School Search · Thailand

School search in Bangkok, and in the cities where your posting takes you

The school is the decision that fixes the others: the neighbourhood, the commute, how quickly a family feels at home. Asia Relocation Thailand compares schools against your child rather than a ranking, visits them with you, and carries the application to admissions.

Start a school search → What the service covers
In Thailand since 2011 Consultants in English, French and Thai Bangkok and Chiang Mai visited
4curricula: IB, British, American, French
2011placing families in Thailand since
2cities visited: Bangkok, Chiang Mai
1consultant from the first call to enrolment

Bangkok has more international schools than most families expect, and that is the difficulty. They differ by curriculum, by the language a child hears in the corridor, by the size of the campus and by which side of the city they sit on. A choice made from a website is a choice made on reputation, and reputation says nothing about whether a nine-year-old from a French primary will settle.

The search we run starts from the child: the curriculum they are leaving, the languages spoken at home, whether they need support or stretch, and where the working parent will be at eight in the morning. From that we build a shortlist, and the shortlist is what we visit.

Asia Relocation Thailand has done this for families arriving in Bangkok since 2011, and for those posted to Chiang Mai, which has a school landscape of its own. The same consultant handles the visits, the file and the enrolment, in English, French or Thai.

The perimeter

What the search covers, and where it hands over

The right-hand column matters as much as the left: it is where families discover, late, that something they assumed was included belongs to another service.

Carried by the service

  • An assessment of the child: academic history, language level, any specific learning need, and the curriculum they are coming from.
  • A shortlist with the facts side by side — admissions requirements, curriculum, class size, facilities and accreditation, in one document rather than six brochures.
  • Accompanied visits, in person in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, or on a call before you arrive, with our questions asked alongside yours.
  • The application, end to end: documents gathered, deadlines tracked, and the admissions office spoken to directly on your behalf.
  • Enrolment and the first term: the handover with the school, and the advice that helps a child land rather than merely arrive.

The scope is written down before we start, school by school.

A different service

  • The house near the school. Once the school is chosen, the neighbourhood follows; finding the home in it is home search in Thailand, run by the same team and often on the same days.
  • A roof for the first weeks. Term can start before a lease does. Temporary housing in Bangkok bridges that gap.
  • The parent's workplace. Where the office sits decides half the commute; that is office search, not this page.
  • The dependant visa. Schools ask for it, and it is a file of its own: visa and immigration in Thailand.

Any of these can run on the same file, with the same consultant. Say so in the inquiry.

Curricula

Four systems, and the question each one answers

The schools named are examples for each track, drawn from those we visit. Not a ranking.

International Baccalaureate

The track for families who expect to move again: continuous from primary to the Diploma, it transfers between countries without a gap. In Bangkok, NIST, KIS and Concordian run it through; in Chiang Mai, Prem Tinsulanonda does.

Mobile families

British curriculum

IGCSE then A-Levels, with the structure British and Commonwealth families know. Bangkok Patana, Shrewsbury, Harrow and St. Andrews are the Bangkok names; Lanna International and Varee cover it in the north.

IGCSE · A-Levels

American curriculum

AP courses and SAT preparation, for families heading to a US university path. ISB and Ruamrudee in Bangkok; American Pacific and Chiang Mai International School in the north.

AP · SAT

French programme

The Lycée Français International de Bangkok follows the French curriculum to the baccalauréat. For French-speaking families it is often the only question; for bilingual ones, one option among four.

Lycée

Bilingual and Thai-English schools

For families who intend to stay, or who want a child to leave with the language of the country. Ambassador Bilingual in Chiang Mai is one example. A different social mix, and a decision that deserves an honest conversation.

Staying long
How it works

From the first call to the first day of term

  1. The consultation

    The child's academic history, language level and any specific need, the curriculum you would prefer, and the city or neighbourhood the posting points to. The commute is discussed here, not after the school is chosen.

  2. The shortlist

    A curated set of schools that match, with admissions requirements, curriculum, class size, facilities and accreditation side by side. A document you can hand to the other parent, not a list of links.

