Work / Companies and pay for a Native English Teacher in Warsaw? [46]

Dominic, did you really live in Poland? That sort of comment strikes me as being incredibly naive at best.

The general rule is that schools in Poland must obey the rules set by the local educational authority, set at a provincial level with additional local representatives. However, these rules are not set in stone, and I can tell you about countless cases where the rules have been bent with official approval. As for the actual decision - if you think that a) personal connections and b) status on the work path don't have a huge influence, you must be living in a different planet to the rest of us.

If you're talking about the UK, then any half competent hiring manager will tell you exactly how to hire the person you want rather than the best qualified candidate. It's very simple in teaching - the headteacher in question merely has to nitpick a demonstration lesson to bits and he/she can issue a negative decision.

Oh Dominic... if you're talking about the UK - it's a piece of cake to manipulate. Teaching is so subjective that an "independent" observation conducted by a head of department can easily be negative if the headteacher wishes - no HoD is going to go against their HT's wishes if they want to keep their job and keep getting their salary increased - therefore the person doing the lesson observation is never, ever going to contradict their HT's wish. As long as the paperwork is in order, you can do whatever the hell you want...

In Poland - you really are living in dreamland if you think that there are such controls.

Anyway, to the OP - the answer is simple.

You should be able to pick up work in Warsaw pretty easily. In the beginning, it might not be perfect (for example, teaching music to nursery kids), but it will do the job. You can command pretty decent money for it, too, as you'll be a novelty.

The experience may or may not be transferable, but it would be wise to try and pick up work in schools that are accredited by the Polish Ministry of Education. That means all public schools and most (but not all) private schools. That way, you'll have a chance of getting that experience recognised back home.

Work / Companies and pay for a Native English Teacher in Warsaw? [46]

No Dominic, you haven't got a clue. For a start, the UK is made up of four countries with four different educational systems - there is no single Ministry of Education that covers the UK because education is a devolved matter.

Let's talk about England, because that's where the OP is from. 21% of schools in November 2014 were Academies or Free Schools - and they can pay whatever they want. Those that are still directly maintained also have considerable discretion - the only thing is that they're obliged to follow the national pay scale. But how someone fits into that pay scale depends very much on the school and their budget. It's a simplification, but there are essentially six "bands" on the main teaching pay scale (there's also an upper pay scale, but let's not go there). It ranges from M1 to M6. M1 is for newly qualified teachers, and so on.

Where you fit into the band when you begin very much depends on the circumstances. They can offer anything they want, with the only clause being that they have to pay according to the scale. But they don't have to recognise experience or in fact anything at all - for instance, primary teachers find it very tough to get M5/M6 recognised in many areas. They might be offered M3 or M4 - this is not unusual at all. But a maths teacher might go from M1 to M3 because schools find it incredibly hard to recruit and retain such teachers - they might even go straight in at M2 or even M3 if the school is desperate. But this decision is made by the headteacher - there is no standard formula for these things, except the school should have a pay policy that details how such decisions can be made.

In other words, your claim that there's an "extremely detailed pointing formula" is utterly false. The only thing that's handed down is that the amounts for each level are set centrally. The school itself is free to decide what to offer and how to assess where someone should be on the pay scale.

So - how this relates to our OP is very simple. Her experience may or may not be recognised, depending on the school, depending on their needs and depending on the will of the headteacher. It is absolutely false to say that they won't recognise private language schools - they may well do, especially if she applies for a post where there are significant numbers of children learning English. For what it's worth, a friend's experience in Poland led him to being hired at M2 rather than M1.

Oh, and Dominic? Your experience of Polish schools must be very limited, because school directors are perfectly able to offer higher salaries to teachers if they wish. The only thing they must do is pay teachers a minimum amount depending on their position in the work path.

Work / Companies and pay for a Native English Teacher in Warsaw? [46]

The problem is that in the EU, there's no such thing as automatic recognition of experience. So when she goes back, it would be entirely down to the headteacher in the hiring institution to decide whether or not it counts. It can even be a problem between schools in the UK - headteachers aren't bound to pay teachers according to experience.

Work / Companies and pay for a Native English Teacher in Warsaw? [46]


Not in Poland they aren't.

I would (and quite a few others I know would, too) bite the hand off anyone that had a PGCE and was willing to work - even more so if they could teach the performing arts because such people are few and far between here. Warsaw being what Warsaw is - she should have no problems with finding work, even in January, because there are such few people with UK qualifications in that field.

Doom and gloom is fine for the 22 year old with no qualifications and no experience with a BA in history, but qualified teachers are still rare here.

