Anyone currently working for Peppy Kids Club?

I got an offer from Peppy Kids Club and I am waiting to hear back from Interac in a week or 2. The responsibility of being alone in a class and making my own schedule is a little daunting. And being on a abnormal work schedule may be interesting.

Does anyone work for Peppy Kids Club and have any insight?

Thanks.

I've not worked with PKC, but I'm an English preschool teacher in Japan at the moment as well.

First and foremost, have you worked with young children before? Being alone in a class with young children and no assistant teacher can be daunting, if not exhausting and risky. You have to be on your toes all the time, and kids can get up to just about anything the moment you let your guard down. I work with kids from 2-3 years old, and we have 3-4 teachers in a class. We managed, but not without tiring ourselves out trying to get them to sit down (short attention span!), going to the toilet (2-3 years old sometimes pee on the floor without you realising and you're expected to change their diapers), a child making another child cry etc. With all those distractions, you'd not only have to tend to the child but at the same time, think of something to do for the rest of the class and somehow keep your eyes on them as well.

If you get older children, it'll be somehow manageable with appropriate classroom management skills and being quick on your feet. However, with very young children and you receive no assistance AT ALL, I'd suggest you either take on Interact's offer or try as hard as you may to request for older children if possible. After all, you don't want to be responsible should anything happen to the children.

Hello. I have no experience with children.

I decided to go with Interac. I feel like I would be overwhelmed with Peppy since I would be COMPLETELY alone and responsible for young children and lonely because of the schedule. I wouldn't be able to work a normal work day. When I am free, no one else is and when I am busy everyone would be free! I

Thanks for the advice:)

Yamilluvia,

I currently work for Interac. You will find a lot of horror stories regarding the company, but I've been pleasantly surprised with them. There are definitely some difficult moments, but the company staff are amazing and have helped me whenever there was something I couldn't take care of myself.

Good luck!

Hi,

I've applied to both Peppy Kids Club and Interac and I am waiting for their replies. I'm quite loosing my hope with interac with all the requirements and the other stuffs that needs to be accomplished to be hired as an ALT. On the other hand, with Peppy Kids Club, I have already received an email that I passed the initial interview and the exam last April 18, 2015. The emailalso states that I should wait for the date of the information seminar, demo lesson and final interview. I am quite positive about it and was very happy that I thought I can travel to Japan as early as this June. However, it's already May 16 today and I still haven't got any email about the seminar, demo, and final interview. I applied in the Philippines with NHRFI, so I was wondering if they still do prioritize native speakers for hiring? I'm still waiting though. But I have a friend who's with Peppy Kids and she's very happy with her job. I was hoping to share my story so others who were also in the same batch as me can get to share their stories about Peppy. I really do hope they see this...

I called the agency and asked for a follow up for the schedule of the said interview, seminar and demo, however, all they said was to wait for an email. I asked for the status of their other teachers who applied earlier than our batch (preliminary interview: April 11) and they said their batch are already completing the medical interview whatnot.

I worked for Peppy though it was a number of years ago. A few things you should know: first, it is an after school club...or it was when I worked for then which means you will be working in the late afternoons and evenings rather than during the day and I know that except for on Saturdays I rarely got home before 9pm. You should also know that Japanese children can be a handful, especially the younger ones. Luckily the classes when I worked for Peppy were small. The largest was only 10 students and they were older and less of a handful. Lastly, teenagers are teenagers and when I worked for them Peppy did have classes for kids up to the age of 15. Some of them were studious but some were as much teenagers as one would expect in a western class and gave attitude. When I worked for peppy we got 2 weeks of training before we had to be in a classroom alone and by then, though the first day is a bit intimidating I found it worked out fine once I got into the flow of things. If you don't like kids though, especially roudy and exuberant ones then this might not be the right job for you. If you are expecting rows of polite quiet kids sitting with their hands folded on their desks this is going to be a huge surpirse for you. The classes were taught on the floor and involved a lot of games and running around so again...as long as you like kids and have a lot of energy then you will probably enjoy yourself. Granted this is taken from my own experience. The company could have changed quite a lot since I was involved...so that is something to take into account too. If you can, try to track down someone who has worked for them recently and find out what they have to say.

As for Nova, I didn't have direct experience with it but I did meet some people working for them and while I don't know about the curriculum and the classroom set up I did get the impression from those working for Nova that they didn't take very good care of their foreign teachers. This may have changed of course. I was under the impression that they were one of the companies that went under when the world economy bottomed out before 2010 but I could be mistaken. Anyway...to you and anyone else going to teach English in Japan...good luck and I hope you have as great an experience as I did.