  3. The visits

    We organise and join them, in Bangkok, in Chiang Mai, or on a call if you are not yet in the country. You meet the staff; we ask about waiting lists, bus routes and what happens to a child who arrives mid-year.

  4. The application

    Documents assembled, deadlines held, and the admissions office contacted directly so that the file arrives complete and is read once. Where a school assesses the child, we prepare you for what that assessment looks like.

  5. Enrolment and the transition

    Enrolment coordinated with the school, and the advice that helps a child settle: who to speak to in the first week, what the bus does, how the school talks to parents.

Who it's for

Four families we see most often

Expatriate families arriving on a posting

The commonest case, and the one timing decides: the posting date is fixed, the school year is not negotiable, and the shortlist has to be ready before the flight.

Diplomatic, NGO and international-organisation staff

Bangkok hosts a great many of them, with school-age dependants and a posting length that argues for a curriculum that travels, often with an institutional deadline we work to.

HR teams with education in the package

A package that promises school support needs someone to deliver it. We work with the HR contact and the family at once, and report to both.

Parents who need the system explained first

Families new to Thailand, or to international schooling, who want the tracks set out plainly before anyone talks about a particular school.

Coverage

Bangkok first, Chiang Mai in its own right, and the coast on request

Visits in Bangkok and Chiang Mai; searches in Phuket and Pattaya for families posted there.

Bangkok is where most searches happen and the choice is widest, which is why the commute is part of the brief: a school on the wrong side of the expressway is a daily cost in hours, and bus routes quietly define where families live.

Chiang Mai is its own market: a full set of international schools across the same four tracks, on smaller campuses, in a city where the school run is measured in minutes. We visit there as we do in the capital.

FAQ

What parents ask before choosing a school in Thailand

Which curricula can we choose from in Thailand?
The International Baccalaureate, the British system with IGCSE and A-Levels, the American track with AP and SAT, and the French programme through the Lycée. Several schools also run Thai-English bilingual streams. We start from where your child is coming from, not from a list.
Is Chiang Mai a realistic option for schooling, or only Bangkok?
Realistic, and different. Chiang Mai has its own set of international schools, not a scaled-down copy of the capital's: smaller campuses, a quieter city. Families posted north do not need Bangkok for a curriculum, and we visit the northern schools as we do the Bangkok ones.
How early should we start?
As soon as the posting is likely, not when it is signed. Popular year groups in Bangkok fill well before the school year, and a late application can mean a waiting list or a second choice. Starting early is what keeps the choice yours.
What does a school ask for at application?
Recent reports, a passport copy, proof of the family's visa status, and often an assessment or an interview. Some schools add a language test. We prepare the file with you and send it complete; an incomplete one goes to the back of the queue.
Can you visit schools before we arrive in Thailand?
Yes. Visits can be done with you on a video call, or by our consultant alone with a written report, then in person once you are here. Many families shortlist remotely and decide after a day of visits on the ground.
What do school fees look like, and what is added on top?
Tuition is the headline and rarely the whole figure. Registration, a capital levy, uniforms, transport and lunches sit around it, built differently by each school. Our comparison lists them side by side for your shortlist, so the total is what you compare.
Does the school choice affect where we should live?
In Bangkok it usually decides it. Traffic turns a school across the city into a daily cost measured in hours, which is why we run the school search before, or with, the home search. Several schools run their own bus routes, and those routes shape where families live.
Do you handle mid-year moves?
Yes. A posting rarely waits for September. Mid-year places exist; the work is finding the school that can take the child into the right year group without a gap, then managing the handover of records from the previous school.
Not what you were looking for?

The two pages next door

You have the school, you need the house

The lease, the deposit, the clauses nobody translated: the search that follows the school choice, usually in the same weeks.

Home search in Thailand →

The whole relocation service

Housing, schooling, orientation and settling-in for Thailand, and how the pieces fit together on one file.

Relocation services in Thailand →

Tell us the child's age and the city, and we start the shortlist

One consultant, in English, French or Thai, from the first call to the first day of term.

Start a school search →
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