Uk teaching to Japan teaching

I have taught in the UK for more than 10 years and now wish to move further afield. I have noted a few kindergarten posts and was wondering how these compare to teaching in reception/nursery in the UK?


I have two degrees, both in teaching and currently work 8am until 6pm every night as well as on the weekends. The hours are not great but now that the pay is possibly being increased it might be worth it.

I have a few questions:
Does anyone on this forum teach for a private kindergarten? What hours do you usually work?

Has anyone moved from UK primary education to kindergarten? What are you experiences?

In the UK nursery/reception teachers are often paid a lot less than those in a primary or secondary school, should I expect the same? Most of the job advertisements do not have salaries as I expect these are depending on experience?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Do you have any experience in childcare? I ask because one of my girl friends works in nursery schools and from what she has told me this would be more relevant in Japan than it would if you were looking to move from primary to nursery in the UK. Purely anecdotal of course.

Also, can you use Japanese, both written and spoken, to a level where you can succeed not only in a professional work environment with adult colleagues, but also where you communicate effectively with children who speak zero English?

There are two types of kindergardens in Japan, Japanese kindergardens and international school ones.

I can't comment on the Japanese ones - but can on the international school ones.

There are basically two websites (both behind paywalls) which I find are helpful. They are both recruiting agencies (kind of) and are the better ones in the business. Note that I am an international teacher who has worked in Japan but I now live in Singapore.

Search Associates (https://www.searchassociates.com/). This site connects the better international schools and better teachers together. It costs money to join - plus it costs money for school to employ you. This is who I normally join but note that they are picky in who they allow to join.

Council of International Schools (https://www.cois.org/international-education-careers/overview). This is an education body which also has job fairs etc....

Thank you for your replies.

I have an interview lined up for next week but failing that I will look at the websites provided.


Thank you again.