International schools in Phuket: fees by year

How the market is organised

Phuket has 12 international schools on 13 campuses in this revision (Sep 5, 2026), and they sort into three tiers by fee rather than by curriculum. At the top are the two schools that run to an IB Diploma and take boarders — British International School Phuket, UWC Thailand — where a secondary year costs up to 982,700 THB and a family pays a placement fee or development fund of 200,000 THB before the first term. The middle tier is the British-curriculum schools that go to A Level without boarding — HeadStart International School — Chaofah City campus, BCIS Phuket (Berda Claude International School), Kajonkiet International School Phuket, Lighthouse International School Phuket — with 2026/27 tuition in the 400,000–550,000 THB range for secondary years. The third tier is the small schools of the south and the Finnish, Montessori and American alternatives, where a primary year is 174,600 THB at International School of Phuket and rarely above 320,000 THB.

Curricula follow the same lines. 9 campuses teach the English National Curriculum in some form (British International School Phuket, HeadStart International School — Chaofah City campus, HeadStart International School — Cherngtalay campus, Kajonkiet International School Phuket, Lighthouse International School Phuket, BCIS Phuket (Berda Claude International School), International School of Phuket, Finnway International School Phuket, Glenalmond Phuket International School); 2 offer the International Baccalaureate (British International School Phuket, UWC Thailand); 2 are American (QSI International School of Phuket, Oak Meadow International School Phuket); and there is one Montessori school (Montessori House Phuket International School), one French stream (BCIS Phuket (Berda Claude International School)) and one Finnish school (Finnway International School Phuket). The Thai Ministry of Education licenses all of them as "international" private schools through the Office of the Private Education Commission; beyond the licence, the marks a parent can check are the memberships each school prints on its own fee sheet — ISAT, CIS, the IB, Cambridge, FOBISIA — and those are listed on each school's page here, as the school states them.

What a year costs in 2026–27

Across the 12 schools that publish a 2026–27 sheet, annual tuition runs from 174,600 THB (≈ $5,293) for the lowest year group to 982,700 THB (≈ $29,792) for the highest, converted at 32.98 THB per dollar (ECB reference rate, Sep 3, 2026). The table above shows each school's own lowest and highest band; the school pages show every band on the sheet. In fee order: British International School Phuket 489,000–982,700 THB; Glenalmond Phuket International School 270,000–950,000 THB; UWC Thailand 345,000–933,000 THB; HeadStart International School — Chaofah City campus 347,000–540,000 THB; BCIS Phuket (Berda Claude International School) 302,000–502,500 THB; HeadStart International School — Cherngtalay campus 347,000–480,000 THB; Kajonkiet International School Phuket 285,000–454,000 THB; Finnway International School Phuket 260,000–447,000 THB; Oak Meadow International School Phuket 231,000–408,240 THB; Lighthouse International School Phuket 220,000–387,000 THB; Montessori House Phuket International School 241,000–305,700 THB; International School of Phuket 174,600–197,820 THB. QSI International School of Phuket does not publish a schedule and is listed without a figure rather than with a second-hand one.

Tuition is not the whole bill. Every school charges something on entry: an application fee of 2,000–8,000 THB, then a non-refundable placement, entrance or development payment that runs from 2,000 THB at Kajonkiet International School Phuket to 200,000 THB at Glenalmond Phuket International School, and often a refundable bond or endowment (25,000–150,000 THB across the schools that publish one) returned when the child leaves with the required notice. On top come the extras each sheet prices separately: the school bus (99,900 THB a year at British International School Phuket, 72,600 THB a year at Kajonkiet International School Phuket), English-language support where a child is below the school's standard, external examination entries in the IGCSE and IB years, uniforms, and at some schools lunch, books and insurance. A family's first year at the top of the market is therefore closer to 1.3 million THB than to the tuition line; at the small schools of the south it is under 400,000 THB all in.

How fees have grown

The growth index follows one year group — Year 1 or its equivalent — through each school's past fee sheets, so a change in the top or bottom band does not masquerade as inflation. 9 schools have two or more published years on file, going back to 2022–23; the median increase is +4.3 % a year. The fastest riser is HeadStart International School — Chaofah City campus +28.0 % from 2023–24 to 2026–27 (+8.6 % a year on Year 1); the slowest is Lighthouse International School Phuket 0.0 % from 2025–26 to 2026–27 (0.0 % a year on Grade 1). School by school: British International School Phuket +13.6 % from 2023–24 to 2026–27 (+4.3 % a year on Year 1); UWC Thailand +6.6 % from 2024–25 to 2026–27 (+3.2 % a year on Grade 1); HeadStart International School — Chaofah City campus +28.0 % from 2023–24 to 2026–27 (+8.6 % a year on Year 1); BCIS Phuket (Berda Claude International School) +7.2 % from 2025–26 to 2026–27 (+7.2 % a year on Year 1); HeadStart International School — Cherngtalay campus +28.0 % from 2023–24 to 2026–27 (+8.6 % a year on Year 1); Kajonkiet International School Phuket +4.5 % from 2025–26 to 2026–27 (+4.5 % a year on Year 1); Lighthouse International School Phuket 0.0 % from 2025–26 to 2026–27 (0.0 % a year on Grade 1); Montessori House Phuket International School +10.4 % from 2022–23 to 2026–27 (+2.5 % a year on Lower Elementary (ages 6–9)); International School of Phuket +7.9 % from 2023–24 to 2026–27 (+2.6 % a year on Year 1 (annual-payment price)).

