🇹🇭 Bangkok · Schools
Schooling and childcare in Bangkok
A deep international sector spread right across the city, priced at the top end, and a commute that will shape where you live more than any other factor.
The thing people get wrongThe best-known international schools sit in Bang Na, the outer Sukhumvit stretch and across the river in Nonthaburi — not in the districts most arrivals imagine living in. Pick the school, then draw the catchment for the bus route, then look at flats.
How the sector is organised
International schools in Thailand are licensed by the Ministry of Education and most belong to the International Schools Association of Thailand, with the stronger ones additionally accredited by CIS, WASC or the IB. British, IB and American programmes dominate, and there is a substantial second tier of bilingual schools teaching a Thai curriculum with heavy English provision at a fraction of the price. Thai state schools are free and taught in Thai.
- Full international: instruction in English, foreign curriculum, fees at the top of the range.
- Bilingual and English programme schools: Thai curriculum, part-English delivery, far cheaper.
- Thai state schools: free, Thai-medium, allocation broadly by area.
- The academic year usually starts in August at international schools and in May at Thai ones.
Applying
Applications go directly to each school. Expect an application fee, an entrance assessment and an English-language screening, plus reports from the last two years and a reference from the current school. Children assessed as needing English support are often charged a separate EAL fee on top of tuition, and at some schools support places are capped.
- Documents: passport, visa page, birth certificate, immunisation record, last two years' reports.
- Non-refundable application fee, plus a refundable deposit or place-holding payment.
- EAL support is commonly a separate charge and can add meaningfully to the bill.
- A term's written notice is usually required to withdraw, or the deposit is forfeited.
The bus is the housing decision
Almost every international school runs a bus network, and the bus is how the majority of pupils travel. That means your realistic housing choices are the addresses on a route, and a child on a ninety-minute morning run in Bangkok traffic will feel it. Ask each school for the route map and the collection times before you decide on an area, not after.
- Bus fees are charged annually and priced by distance.
- Collection can start well before 07:00 for outer routes.
- Some schools operate a shuttle from a BTS or MRT station rather than door to door.
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