Put it this way - if we could get a female teacher that could teach music, drama and dance and had a PGCE in one of those fields - then they would walk into a job tomorrow where I work.

Work / Companies and pay for a Native English Teacher in Warsaw? [46]


It's highly unlikely that you're going to find a job in January. It might be possible to put together a timetable then, but you'll have to start your own business and then hit the streets to put it together.

Wait until the next academic year is my advice.

Although...are you male or female? Your profile says female - in this case, it might well be possible to pick up a full time nursery/kindergarten job.

News / Russo-Polish row over who started WW2 [34]


Do you think that the Western Allies would have defended the USSR against Poland breaking their supply lines and causing untold amount of carnage on the liberated territory? I'm not convinced they would have - America would have known that the bomb would deal with Japan, Churchill would have been happy to see Stalin in trouble, and the French...well, who cares about them?

But I hear what you're saying, and don't disagree.

Life / Expats` opinion on alien immigration to Poland - for or against? [87]


Not much. Like in Hungary, you'd be arrested and deported.

News / Russo-Polish row over who started WW2 [34]


Indeed. Never quite understood the Warsaw Uprising for that exact reason. The USSR would have had to have thrown everything at the Germans to cross the Wisła, the Germans would have fought for all they had in return and Poland would have still had that little chance to break free later.

I've said it a few times, and maybe as Pawian's back, he could comment - but I've always thought that the Russian race to Berlin could have been hurt badly if the Poles had cut their badly-stretched supply lines after the USSR reached the Oder. It would've suddenly been a two-front battle for the USSR - and they would've been forced to pull back to deal with the Poles. At that point, it's conceivable that the Germans could have mounted a counter-attack - and the USSR would have been in a mess. Germany would still lose to the Western Allies, but possibly, the USSR could also have been neutralised.

News / Russo-Polish row over who started WW2 [34]


Yes, I still wonder to this day what would have happened if Poland had joined such an alliance. Poland walking into Lithuania would have been certain, the Czech lands would have been carved up between Germany and Poland (with a puppet Slovak state), Hungary may have joined too - and possibly Romania to avoid getting invaded by Hungary. Poland would have surrendered some areas to Germany in exchange for non-aggression (but been compensated with additional territory and sea access in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine). The USSR would be finished, and it's possible that France would concede some territory to keep Germany happy.

In a strange way, Poland's refusal to join such an alliance may well have saved Europe.

Life / Driving test, English speaking driving school in Warsaw? [95]


Rubbish. I know plenty that have passed, and the fact that you're associating the WORD with the SB says that it's just another far-fetched conspiracy theory. Yes, it's difficult. Yes, you have to actually study (as opposed to memorising questions like in the UK test). Isn't that a good thing that people actually have to know the rules of the road?

If someone can't pass after 6 attempts, then they're clearly not fit to be on the road.


Bollocks. If it was true, then as all tests are filmed using 4 cameras (along with speed and other information) and a microphone, they could simply ask for a copy and the examiner would be in a world of trouble.

Is there no end to your PiS-approved fantasies?

Speaking of which, if they were doing 50 in a 50 zone, they were risking failing on that point alone. Any competent instructor will tell you that 50 is the limit, not the target, and that you should aim for around 45, but not slower than 42 and not more than 48.

History / Stalin's Holocaust Against Jews And Poles As "Self Defense" [36]


Even the name - "Great Patriotic War" says it all. In fairness, it was a hell of an accomplishment to them and achieved at incredible cost, but well... as you say, they've been drinking the kool-aid for years.


My wife has the theory that they actually enjoy being stamped on - when you think about the chaos of the Yeltsin era, it's quite understandable that they'd prefer Putinism to the only alternative that they've ever known.

News / Russo-Polish row over who started WW2 [34]


Isn't it just the usual Russian behaviour towards her neighbours? I don't think it's anything to worry about - in fact, Poland plays the game by reacting. Poland did cleverly point out however that the USSR even admitted their role in the invasion in 1989.


It really is too much. I'm all for having one day when we remember the victims, but when politicians seem to spend more time at memorials than actually doing their job, you have to wonder. And yes, everyone seems to be guilty.

News / Russo-Polish row over who started WW2 [34]


Isn't this just the usual Russian tactic of taking offence over something that's partially their fault (the memorial) and then being incredibly insulting back?

Don't rise to it Poland, it's just Russia trolling as usual.

Life / Expats` opinion on alien immigration to Poland - for or against? [87]

Yugoslavia, Grenada, Panama, Libya, Iran, Laos...and so on.

America (and the UK, and Germany, and others) has done her fair share of invading unwilling countries, and it seems rather hypocritical of her to now comment on the same thing.

