What I know is babyhome.
their forum
Wow, I’m glad I read through all of this. Last week I had an interview with the JumpStart HR guy and he sent me down the street to visit with the branch manager where they were looking to fill a kindergarten position.
Both interview went well until I asked the branch manager if I could speak with a teacher or two. Then she clammed up and said it was a very sensitive time at the school. She did tell me 3 of the 4 foreign teachers were leaving after the term. This of course was a red flag, so I did some investigating and found this thread.
Thanks for helping me steer clear!
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You mean to tell me that you passed up the opportunity to work for a place that’s been fined by the DOE, sued by ex employees and the govt., and be abused by a seemingly racist HR?
You must be a millennial. 
On a serious note: what do you think that manager was talking about when she said this is a “sensitive time”?
Dan
On a serious note: what do you think that manager was talking about when she said this is a “sensitive time”?
I kind of drilled her, asking if it was a personal issue, a managment style issue or what and would not offer anything in response. It was very clear she did not want me to hear what those teachers had to say.
So, I’m guessing it’s the ongoing investigation.
@DianeK Consider yourself lucky!
I worked at this school a couple of years ago. When I first started I was so happy that everyone there was so warm and generous with their time. I really got the feeling that everyone was trying to help.
And then after a few months things started to get ugly. There was always this feeling that management was playing mind games with the staff and a lot of it seemed to stem from the head office. It was like I was always at risk of losing my job no matter how hard I worked.
A few people have commented on Jump Start’s human resource here. My initial impression of him was that he was very professional and polite. That is until I started to get to know him a little bit. It was weird, he would tell these blatantly transparent lies and then get indignant if you called him out on it. When I was there, there were murmurs about a former teacher suing the school and that the HR guy was at the center of all of it. After reading these posts, I guess that’s probably true.
Now that they are being investigated, I can only imagine how horrible this place has become.
I don’t know if this has been seen before on this forum or not, but I saw this article from last year.
It says Jump Start was fined for using illegal playground equipment. I remember when I worked there the ball pool was the main selling point managers used to get parents to enroll their kids.
According to the article they were given a 24-day period to improve the conditions of the school. I know from working at this place that management has no interest in changing anything. If anything, they’ve probably redoubled their efforts to conceal their violations.
its the same attitude they use with taiwanese people too, all over this country. people don’t stand up to it and thus working conditions on this island are completely backwards and fucked. just quit if you are working for people like this, its pretty simple.
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I check Tealit every now and again for work and I saw JumpStart is hiring again. I think it’s the third time they’ve put up a post in the last few weeks. They must be desperate for teachers.
Constant posts on Tealit – always a bad sign of instability.
Is there a way to warn people on Tealit about this school? Or any of the other dog shit schools posted on that website?
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there’s warnings all over the internet, people just choose to ignore them. Just like how certain products come with warning labels and people still injure themselves.
I worked at jump start in the past, wanted to contribute.
First off, with regards to the management and illegal stuff, yeah I saw some stuff like teachers starting work before visas were finished, etc. And of course it’s sold to parents as a full day school, so that whole thing is iffy. But I’ve seen things like that at about 90% of schools here, even big famous ones or private elementary schools, stuff like being hired through an agency to avoid certain regulations, or claiming less money is paid to employee so taxes are saved, etc. It just seems to be the way things go here. I will say, when I was working there I had my ID checked by some government official, and never had any issues.
Like the person above me who worked there in the past (we may have been coworkers!), the HR guy is indeed… not your friend. Not his job to be of course, but… well, I found him rather unprofessional in a few ways, considering the standards those of us from North America/the west may expect in our dealings with HR. It’s hard for me to say any more without giving away any personal details.
All that said… jump start was a good place to work in a certain sense. As a teacher, you have your own classroom that you work with all day. 8-16 kids that are yours for 6 hours a day, so you really get to see how children develop as learners. You can learn what kind of kid they are, how they learn best, and really see them develop through the year. It can be pretty rewarding at the end of the day.
As a teacher, you have a curriculum there but you also have a lot of freedom to teach how you want. As long as you’re getting the main stuff done and everything looks good to the parents, you can kinda make your own schedule in terms of what you teach and when. Because the kids spend so much time in an English environment, they are actually pretty high level speakers, listeners, etc. This really helps you get to know them because they can express themselves so well. When you’re teaching ABCs to 6 year olds, there’s just not a lot you can do to get to know their personalities.
There was definitely a lot of BS that went along with the job, the christmas and grad shows put an insane amount of pressure on the kids for no reason other than wanting to impress the parents, and I know some schools had managers with awful people skills. My experience with management was up and down, but I know some other staff had worse experiences and others better. For me, the day-to-day in class experience made the job worth it because it was rewarding as a teacher.
Just my 2nt.
@throwaway12. Wait, you worked at a kindergarten when the government checked your ID? Because if so, that’s incredible!
I don’t mean to be nosy, but was this before or after the DOE fined Jump Start?
It was well before. I was told someone from the govt was visiting and they needed to see my ARC. They looked and I got it back 5 seconds later. Never heard anything again.
I’d rather not say much more, but I suppose you could pm me if you really want.
If there’s officially no kindergarten but only a buxiban, getting the foreigner in trouble is not so straightforward. (It’s still illegal to operate a de facto kindergarten without proper registration, of course.)
Forgive the stupidity of this question, but legally, how can a kindergarten be registered as a buxiban?
Short answer: it’s not supposed to be possible, but enforcement is, shall we say, problematic.
@throwaway12 I couldn’t agree more with this. Though I think saying his actions were unprofessional is a bit of an understatement. At least in my experience with dealing with him, I always found him to be a bit slippery. If I’m being honest, the best word to describe Jump Start’s HR is SHADY.
I don’t know about you, @throwaway12, but they certainly didn’t tell me that they were being sued by a former employee when I was being hired. And I truly doubt they’re informing their new recruits that the school has been fined by the department of education.
Two pieces of information that might be pretty important to know.
I have a friend who worked there for years, it is a lotta work to teach at that school, but it is also a great learning experience for teachers. I only heard good things from her how well organized the system is. She left cuz she got an offer at a public school. For those who don’t work hard enough, of course can’t survive in that company. With their high standards, students actually do better than other cram school students. As for kindergarten, it’s the government’s problem because they don’t legalize kindergarten kids to learn English. What does it have to do with the school? There are many illegal kindergartens teaching English. It’s just happened Jump Start got on the news. This can also happen to other English cram schools
I agreed. Also, maybe they are dealing with some unprofessional teachers. Of course no one likes that, but I think people should think abt what they did first before judging others.
If I break the law, it’s the government’s fault! 
Try using that line next time you’re in court. See how the judge takes it.
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