End of the school term

[mich]

Does anyone have any idea when this school term actually finishes?

I have been told a million different time frames, beginning from Late January to Mid February.

We're teaching at a high school, so they may be different from universities.

I presume that they have exams at the end of the term, and we're not needed for that.

Does anyone have any clue. I'm trying to organise things for back home. eg. going back to my job and I can't give my bosses a date!

[phets72]

Hey Mich,

Is there an end date on your contract and will the school be anal and make you stay until this date OR did your school say you could stay until school term finishes?

Up here in Heillongjiang the schools tend to finish at the end of december to mid january. This is because is get too cold for the little ones because we are so far north.

I have a colleague whose school will finish 10 january but she is heading home around the 8th to Australia. I am following at this stage no later than 13 january. We both signed contracts until January 15 but are allowed to go when school finishes.

We both teach primary, middle and high schools students.

My suggestion to you is to ask as many teachers as you can when they think school will break up and bring a calendar with you and try and pin them to a date. The chinese can be very opaque in their answers. If they don't know ask them when does school actually finish USUALLY. Again use your calendar when you ask.

Speak to your headmaster or FAO telling them you need to book tickets home because depending on when you do finish in January/February you may get a Christmas rush heading home or spring festival and you need to return to Australia for work purposes.

This is what I did and got a better idea of what happens. Hope this helps you. Very good luck to you.

Phets72

[kzel81]

I don't know how accurate this is, as I'm only basing it on the contracts that I've been offered - they've all had a starting date of 1 Feb, as that is the date of the new terms at the schools I'm looking at. According to one school plan, their last teaching day of the previous term is Jan 24th.

[Crippler]

Public schools and Universities will not begin new semester until March 1st. at least. If you look at Feb. 17th as Chinese New Year the best way to ballpark the dates is 2 weeks prior to that date for School to stop and approximately same for new semester.

[Lotus Eater]

My uni classes start finishing in 2 weeks - the 4th years all complete then because they have to spend 1 month on scientific translation - 30,000 words to translate from Chinese-English-Chinese! Post-grads are 2 weeks later and 1st years in the middle of January. But the latter is likely tocahnge with an exam period before that.

I would also like to know when we start as I want to plan holidays - but I do the same rough guestimate as Crippler - a couple of weeks either side of Spring Festival.

I have started writing and planning exams already.

[cheekygal]

January 26th for me. Until February 26th.

[mich]

Belive me, I've tried to get a straight answer out of these people and it's really starting to drive me insane.

I have tried speaking to teachers, I have tried speaking to students. I get told, 'oh, the headmaster hasn't decided yet.'

ARGH!!!!!

My contract simply says, 'Feb '06 to Feb '07. No exact date has been given. I work for a company that is hired by the school. My Visa expires on Feb 15th.

But by what you guys are saying, it's looking like late Jan early Feb.

[nolefan]

I have to take into account the public holidays when planning the bootcamp and for that, I spend quite a bit of time sharing ganbeis with local leaders and representatives of edu departments. It was decided early on in october that for most public schools, the grades should be finalized by Friday January 19th ( the last week schools in Hebei should be allowed to administer exams).

Back when I was teaching, students were a heck of a lot more realibale sources than fellow teachers in terms of holiday planning. They have to buy tickets ahead of time and plan in some cases for pretty darn long trips so they make it their business to know the exact dates that they can leave campus. Those dates are usually one to two weeks earlier than the official end of the term.

[Eagle's Nest]

I have one late exam during the week of January 15th to 19th so I imagine that I will be done marking and all by the 17th thus being free to do whatever until the 26th of February when we will need to be back preparing for another term. If I am not mistaken, first class will be on March 5th.

The part that really gets me, it appears that no one knows who or what I will be teaching until sometime in January. ARRRRGGGGH!

[con's fly is open]

I'm clear on that score: Jan. 26 is the last day of my contract. Assuming they get me a visa already.