Two readings matter more than the headline. First, the increases cluster around 4–7 % a year at the established schools and are announced by the end of Term 2 — HeadStart's policy, printed on its fee page, is a full academic year's notice for any rise above 5 %. Second, the year-on-year column on each school page shows where a school held its fees flat (Lighthouse International School Phuket, Montessori House Phuket International School) and where a band was restructured. Hold any proposed increase against the school's own history here and against Phuket's consumer-price series on the statistics pages rather than against a feeling.

Admissions, capacity and timing

The school year starts in mid-August at every school on this list and is billed in three terms (two at some schools for the examination years). Admission is an application, the previous school's reports, an assessment or interview — an English-level test at the British schools, a mastery placement at QSI — and then the placement or entrance fee, which is what secures the seat. The large schools are the ones where timing matters: the IB and A-Level schools take their August intake from applications made the previous winter, and the entry years — Nursery, Reception and Year 7 — fill first. The placement fee is refundable at none of them, which is the mechanism by which a waiting list becomes a commitment. Mid-year entry is possible everywhere and is pro-rated by the weeks remaining; several schools print the formula.

English support is the other gate. A child below the school's working level is placed in an English-as-an-additional-language programme that is compulsory and priced on the sheet — 147,000 THB a year at British International School Phuket, 46,000 THB a year at Kajonkiet International School Phuket, 42,000 THB a year at Finnway International School Phuket — and ISP in Rawai runs a separate ELL year for the same purpose. Sibling discounts are universal and worth reading: 5 % for a second child at BCIS, BISP-style bonds per family, 10 % at HeadStart and Finnway, 15 % at KIS, and a scale to 50 % for a fifth child at UWC.

Transport and the school run

Phuket's schools sit in three clusters and its families live in three others, so the bus matters. The Koh Kaew–Kathu–Wichit cluster on the east side holds British International School Phuket, HeadStart International School — Chaofah City campus, Kajonkiet International School Phuket, Finnway International School Phuket, QSI International School of Phuket; the Thalang cluster in the north holds Glenalmond Phuket International School, UWC Thailand, HeadStart International School — Cherngtalay campus; the Chalong–Rawai cluster in the south holds BCIS Phuket (Berda Claude International School), Oak Meadow International School Phuket, Lighthouse International School Phuket, Montessori House Phuket International School, International School of Phuket. The schools publish bus fees where they run a fleet — British International School Phuket 99,900 THB a year; Kajonkiet International School Phuket 72,600 THB a year, plus 20 % to the west and south coasts — and quote routes on request elsewhere. The distances in this catalogue are straight lines from each area's centre to the campus; the road is longer, and the west-coast hill roads and the Phuket Town bypass are where a 10 km line becomes a 40-minute run at 7:30 in the morning.

Where families live, by campus

The practical order is school first, area second, house third. Phuket Town has 7 campuses within 8 km straight-line, Patong 6 and Chalong 6; Nai Thon, Mai Khao have none within that radius. Families at UWC Thailand and Glenalmond live in Layan, Bang Tao, Nai Yang and the villa estates along Thepkrasattri Road; the HeadStart Cherngtalay campus was built for the same Bang Tao–Surin–Kamala families. The BISP, KIS, QSI and Finnway families live on the east side — Koh Kaew, Kathu, Phuket Town — or ride the bus from the west coast. The south is its own market: BCIS, Montessori House, Oak Meadow, Lighthouse and ISP draw from Chalong, Rawai, Nai Harn and Kata, where the monthly rents on the area pages are also the lowest for a house with a pool. Each school page lists the five nearest areas with kilometres, and each area page lists the campuses within 8 km.

What this catalogue is and is not

Every figure here is a published number from a school's own fee sheet — the current page or PDF, or a dated archive copy for past years — with the sheet named next to the figure and the retrieval date on the school page; where a school's site could not be read on the day, the schedule is taken from a schools database and marked as a secondary source. Nothing is estimated, averaged or converted from another currency: the dollar column is arithmetic at the dated exchange rate. The catalogue lists facts — curriculum, ages, memberships as the school states them, fees, one-off charges, distance — and does not rank teaching quality, examination results or reputation; the "who it suits" notes on each page are drawn from those facts. The whole dataset, with the source URL behind every fee year, is published as JSON under CC BY 4.0.