Hi.

I've been offered a job in Bangkok and am considering whether to accept or not... normally it wouldn't be a difficult decision, but with our daughter about to turn 4 years old in July we need to consider her education needs.

If anyone has any experience of good private schools in Bangkok that follow the British curriculum, please could you provide me with details such as school name, cost/term, contact details etc.

We will probably be living in the Lad Prao area since we already have an apartment there. However, the job includes a driver so feasibly we could consider schools anywhere within Bangkok - and may move to a different area for the right school.

Thanks

Kevin

There is a very useful site here which will help you consider locations and compare fees and curricula - I would disregard any school which is not a member of this organisation. International Schools in Thailand

Although many offer a modified version of the UK national Curriculum I would also recommend looking at schools which offer the International Baccalaureate - the PYP (Primary Years Programme) is VERY good, as are the MYP and Diploma courses.

There are two well-established schools that I know of in Lad Prao - St John's and St Stephen's. Both have had considerable problems in recent years relating to staffing and management issues - it MIGHT be worth doing some searching here TES Overseas forum to get the perspective of staff and teachers at other schools in the city though it's worth noting that the TES tends to delete posts which mention schools by name so references are often coded (though not very subtly!) St Stephen's has always been a fairly small school which has struggled to grow whereas St John's was one of the bigger ones (attached to a well-known private Thai school/university) but has been hammered by the arrival and growth of Shrewsbury and Harrow. For a child of your daughter's age I don't think either of them would be bad places to be but you might find the student body to be dominated by Thais. Shrewsbury and Harrow have both done very well in terms of growth and reputation in the past few years and both have really impressive recently purpose-built campuses - Shrewsbury is down by the river, Harrow close to Don Muang. Although I would think they have a better mix than the previous two, both are very popular with the wealthy Thais.

I should probably mention here that looking at individual websites can be misleading as they will probably all feature several smiley blond children with a few Asians thrown in - they may be the only blond children in the school, or, at worst, may have been shipped in from another school! When I was working at Patana I once had to leave my ICT room so that some of my students could come in and be photographed in a different uniform for the prospectus of a school which hadn't been built yet!

Anyway, THE best British curriculum school is Bangkok Patana, out on Sukhumvit 105, beyond the Bangna Trad highway. Decent area to live, quick access to the Eastern Seaboard and the new airport. Fantastic campus, very well run but, for me, it has grown too much - over 2000 students now - there were about 1200 when I started there (most international schools are all through, KG-Y13) but that must mean they are doing something right. They celebrate their 50th anniversary this year.

If going to school in the middle of town is an option, I would recommend NIST, best place I've ever worked, fantastic international student body, c, 60 different nationalities, great staff and the place is landlocked so can't grow any bigger than the 1300 or so students they set as their optimum size. An older campus, it was originally the site of the massive US system ISB until they outgrew it and moved out around 1990. What they have done instead is poured money into improving the existing facilities but kept the benefits of its smaller student body where everyone still knows everyone else. My kids spent six years there and I'm really sorry we couldn't have stayed longer.

At the other end of the spectrum they also spent a year at one of the smallest schools, Rasami, 150 kids all through, 10 per year group, and really enjoyed the intimate, family-style atmosphere. The kids were lovely but as a teacher I felt quite embarrassed and as a parent I was glad we had to leave when we did, even though it meant coming back to UK schools!

Are your employers going to be covering the costs of schooling - if not, read the small print carefully! The fees quoted will often be per term (x 3 per year) or semester (x 2) NIST, for example will cost B300k per year at the lower age up to B400k in Year 6 and then higher as they move through secondary. However it will also cost you over B500k for registration, bonds etc, only some of which is refundable when the child leaves.

Many of the schools will also run a/c minibuses from many parts of town but, depending on where you live, that can mean a LONG day for the kids with the travelling time at either end. The school day tends to start and finish early to avoid much of the traffic problem but still ....

If finance isn't an issue I would say, forget your worries, you are probably doing your daughter a massive favour by giving her the chance to attend one of these schools.

I send my 12 year old to Bromsgrove international School It is in Min Buri near the new airport. It has two campus one called early years ( up to year 6) and the main school. It is situated within a golf club ( 36 holes) and golf is also a lesson.The scool is fairly new ( 2 years) and has about 250 pupils. All the staff are English speaking and most are from England.My Daughter is a full time boarder and enjoys life there very much. The cost is around 800000 Baht per year ( including boarding fees) (3) terms. Full details at www.bromsgrove.ac.th