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. Where we have first-hand context (parent forums, public open days, regulator filings), we use it for character and atmosphere — 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.

Verification stamp — what it means

Every live editorial carries a "✓ Editorial · Verified" stamp when tuition, accreditation, and curriculum claims are cross-checked against primary public sources — official admissions pages, accreditation registries, regulator listings, and dated press coverage cited in the sources block. The stamp means document verification against those sources, re-checked every academic term.

Re-verification cadence

Fee sheets and admissions pages change. We re-fetch primary sources at the start of each academic term and update the editorial when numbers or accreditations shift. When a school has limited public web presence, the card is marked documentary and the footer says so plainly.

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. No child of the editor is 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

TimPaemi — 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.