Hi everyone,
I was thinking that there is a lot of info on this forum about private schools but it is really scattered throughout many different posts. By private schools I mean regular schools that are not buxibans. There is another thread under the Parenting topic about schools, but that is more geared toward people who want to send their children to those schools. What I am proposing is that we make this a stickied thread on the Teaching English topic about private schools from the perspective of working there as a teacher. I donāt want this to be solely a blacklist type of thread, but a thread where we can share both negative and positive information about private schools in Taiwan. Something similar to International Schools Review, but focused just on Taiwan. This being the internet, most of the posts will probably be negative stuff about people bitching about how so and so school sucks but I hope that we can also try to get some positive information as well and if people ask about certain schools they can get an idea of what itās like to work there.
I havenāt worked at any private schools in Taiwan so everything I know is second hand information. However, there seems to be a general trend among private schools with two types that I have identified so far.
The first type are schools where the parents seem to be pretty serious about their childrenās academic performance. Many times they can push their children very hard to study. Some might even be the āTiger Parents.ā
Then there seems to be another type of school where parents donāt really seem to give a shit and just see the place as extended babysitting. From what I have read and heard, Dongshan around Xindian seems to be a good example of this.
Iām sure there are plenty of schools that are in the middle and other categories. For example, a school like Kang Chiao seems to have had a bad reputation in the past but seems to be improving very steadily. There also seem to be serious differences between the different school levels. The kindergartens, elementary school and upper school are all run completely separately there. So for the sake of accuracy, please take into consideration what level the school is when you post and when you read, you might have to consider that the situation might not be the same at the other school levels.
Anyway, I hope this can kick start a good thread that will be stickied that will help teachers sort out which schools are like what when they go out looking for a job. Iāll put in some effort and make a list of schools and see what info I find on here, Taiwanease and other places on the web.
Hereās a list of private schools that hire foreign teachers in Taiwan. This is by no means scientific at the moment, I am just posting schools that I know off the top of my head. Please post here or send me a PM if you know of more schools or if anything I posted is incorrect.
Taipei area:
-Wego
- Nanshan
-Dongshan
-Kang Chiao
-Grace Christian Academy
-Yan Ping High School
-Li Ren (elementary and middle school only)
-Fushing (Fuxing)
-Yu Teh
-Yu Tsai (elementary only)
-Taipei American
-Taipei European
-Dominican (Catholic school)
-Morrison aka Bethany in the Taipei area (Christian)
-Kuei Shan (Christian school, only through grade 10)
-Wesley Girlsā High School (boarding school for girls)
- Chi Jen (not even sure if this school is around anymore, havenāt found any info about it on the web other than their own website which hasnāt been updated since 2011.)
-Taipei Adventist (Christian)
-Ching Shin (elementary and middle school only)
-Saint Ignasius (Catholic. Anyone know if this school hires foreigners or not?)
Keelung
-Sacred Heart (Catholic school, elementary only I believe)
Taoyuan Area
-Taoyuan American School
-Columbia International College Taiwan (Canadian based curriculum and high school only. Used to be in the Taipei area but they have apparently moved)
Hsinchu & Zhubei
-Korrnell (elementary and middle school only now, but they seem to be adding a high school soon)
-Pacific American School
-Hsinchu American
-Hsinchu International
-Hsinchu Bilingual School
Taichung Area
-American School Taichung
-Wagor International
-Washington High School
-Ivy Collegiete Academy (boarding school)
-Morrison (Christian)
-Ming Dao High School
Yunlin County
-Victoria Academy (located in Douliu)
Tainan
-International Bilingual School at Tainan Science Park
Kaohisung Area
-Koahsiung American School
-I Shou International School (they may want to revise the pinyin on this considering what acronym this makes)
-Morrison (Christian)
-Dominican (Catholic)
Nantou County
-Pu Tai (Buddhist school)
Taidong County
-Junyi (seems like an interesting school. many students are boarding there and there are a number of Aboriginal students from Hualien and Taidong there on scholarship. only through grade 9 now, but they will be adding a high school soon)
Yilan County
-Chung Dau