I have written eighty-eight of these and almost every one contains a paragraph apologising for a timezone. Mexico is nine hours. Costa Rica and Guatemala are nine. Colombia, Peru, Panama and Ecuador are eight. Chile moves twice a year. In every one of those markets the clock is a constraint we work around and are honest about. Israel is the exception, and it is worth an article on its own.
One hour, then none
Israel runs Israel Standard Time at UTC+2, moving to Israel Daylight Time at UTC+3 for the summer. Our teaching base runs UTC+3 year-round. That puts Israel one hour behind us in winter and exactly level in summer — closer than any of the other eighty-eight countries we serve. Every hour of our teaching day is available to an Israeli family. An after-school class at four in the afternoon works. A mid-morning session for a student on a permitted home-education programme works. An evening slot works. In most of our markets the first question is which window is even possible; here there is no such question.
Why that matters more than it sounds
Because timetable constraints do not just inconvenience families — they narrow what a student can take. In a market where only one three-hour window works, a student is choosing between subjects that clash inside it. With the whole day available, a student can take Further Mathematics on a Tuesday afternoon and Chemistry on a Thursday evening without either competing with school or with each other. Israel is the one country where we can genuinely build a timetable around the student rather than around the offset.
The olim question, which is the real demand here
A great many Israeli families arrived from Britain, the United States, France, Canada or South Africa, frequently mid-schooling, and they keep close ties to where they came from. The question they actually bring us is not about teaching quality — Israeli schools are strong and the university system is excellent — but about optionality: how does a child keep a route back? The answer is an internationally examined record alongside the Israeli one. UCAS reads Cambridge A-Levels natively. American and Canadian universities read A-Levels, the IB and AP directly. French institutions assess them through established equivalence routes. That is a record which does not need reconstructing depending on where a student eventually applies.
And a smaller thing that surprises newcomers
Parents in Israel may choose the educational stream their children attend but not the specific school — the local school board refers children in accordance with social integration policy. Families arriving from systems where school choice is normal often find that out late, and it is a common reason they start looking at supplementary international teaching. I mention it because it explains a lot of the enquiries we get from Ra’anana, Herzliya and Jerusalem, and because nobody seems to tell new arrivals.
Where the map runs out
Israel has remarkably few international schools for a country with this scale of English-speaking and French-speaking immigration and this size of technology sector — and they are concentrated in the centre and Jerusalem. Haifa is a Technion city whose students aim at engineering in numbers and which has minimal international provision. Be’er Sheva anchors a fast-growing technology and cyber sector in a very large district with essentially none at all. In both, we are not competing with a campus; we are reaching where campuses are not.
What I will not claim
That we can help with a Ministry permit — we cannot, nobody can, and it is between the family and the Ministry. That we teach the Bagrut — we do not, and we are not a Ministry-recognised institution. And that Israeli schooling needs improving — it does not need our opinion. What we offer is narrow: subjects taught live by specialists, toward externally examined international qualifications, at whatever hour of our day suits you. In Israel, unusually, that last clause is not a compromise.
Frequently Asked Questions
How close is the timezone really?+
Israel is one hour behind our teaching base in winter and exactly level in summer, since Israel runs UTC+2 moving to UTC+3 while we run UTC+3 year-round. Every hour of our teaching day is available — after-school, mid-morning or evening.
We made aliyah mid-schooling — how does our child keep a route back?+
An internationally examined record alongside the Israeli one. UCAS reads Cambridge A-Levels natively, and American, French, Canadian and South African universities read A-Levels and the IB directly.
Can we choose our child’s school in Israel?+
Parents may choose the stream but not the specific school — the local school board refers children in accordance with social integration policy. It surprises many newcomers.
Can you help with a home-education permit?+
No. Permits are granted annually by the Ministry of Education and no provider can obtain or influence one. We teach the subjects.
