September 2012-present (and staying on)

The Town

Small and friendly. Pretty much everything is within walking distance unless you want to buy 50 litres of water in one go.

Getting Around

It’s really nice being able to walk to work in less than five minutes but it took me a while to get used to not being able to jump on a tube, bus or train whenever I felt like it. The train station is a five minute taxi ride from town and the bus station is a short walk from the centre. As long as you plan in advance, you can use the public transport system to get to lots of places but if you want to visit somewhere a bit more remote, you really need a car.

The School

Small and perfectly formed. The classrooms are arranged around a courtyard, which is filled with plants and flowers. It’s great to have my own room.

Materials and Resources

We get our own copies of teachers’ books, student books and workbooks, which makes planning really easy. There are plenty of other resources and everything is very well-organised.

The Staff

Everyone has been extremely welcoming, friendly and helpful.

Students/Classes/Levels

Every teacher is given a variety of age groups and levels to teach. The students are mostly lovely to teach, although it took a while to get used to how incredibly noisy some of them are!

Teacher Training

Brilliant. I’ve already been to two really useful conferences and the school has also organised visits from external speakers. In-house support has also been very helpful, particularly for exam preparation classes.

Finding a Flat

Finding a flat was incredibly easy – Julie found one for us! We decided to move after a few months and it was really easy to find another flat as there are plenty to choose from and all are very reasonably-priced.

The Cost of Living

You can rent an apartment for around €300 a month. Electricity is a bit pricy during the winter and phone and internet access are more expensive than at home but my salary goes a lot further than it ever did in the UK.

Health Cover

Julie helped us to apply for our health cards and paid for a health check.