Life / Expats` opinion on alien immigration to Poland - for or against? [87]

Thing is Johnny - America also invades countries where they aren't welcome. Therefore, I'm not sure what your point is...

More to the point - we also invaded their countries and often. European colonialism has left a nasty, nasty scar in the world.

History / Stalin's Holocaust Against Jews And Poles As "Self Defense" [36]

Ukrainians might beg to differ. More to the point, if he hated Jews so much, then they wouldn't have played any role in the Party. Yet...they did.

History / Stalin's Holocaust Against Jews And Poles As "Self Defense" [36]

Have you forgotten the Holodomor? It's worth pointing out that Russia thinks completely differently to the rest of Europe when it comes to WW2.

Life / Supermoon time and location in Poland [14]


I heard if you buy some yoghurt and put it on your head, the moon will appear to be blue :P

No, seriously...I heard midnight, but who knows if it's real.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


Agreed. I think the PSL is probably the only example to the contrary, and even Pawlak really struggled with stepping aside. But the problem with PiS is that their leader is so toxic and unappealing to the majority that he really should leave them alone.

Polonius, a serious question - if Kaczyński, Macierewicz and a few others were thrown out of PiS in an internal coup in November so that Szydło could put together a viable coalition (doesn't matter with who - let's say the PSL for the sake of argument) - would you still support PiS? Let's say that their policies don't change dramatically, too.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


Why couldn't Kaczyński just visit him in the Presidential Palace?


He should know better than to try and sneak off to Kaczyński's house in the middle of the night. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Kaczyński visiting him like a normal person in the Palace - but this shows the real client/vassal relationship. If Duda wants to be a real President, then he should act like one - not like a stooge who has to make sneaky visits to Kaczyński.

Duda really needs some sort of director of protocol to help him - he keeps making embarrassing mistake after embarrassing mistake.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]


It seems to have happened in 2001 - AWS got 5.6% of the vote but no seats.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


Actually, protocol dictates that you visit the President, not the other way round.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


It's not "out of nothing", it's the President making secret late night visits to the leader of the opposition.

News / Poland Parliamentary elections 2015 [1060]

The 2005-2007 period is actually incredibly fascinating if you look at how PO destroyed PiS over that two year period. PiS were repeatedly trying to dissolve the Sejm, PO refused to let them - and PiS were forced into stumbling from one mistake to another as a result. Kaczyński's own lust for power stopped Marcinkiewicz from running a successful government, as well. It was more or less a textbook example on how to run a successful opposition.

Could PiS be in exactly the same position this time round? Kaczyński won't be able to stop himself from interfering with Szydło's government, they won't have a stable majority and PO can just sit back and watch them suffer. From memory, even when Kaczyński became PM, he only had around 20% support from the voters.

I've found something rather hilarious to remind us of what PiS were like in power.


Hahahaha.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]

This thread is about Duda making secret visits to Kaczyński late at night and disrespecting the Presidency. Not about anyone or anything else.

News / Afera taśmowa (recordings scandal) in Poland - media coverage [17]

So in other words, you're admitting that it's made up.

It's okay, your masters in PiS do the same.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]

There's nothing to understand here. Duda is openly disrespecting the role of the Presidency by making these late night visits to Kaczyński.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


Of course they do. But it's weird that the President would have to go to visit his boss in the middle of the night - it shows a total lack of respect for the position and the country. Can you honestly imagine Hollande sneaking out in the middle of the night to visit someone? They would be summoned to Élysée, surely.


You're still on about Smolensk?

Okay, WP, let's talk diplomatic protocol. The meeting on the 7th was between Prime Ministers. Kaczyński couldn't meet Putin - diplomatic protocol means that Prime Ministers meet Prime Ministers and Heads of State meet other Heads of State. Likewise with ministers - if they make an official visit, then they meet with a similarly ranked minister in the host country.

As for the 10th - we've gone over it a thousand times, and I remind you - the military prosecutor invited anyone with a credible theory to come and discuss it with them. They didn't get one single credible theory. Oh, and please - don't forget that there were PO and SLD politicians on the same flight.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


And yet he's already claimed to have been invited to the Vatican (a lie), visited his master in the middle of the night at home (surreal), told the Poles on the UK not to come home (utterly mental), refused to waive his immunity so he could answer questions about his trips to Poznań (crooked), mocked his supporters for believing his promises (dishonest) and more.

Heck, we should make a thread about Duda's incompetence.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


I don't consider Duda to be part of PiS, he is PiS. How else can you explain him going to receive orders from Kaczyński in the middle of the night?


I think it's important to discuss exactly how Duda treats the Presidency - with utter disrespect.