We continue to share our valuable school visits in this week’s blog. Our team at Teacher Horizons have a thorough understanding of what makes a school desirable from a teacher’s perspective. We travel to our schools and check in with the quality and environment of the place often so that we can share this wealth of information with you. We know how useful it is for teachers in making a decision about whether they would like to work there.
Jo has recently been visiting a couple of schools in South Africa and has kindly shared her experiences with us.
School name: International School of Cape Town
Country and city: Cape Town, South Africa
Curriculum/s: British
Who visited?: Jo
You can look back on some of our past school visits here.
How did you get to the school?
Flew from Papua New Guinea to Cape Town, had a night’s rest out near Hermanus, and drove 2 hours to get to the school through beautiful, mountainous, coastal scenery!
Where is it located? How big was the school? What were the buildings and facilities like?
Beautiful Cape Dutch style buildings (since 1949). The school is nestled in the foothills of Table Mountain in an affluent and country suburb of Cape Town. It is a new ECD site with a warm atmosphere.
Did you speak to any staff members? If so, how were they finding it?
I only spoke with the Principal.
What was the best thing about the school in your opinion?
The setting and location are really great. Additionally, the principal is very friendly. As there are just 510 students, it has a homely and close-knit community feel.
School name: International School of Helderberg
Country and city: Cape Town, South Africa
Curriculum/s: British
Who visited?: Jo
How did you get to the school? Where is it located?
A one-hour scenic drive through the stunning wine lands of Cape Town. The school is located in a gated community complex in the affluent suburb of Somerset West.
How big was the school? What were the buildings and facilities like?
The school has been operating for over 20 years but they have continued to upgrade and it is well resourced. They are in the process of selling a plot of land which they were originally going to relocate to, and instead, they will stay in the same location and use the money for a big upgrade.
Did you speak to any staff members? If so, how were they finding it?
The Admin lady, Briggette, gave me a tour of the school. Both her and the principal, Andre, were incredibly warm and accommodating. I enjoyed speaking with them both. Briggette gave me lots of tourism tips for the area, too! A student from Germany who had been on an exchange program with the school for a year came in to say goodbye to the principal. There were lots of hugs and shaking hands and the students spoke very highly of his experiences with the school.
What was the best thing about the school in your opinion?
The warm and friendly demeanour of the principal and the school’s location.
Were there any downsides that teachers should be aware of?
They feel they are best suited to those with the right to live and work in South Africa, preferably those with Cambridge curriculum experience.
Have a read of our Happy Teacher Archives, for more happy teachers in Europe and other locations.
We have over 2000 schools in over 160 countries, so it might take us a while to get around them all, but we endeavour to! We visit new schools every month, so keep an eye out for more blogs like this one in the future.
Written by Alexandra Plummer