Pete Oldfield  is currently the Head of Economics and Business at Dulwich College in Shanghai. Having known Pete for a number of years after playing football against when he was Head of Humanities at British International School in Phuket.

I thought it would be an excellent time to pick his brains…. A talented teacher, an all round lovely bloke and a twinkle toed footballer…Pete Oldfield, welcome to the job2teach interview…

1. Pete, please gives us a break down of the career today from when you decided to enter the teaching profession to your current state of affairs ?

I’m a little unusual as I started late on the international circuit.

Most teachers on the international circuit start after teaching in the UK for a short time. However I worked in the UK for 15 years before I made the move abroad when I was 38. I exclusively worked in the private sector in the UK for no other reason as that is where I got my first job offer.

 

2. Where was your first post abroad and why the leap ?

In 2002 I made the move to what was then Dulwich College Phuket and is now the British International school in Phuket. I had 8 wonderful years at the school, met my wife there who was a teaching assistant at the school, and our 6 year old daughter was a pupil there. I initially came on a 2 year contract as I felt I needed a change as I was getting a little stale in the UK. I had never been to Phuket, but had been on a number of holidays to Thailand and felt that I could have a better lifestyle than in the UK. I wasn’t wrong, I loved the experience and 2 years quickly became 8. It was hard to leave but again I felt I needed a new challenge.

 

3. How are you enjoying your latest teaching adventure in China ?

I have just finished my first year and it has been an incredible experience. Shanghai is an amazing city. The rate of growth here is phenomenal. As an Economist I find it fascinating and stimulating to be at the center of this shift in Economic power from the West to the East. Having said that we struggled with the Winter here after 8 years of warm weather in Thailand

 

4. How would you compare the students standards in China compared the Thailand then the UK ?

The students in Shanghai are just incredibly focussed and have a wonderful work ethic. It was very similar in Phuket, although they were a little more laid back with it being a big holiday destination.

What I like best about the international circuit is that the kids think it is cool to work hard and succeed. That generally wasn’t the case in the UK, so that even if the students were focussed on their work they kept it quiet!

 

5. In nutshell what are the main 5 main differences between teaching in schools in International schools rather than schools in UK?

Often the international schools are quite new in that they may have only been established for 10 years or so. One of the schools I worked at in the UK was 400 years old. This has both positives and negatives.

Sometime the international school is learning and adapting things as it goes along, and the pace of change is frenetic. However they are also open to new ideas and are constantly wanting to improve, which was not always the case in some of the schools I worked at where they seemed to get bogged down in the idea that ” we have always done it like this and therefore we can’t break with tradition”

Another difference is that most international schools are “for profit”

whereas in the UK even the private sector tends to be “not for profit”

and has charitable status. Everyone has to make there own minds up about this, and although I would ideally like education to be outside of the corporate world I am also realistic that if I want to work on the international circuit I have to be flexible.

Staff turnover tends to be higher on the international circuit than at home. This is for a number of reasons, not least that the type of person that teaches abroad has a fair amount of “wanderlust” . Again there are both positives and negatives to this. If you are ambitious to get promotion, positions tend to come up pretty regular. But too much turnover particularly amongst senior leaders and you tend to get a rudderless ship.

You are affected by the culture of the country and that of the students on the international circuit. For example some of my Asian students have to be really encouraged to ask questions as in many Asian cultures it is not the done thing to ask questions of your teacher as it implies that the teacher is no good at their job. Be flexible and you are generally ok.

Being away from your family and friends is the big negative on the international circuit. The first term is definitely the worst and then you make new friends and kind of get used to it. But I haven’t got used to the fact that you just make new friends and then they are off to another country (or you are).

So there are lots of differences but overall the positives for me outweigh the negatives.

 

6. I assume a fair percentage of your students English is their second a language, how much more difficult does this make things when trying to get through curriculum.

Absolutely right. This was a real challenge for me as I had never really experienced it before, nor had I had any training. I have to say that in the early days I struggled and so I undertook some training and gained certification from Cambridge for teaching English in the mainstream. The focus of the course was that irrespective of our subject we are also all English teachers. I’m not perfect but I feel that I am more able to cope with the different needs of my students

 

7. The education sector in China seems to be growing exponentially, do you think they can sustain this over the next 10 years ?

Dulwich College Shanghai really only caters for the “Expat” market as Chinese nationals are not allowed at present to attend International schools (there are limited exceptions to this I think). This market is growing rapidly, but not nearly as rapidly as the market for Chinese Nationals, who are keen to get an English education. This market has huge potential and many new schools are opening all the time.

 

8. Any chance we will see you in UK in later life heading up a department?

I doubt it. My lifestyle and the quality of life for my family is just too good here. One of the real perks of working on the international circuit is that most schools give free education for teacher’s children. My daughter has amazing teachers and is already bilingual at

6 years of age. Hopefully by the time we leave Chinese she’ll be trilingual, as her Mandarin is already better than Dad’s.

 

9. Are you still playing football and showing the silky skills ?

Oh you are a flatterer. I’m still coaching football so I have a bit of a runaround with the kids but no I am no longer playing for a team. Shanghai has 2 expat leagues but it is mainly fit young guys who play so like Paul Scholes I have decided to hang my boots up.

 

10. Any tips for teachers out there looking to give up the classroom of the Uk and beyond and make it internationally ?

Be flexible and have a sense of humour. If you expect things to work as they do back home you won’t last long. You may be living on a tropical Island as I was lucky enough to , but you still can have horrible days and you do work hard.

 

11. You’re a well travelled man, what’s your most culturally embarrassing moment, preferably a teaching story.

I don’t know if this is culturally embarrassing but I did think one of my daughter’s school friends was a boy when she actually was a girl and made an idiot of myself in front of her parents…. oh well…..

 

12. Anything regrets? Or things you would have done differently ?

I wished I’d not waited til I was 37 to work abroad.

 

13. Best and worst teaching experience to date.

I’m lucky I still love teaching, so it is pretty much the best job in the world for me. Having said that I hate marking and the hardest thing about my students in Shanghai is that they produce so much written work and they are a bit old fashioned when it comes to peer and self-assessment, and prefer me to mark it all the time. I am trying to get them used to rubrics and AFL.

A million thanks Pete, any question regarding teaching in China, send them my way to ian@job2teach.com or add your comments below

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