The pros and cons of taking a job in a start-up school

The rapid expansion of international schools around the world means that a significant proportion of job vacancies in English-medium schools are in schools that either are new or in their first couple of years of operation. These schools have a different character from their more established counterparts which means that there a number of additional factors to consider when thinking about before signing on the dotted line. In this article, I weigh up the pros and cons of joining a start-up school.

Pros

An opportunity for visionaries and pioneers to shape a school and its ethos

Start-ups in every industry are characterised by their dynamic and innovative nature. Typically, there is a small team who work closely together to shape the organisation and guide it through its formative years. Start-up schools are no different.

They are an opportunity for those early appointees not only to shape the curriculum and the school day, but also to determine the school’s character and ethos.

The same applies to founding students. The first cohort of students growing up from Reception or Year 7 will set the tone for the generations that will follow.

C.V. Kudos

There is something very invigorating about joining an organisation at the ground floor, but there is also pressure built in. The Jesuit mantra ‘Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man’, applies equally to schools. The first formative years establish the start-up’s position in the school marketplace and hierarchy. This gives an urgency, risk and excitement to the whole enterprise.

There is undoubtedly a certain professional kudos when a founding staff team successfully establish a new school bringing it to the educational maturity - particularly where students excel in final examinations and gain places at top tertiary institutions. In terms of career development, it’s a significant formative learning experience to have in the bank. Founding principals certainly earn their place in a school’s history!

An opportunity for rapid promotion

Start-up schools provide an amazing opportunity for aspiring?middle and senior leaders. These schools?necessarily start small and grow rapidly. The first teachers appointed inevitably inherit a level of responsibility from day one: if you’re the only history teacher, you are?de facto?the head of department! Furthermore, as the years pass the founding teachers inevitably are first in line for Phase or Faculty leader posts. There’s no doubt that start-ups can be a way?to jump start your career!

Cons

Not for the faint-hearted

However, the other side of this particular coin is that there is an element of ‘sink or swim’ for staff in start-ups. Inevitably, new schools do not have the same structures to support NQTs and those new to middle leadership, in the way that more established schools do. Few ?start-up schools have the capacity or resources to put in place peer mentoring or personalised professional development programmes. Those that do tend to have support from the wider schools group that established the school, although this comes at a distance.

The risk of getting out of date

One of the potential pitfalls of joining a start-up for secondary teachers is that, because many new schools grow from the bottom up, it is quite possible that a specialist won’t be teaching GCSE examination classes for two to three years, and A-level/ IB Diploma for even longer.?Whilst focusing on Key Stage Three can be rewarding, it is easy for the founding teachers to get out of the rigour of preparing students for external examinations. What is more, it has the potential to?put a dent in a career for the international teacher looking to move on at the end of her two- or three-year?contract.

Do you due diligence

There may be an element of a leap of faith about joining a start-up, but this can be reduced by doing your homework on the organisation that you are joining.

First and foremost, research who owns the school. The vast majority of new schools are opened by established for-profit schools’ groups or high-profile name franchises working with local partners. Most already have a track record and it is relatively easy to determine whether they are looking for a quick profit or are they in it for the long term – building a school of quality.

One other area of due diligence is to find out about the school’s location. It is very common for new international schools to be a key component?of middle-class residential building projects as cities expand around the world. Developers first build a shopping mall and an international school: attracting top high street brands and a big-name franchise international school is an essential part of the business plan. With these in place they have a platform to market the housing. This works well for the developers and potential residents and the school in the long run, but for the founding teachers it can mean living in a building site for the first couple of years.?The maturity of the site and how much time it takes to travel into the city centre can easily be determined using Google Maps.

And so . . . .

The usual risks of moving abroad are magnified when moving to a start-up. Signing for a newly founded school is to some extent an act of faith. It favours those who are willing to take a gamble. However, the usual rules of ‘risk-rewards’ apply here – those who do their research and are willing to take the risk can benefit greatly.

‘Should I take a job in a start-up school?’ Ultimately, this comes down to how much you are willing to back yourself to make a go of it. Good luck!