There are thousands of unfilled English-teaching posts in Chile, and since a certain level of English is required to graduate, the country is crying out for English teachers.  Its a vicious circle when you think about it - there aren't any English teachers, so students can't learn English and can't graduate, so they can't go onto university or get a job, so any potential English teachers can't actually become teachers!

The school in which I will be teaching is called Colegio Manuel Vicuña and is situated in San Joaquín, just south of central Santiago.  The school is about 5 years old and caters for 550 pupils aged between 4 and 17.

I will be acting as an English classroom assistant and will also have the opportunity to get involved with other areas of the school, such as music.  Its likely that me and my partner will be split so that one of us works with the younger children, and the other with the older children.

During my year I will be living with a local family which will allow me a unique insight into day-to-day Chilean life as well as giving me a massive opportunity to improve my Spanish!

More information on this and other Fundación Belén schools is available on http://www.beleneduca.cl (in the 'Colegios' list on the left) although the text is all in Spanish...!