Yinghua International School (Tianjin) HOT

YINGHUA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL (Tianjin, China). DON’T EVER WORK THERE. THEY REPLACED ME WITH 1 DAY’S NOTICE AND THEY TOLERATE TEACHERS WHO PHYSICALLY PUNISH STUDENTS. Avoid anyone there called Rose, Jane (they are on Level 6, Cambridge Department) and Lin (head principal).international school in Tianjin
I started teaching Biology for AS and IGSCE level in the Cambridge Department on level 6. I was there from late August 2015 till October 20th 2015 when I was replaced with 1 day’s notice.
On a Sunday I got a text message from Rose (one of the department heads on level 6) to come to the office. She wanted to talk to me and me to clean out my desk. After repeatedly asking why she eventually told me I had been replaced. When I refused to come to the office till I talked to Principal Lin (he is the head principal of the school) first I found out on the Monday that my desk was cleaned out without permission and my stuff put into a box. I spent the following week chasing up Principal Lin (who I felt was avoiding me) and talking to Rose and Jane (another department head) to get some answers. Eventually I found out that they had complaints about my teaching (forgetting names, appearing disorganised etc.). I tried to explain to them that if there were complaints I should’ve been given some feedback so I could improve. Jane said that wouldn’t have done any good. They seemed to have trouble understanding that replacing someone with one day’s notice is wrong and unprofessional. Rose and Jane also told me that the decision to replace me was sudden. The new biology teacher who replaced me came to work 1 day later, on the Monday (the other teacher’s in the department didn’t even know this till he arrived) so I didn’t believe them.
When I talked to Principal Lin about this he too didn’t understand why what they were doing to me was wrong. When I reminded him that we had a contract he told me that he didn’t sign the contract so therefore he didn’t break it nor did he need to follow it. He also told me he wasn’t going to sign it till after 2 months (the impression I got was there was a 2 month probation period but it was not clearly defined in the contract). Finally when I tried to chase up the school for my August salary (my contract started mid August) the school’s position was that they would only pay me from the beginning of September when class started. Eventually Principal Lin gave me 2000y to make me go a way. I was not happy, I was owed more, but felt that it was better than nothing at the time. Now to be honest some of this was my fault. I should’ve chased up the principal for a signed copy of the contract but at the time I trusted him and thought I would get it later. I can understand a teacher being replaced with one day’s notice for gross misconduct but I made no secret of being new to biology teaching (I am studying a teaching degree right now) and I have been told by several other teachers that even if I did make mistakes I should’ve been given appropriate feedback and time to fix up any mistakes before being replaced.
With my visa running out they sent me to work as an English teacher on level 1 (under a new contract and reduced salary from 15000y after tax to 9500y after tax). I wish my trouble had ended on level 6 but it did not.
On level 1 I had to yell at one of the female Chinese English teacher’s for slapping one of the male students across the face. After yelling at her I thought that the rest of the teacher’s understood that what she did was wrong and that would be the end of it (its illegal to do this in China). However, on April 10 2015 I saw one of the male Chinese teacher’s (the department head no less!) physically punishing one of the male students with a block of wood (looked like a door stop) and using it on the students upper thigh. I wont go into the specific details of what I said but I got very, very angry and threatened to hurt the teacher and told him to try it to me. He didn’t understand English but he got the message. I sent a formal email and several text messages to Principal Lin but he didn’t reply back. I also tried to meet him but he was too busy to meet. I found out later from him that because I got very angry at the teacher that the impression I gave was not good and so he didn’t believe my email. I got the feeling that someone complained about my outburst in the office which discredited me. I admitted to him that was I said and getting angry the way did at school was wrong. However I also told him that because there are no rules or policies to dictate what a teacher should do when they see something like this, that my reaction was appropriate at the time. I like to think this has been fixed up but after him not deliberately signing my Cambridge contract, being cheated of most of my August 2015 salary and replaced with one day’s notice, I don’t trust him or the school. Rumour also has it that at least one other foreigner has been cheated of some salary, the school skims the salaries of the Chinese teachers and there are stories about some foreigners not being paid social security.
Finally while my experience at the school has been mostly bad most of the foreigners at the school were very supportive and sympathetic and the Teaching Assistant I worked with on level 1 was also a VERY good teacher and great to work with.