access to that material?

[hero]

We did for a while, but it seems to have gone now!

[hero]

It seems at least one of the other mods here can still access it, maybe he will help you out

I can't - so I won't

[Mods-Rockers]

Here is a sample from the old thread:-

"Allow me to share my experience with Siam "International School" (term used very VERY loosely....)

I am an experienced, degreed teacher who worked for this awful place. In the beginning, I was offered the sun, moon and stars and all ideas were welcomed because the owners had a vision of "creating the best school in Asia".

Well, it didn't take long for the owners REAL colours to start to show. Supply cupboards were locked and the only way to even get a pencil was to requisition one. God FORBID you should EVER want anything as expensive as a textbook!!!!

I could go on and on about my horrible experience, but no-one would believe most of it. But, let me highlight just a couple of experience about this place:

1. Contracts mean absolutely NOTHING to these Thai owners. They thing nothing of firing people on-the-spot and then refusing to pay them for work already completed. Their favourite thing to do is to have teachers work the 190 days of their contract and then fire them so they "don't have to pay them over the summer"....despite the fact that the teachers have already complete all the terms of their contract.

2. These owners have learned that there are tons of people buying degrees and diplomas on Khoa San Road, and that's good enough for them. After all, these people will work for lots less than qualified people.

3. This past Christmas, the "school" held a Christmas concert in which all students were REQUIRED to participate. Believe it or not, the owners then CHARGED each student 500 baht to be in the concert!!!!!

4. The original Director, who is a qualified, experienced, dedicated professional administrator was fired from his job when the owners decided that he cared too much for the teachers and insisted that he put teachers on the bottom of the list of priorities (and he refused).

5. Probably my favourite story is that the owners had all of the toilet paper dispensers taken out of the stalls in the toilets and then installed a 2 baht toilet tissue dispenser...thereby charging each student 2 baht to take a dump!!!!!!! "

and to balance

"Thought I better give my two bobs worth seeing that I've been employed at SIS for near on two years now. I enjoyed reading Ratty's thoughtful and accurate comments the most. I'm not sure either whether they will ever learn and nor do I envy them in any way - eventually their actions may hit them where it really hurts. In the wallet. But then again maybe not. Mr Rat has taken a back seat though these days and appears to have less influence, as a result things have calmed and moved forward somewhat. I wonder at times if the affairs of the school were used between the owners as a vehicle for hurting each other during their relationship breakdown. These situations can bring out the worst in us and it wouldn't surprise me if thats what was going on. Time has passed though, Rat's influence has changed and a new experienced director is on board. These things have helped enormously in moving things forward.

I've watched so many good teachers come and go and looked on in sad disbelief as they have. Conversley a lot of teachers had it coming and I would look on with equal disbelief with their incredulous and victimised response. I moarned with some of Soi Dogs comments because I knew them to be true. At others though I giggled because of their exaggeration.
I remember you in your early days at SIS. Your rolling eyes, heavy sighs and complaining nature - and thats before things starting going wrong. I also remember your care for the kids though and sincere interest in others. You always had a smile and joke ready. I would have loved to have seen more of that. As time goes on you will understand the truth less and less about whats going on here and you'll be heavily reliant on second hand perceptions of others. Perhaps its time to let go and let life do its thing around here. It's far wiser than you, me and the owners."

Apart from that there was a major slanging match between two posters both of whom had nothing to do with the school.

[schooner]

Thanks so much for digging that up.  I could see teasers on google searches and links from Dave's ESL, but couldn't get to the actual dirt.  Only school barred from ajarn?  Bad sign...  I found it on another site that advertises international school postings.

I have since been in contact with the school... the package they did offer seemed attractive, training, decent salary, holidays, flights.  My main concern is that they're looking for a new head of school, that could be an indication of instability.

I've worked in Asia before and know it's important to get as much info as possible.  My old school in Korea saw 3 different head teachers in the year and a half I was there, basically as a result of the ridiculousness of the owner.  Anyhow, if someone out there has some recent experience with the school, please, share. 

