How we review schools.

The hierarchy of sources

Every numeric or factual claim on this site is sourced. We rank sources in this order:

1. Primary — official school document. The fee sheet, prospectus, or admissions page on the school's own domain, dated. This is the gold standard for tuition, application fees, and accreditation claims.
2. Primary — regulatory registry. Council of International Schools (CIS) member list, FOBISIA member list, AEFE accreditation registry, Cambridge Assessment school registry, IB World School registry, Thailand Ministry of Education licence database.
3. Secondary — third-party aggregator. International Schools Database, ISC Research. Used to cross-check primary fees and catch year-over-year increases the school may not have updated yet.
4. Tertiary — press coverage. Bangkok Post, The Nation, regional education trade press. Used for context and history, never as the sole source of a numeric claim.
5. Editorial observation. Anonymous visits, classroom walkthroughs, parent-tour notes. Used for character, atmosphere, and judgement calls — never to replace a sourced fact.

What we verify before publication

• Year-by-year tuition fees. All grade-level fees for the current academic year. Cross-checked against at least one third-party aggregator. The verification month + year is stamped on every editorial.
• One-time fees. Application, acceptance, capital, refundable deposits. Often missing from the school's headline page — we ask admissions directly when not published.
• Accreditation claims. Triple-verified through the school's own page, the accreditor's member registry, and (where applicable) the regulator's licence database.
• Curriculum + exam boards. Confirmed against the school's academic page and, where Cambridge / Edexcel / IB is claimed, against the relevant exam board's school registry.
• Founding year + governance. Confirmed against company registration records where the school operates as a Thai juristic person.
• Campus address + size. Confirmed against Land Office records or official prospectus.
• Senior leadership names. Only public-facing roles (Head, Principal, Director) named, only if the school lists them publicly.

What we don't claim

We don't claim rankings. There is no objective ranking of schools because there is no objective best — fit depends on the child, the family budget, the commute, and the family's longer-term plans. Every editorial closes with a "Best for" line that names the specific family the school suits, not a star rating.

We don't claim parent satisfaction scores. We've seen too many "97% recommend" numbers that came from a self-selected post-tour survey of three parents.

We don't claim exam-pass rates unless they're published by the school in writing, signed off by the Head, and dated to the most recent cohort. If a school cites "100% pass" we trace it to the exam board cohort report before printing.

Anonymous visits

Every editorial with a "Vol. II · Verified" stamp is based on at least one anonymous campus visit, booked through the school's standard public admissions form. We don't identify ourselves as media. We attend the standard prospective-parent tour, take the same booklet every parent gets, and ask the same questions a parent would. We never accept a free tuition placement, free lunch beyond what's offered to all tour attendees, or any inducement.

Zero paid placements — full stop

Schools cannot pay to be listed on this site. They cannot pay to be moved up. They cannot pay to suppress a critical line. They cannot pay for a review at all. We have turned down every approach made on these terms. If a school's reputation can survive an honest editorial, we publish it. If not, we don't soften the editorial — the school can use the contact link to correct factual errors.

We have no affiliate links. No referral fees. No "find a school" lead-gen partnerships with admissions consultants. The only revenue this site produces is the time it pays back to the editor's parent agency, Pattaya Authority, by making the family who reads it more likely to trust the agency's other properties.

Disclosure of conflicts

The editor, Tim Paemi, lives in Pattaya. His own children, if any, are not enrolled in any school listed on this directory. Where any future personal connection arises (e.g. a child enrolling at a listed school), it will be disclosed at the top of the relevant editorial in a "Conflict of interest" box.

The editor's parent agency, Pattaya Authority, has built websites for businesses in Pattaya. Pattaya Authority has not built websites for any school listed on this directory. If that changes, the affected school's editorial will carry a disclosure.

Corrections + takedowns

We will correct any factual error we have published, every time, without resistance. To report one: [email protected] with the URL and the corrected fact. We aim for a 48-hour turnaround.

We do not take down honest editorials in response to legal threats. If a school's representative writes asking us to remove a critical paragraph because it's "unfair" rather than "wrong," the answer is no — but we'll publish the school's response verbatim as a callout box in the same editorial.

We will take down editorials that contain personally identifying information about a private individual (e.g. a named teacher who is not a senior leader, or a named pupil). If we have done this in error, contact us and we will redact within 24 hours.

Edited by

Tim Paemi — editor and publisher. Tim has lived in Pattaya since 2018 and operates seven editorial properties in the Pattaya Authority network covering schools, restaurants, gyms, coffee, visas, and the wider expat economy. Editorial decisions on this site are his alone.