international schools in bangkok

[ursula]

I am thinking of staying in Bangkok for a period of time and possably do a tefl course,or similar.
The main thing is I have a nine year old and would like to enroll in an international school.
If anyone has information on schools,prices etc?Any help would be much appreciated.

[synthia]

Welcome to the forum.

International schools in most countries are not what I always thought they were. The only people I ever knew who attended or had children in international schools were living in Europe at the time. There the international schools were for international students, with children of expat business people and sometimes diplomats attending them.

In the rest of the world, an internatinal school is a private school where classes are taught in English and an American or English curriculum is taught. The students are local, rather than the international mix found in the European version. There are exceptions. I knew a woman who taught an a boys boarding school in Chiang Mai that was entirely filled with boys from Japan and Korea, sent by their parents to get an English-medium education at a lower cost than what was available at home.

Some of the schools are of course, better than others. The really good ones are usually trying to prepare their students for American and English universities, and in some cases only the top universities at that. And yes, I'm talking about a school that starts with pre-K.

[ursula]

Thanks,yes it will be more difficult than I first thought,see some info about the Patana school,and there's a list of Bangkok International schools,will have to check out more.

[Winkie]

Hi

I've got my kids at Bangkok Patana School. It is a truly wonderful school, they love it, adn the facilities adn educational skills and experiences far supercede those of the school they were at last.

First you need to decide whether your kids need to follow an English or American system (or Singapore, or French or Australian etc... they are all here).

Yes, the International SChools are full of Thai students as well, I think Pantana maybe around 50/60% Thai, but we are living in Thailand! What's wrong with that! It enhances the expereicne and helps the kids to integrate within a cefrtain part of tHai Society. Many of my kids friends are Thai, many are from everywhere around the world.

Decide what system you want, consider where you live, travelling time is importnat, you should ideally live near to the school, not the other sided of Bangkok, and finally decide on your budget, as they are all priced at differnet levels.

Hope the info is useful. Once you know what you are looking for, visit them, visit the websites, its not so difficult actually.

Winkie