[ibelieve]

I believe this school is part of Siam Computer & Language group of schools. Can anyone confiirm this?

[Bangkok Phil]

No it isn't.

[Notanewbie]

Phil

Any chance of getting the lowdown on why this school is banned?

[Tainted-Teacher]

On the last day of school, over 20 parents told the acting Academic Director that their children won't be coming back next year.
At the beginning of the year there were nearly 30 foreign teachers.
You can count on one hand the teachers that are staying next year.

[Thai Me Up]

This is a funny but true story...

I was interviewing at Siam International School when, after receiving a telephone call, my farang interviewer abruptly terminated our meeting.  "I just learned that there's a typo on your diploma," she announced.  After she made a couple of snide remarks about buying diplomas on Khao Sahn Road, she marched me downstairs to pick up my college diploma, my college undergraduate transcript, my graduate school transcript, my TEFL certficiate and my California teaching credential that were being photocopied.

"I'll bet you there isn't any typo on my diploma," I ventured.  "There!" she said, "What does that look like to you?"  She tapped her finger on my diploma where the word "Vniversity" appeared.  "If you look at my entire diploma, all instances of the letter 'u' are replaced by the Old English 'v' - it's a style choice by the City University of New York," I said.  She answered, "Yeah, yeah, it's a typo and this meeting is over."

Needless to say, the school made quite an impression on me.   

[Tainted-Teacher]

 There are two ways to accurately assess the professional work ethics of a school and its administration. Simply by answering these two questions:

1. What is the turnover of teachers and Thai staff?
2. What do former teachers and office staff have to say about their previous employer?

The school in question is SIAM International School.

Siam was opened in 2003, and since then three Academic Directors and one Acting Academic Director have been sacked or have resigned.  With a foreign teaching staff of thirty teachers, more than one hundred have come and gone in just three years. You may think that you have worked in a bad school. That is nothing compared to SIS.

In the first year, the Academic Director was out before the end of the second term. At the end of the year, all of the teachers who left, or were asked to leave, were not remunerated for the duration of their twelve-month contract.

The second year was worse after the ownership of the school was transferred from the educated co-owner to the uneducated co-owner.

The admission policy was simple. Everyone who applies to study at SIS is enrolled immediately once they have paid the registration fees and the first term tuition fee (over 300,000 Baht). Their English ability or lack thereof would be the teacher's problem.

This was a year when the Grade 7 students had 4 different science teachers, and a total of 15 teachers came and went before the end of the year.

This last year was no improvement.

Of the three members of the school administration only one of them had a college degree.
Many of the new teachers were employed from overseas, and at the beginning of the year the morale was very high. Until the new Academic Director came that is. She quickly sacked the Thai principal and the Dean of Students, then starting visiting teachers at their homes late at night unannounced. 
When a teacher said that she was leaving this spring, the administration phoned the teacher's new school and told them that this particular teacher was unqualified. 

I'm sure there are many other former Siam employees who would like to add their 2 cents worth, so please do.

[Bangkok Phil]

Phil

Any chance of getting the lowdown on why this school is banned?

It's an unpaid debt of a few thousand baht - nothing more sinister than that I'm afraid.

They made a deal with me (which was not a great amount of money) and after five weeks of still not getting paid, I sent them an email to say that they were banned from posting jobs on the ajarn board period - certainly until the balance was settled. That was the 25th July 2005 and to my knowledge they haven't posted since - certainly not under the name 'Siam International School' - and that's why I'm wondering if they are using an agent to post jobs on the board and effectively 'dodge' the ban and circumnavigate the system.

They know the score. They used to post jobs a lot. 

Actually I've just looked in my 'Siam International School' folder where I keep all their emails and they had a record of bad communication. In one email they apologised for not getting back to me for three weeks because things were 'so busy' and in another email the person apologised for the delay by telling me she'd spent - and I quote - 'a few weeks in Koh Chang'. So one month she was too busy to answer emails and the next month she spent 'a few weeks' on Koh Chang. I'll keep the topic of 'who the hell spends a few weeks on any Thai island?' for another thread.