Francis Parker (Mapo)

I would advise everyone to stay away from this location. The lack of breaks is anbsurd, including the 30 minute lunch although it’s stated as 1 hour on the contract. The xxxxx is never there, so there’s never any concrete confirmations on anything. Which is great, especially when you’re updating your decorations for a big event. Then xxx shows up two days before the said event and says it’s not to xxx liking and it must be changed immediately. They can’t keep teachers there long enough, so the workload is increased and dumped on teachers currently staying. Again I would advise against this location, it’s not worth the headache. This place was a mess.

I would like to add Francis Parker Mapo to the green list. It s located close Hapjeong and Hongdae stations.

I worked at this hagwon for over a year, having worked at another hagwon and a public school for 2 years. This is a kindergarten with morning kinder classes followed by afternoon elementary classes.

The work environment was very positive. The teachers were allowed to get on with their work quite freely. There were five foreign teachers in the school while I worked there, and everyone was quite friendly and supportive. Being a smaller school meant that teachers got to know each other quite well, and someone was always available to help out if necessary.

The schedule and the workload were very reasonable. I always had at least one free period each morning to prepare for classes or catch up on any other work. In the afternoons too, there were a few free periods each week. Again, this was great if you need to catch up on any work. In general, there was more than enough time to prepare and do some admin work. There were never any moments when work was expected to be done outside of work hours.

The director and assistant director were also really helpful with any issues, either in the school or with apartments, which the school provided. Sometimes they even checked in to make sure that everything was working well with our apartments, and were very prompt to sort things out if there were issues. In the school, anything like needing supplies was very quickly organized. They were also very flexible with needing time to do things like visit a bank, post office, hospital etc. And again, having enough free time meant you could do these errands quite easily. Wages were always paid on time, there were no issues here.

Overall, I m happy to recommend Francis Parker Mapo to any teachers looking for a good kindergarten.