Questions parents ask.

No. Pattaya School Guide is not owned by a school, an admissions consultant, or a parent-Facebook-group operator. It is published by TimPaemi Co., Ltd. in Pattaya. Schools don't pay us — to be listed, to rank higher, or to be reviewed kindly. No sponsored tags, no affiliate links to admissions agents.

Because the evidence does not support a universal quality league table. The directory compares curriculum, age range, qualification route, published costs, operating evidence and unresolved gaps. Families can then test those documented boundaries against the child’s language, support needs, intended leaving qualification, location and budget. A curriculum label alone does not predict whether a particular child will thrive.

We do not invent unpublished fees. If a school publishes no current tariff, the editorial says fees on application and names the missing items rather than estimating them. Where a school does publish fees, we read the school's own admissions page or fee PDF, record the academic year, and list the one-time and recurring extras that are actually disclosed.

Update timing varies by record and source. Each school page shows its latest completed check date; additional checks follow material fee, accreditation, opening-status or identity changes. Older records stay visibly dated rather than being presented as newly checked.

Not as a general local-schools directory. The core coverage is international schools, but the live 29-school decision set also includes source-verifiable Thai-bilingual, Thai-private and specialist French or Japanese pathways when Pattaya families genuinely compare them against the international route. Generic Thai schools with no decision-set relevance or no usable primary sources stay out.

Email [email protected] with the school's name, address, curriculum and accreditations. The school goes into the next source-verification queue, with timing shown on the resulting record. Note: a listing is not a positive review — the editorial reports what it finds, weaknesses and all.

Start with the Start Here parent primer. If the first decision is really Thai route versus bilingual versus full international, read Thai system vs bilingual vs international next, then shortlist three or four schools that fit your budget, curriculum and area. Tour before you fall for a brochure.

Use as many candidates as needed to preserve a genuine choice, then remove any school that fails a non-negotiable condition such as age range, curriculum route, operating grade, budget or workable location. Three or four is a manageable touring set for many families, but it is a workflow suggestion rather than an evidence-based rule. The side-by-side comparisons help once two viable schools remain.

Yes. On the directory, tap + Shortlist on each school card (or + Shortlist this school on any editorial), then Share shortlist on mobile or Copy share link on desktop — or build a URL like /?schools=regents-international-school-pattaya,tara-pattana-international-school#schools with school slugs separated by commas. Anyone opening that link sees only those cards.

Start with the qualification and transfer route the family needs, then ask what the campus actually teaches. A British-labelled route may lead to IGCSE and A-Level, IBDP or another endpoint; the IB Diploma has its own authorised programme structure; and the two American-curriculum records in this directory have materially different operating evidence. Ask for the current subjects, assessment pattern, language support, transcript or leaving credential and transfer policy. Do not infer a child-profile match from the curriculum brand.

No — and this is the most important thing to understand about the directory. The tier labels track price and facility scale, not classroom quality. A premium-tier school has a bigger campus and a higher fee; it does not automatically teach better than an established-tier school at half the cost. Read the individual editorial. Tier is a budget signal, not a quality verdict.

Across the current 29-school decision set, published tuition runs from ฿47,000 to ฿999,000. That range spans Thai-bilingual, specialist and fully international routes, so the real question is the child's exact year group and the route you are comparing. Tuition is only the headline number; one-time fees, transport, lunch, support and exams can change the budget materially.

Check every possible row, but do not assume it applies. Published records variously show application or assessment charges, enrolment or registration, deposits, development fees, transport, meals, uniforms, resources, trips, examinations and assessed support. Some are included, some optional, some compulsory and some unpriced. Use the real-cost worksheet and the 29-school evidence table to keep published, quoted and unknown amounts separate.

The directory does not have evidence for a general negotiation rule. Some schools publish sibling, annual-payment, scholarship or other defined reductions; others publish none, and eligibility, deadlines and excluded fees differ. Read the school-by-school discount evidence, then ask admissions to identify the controlling written terms for the intended intake. No published discount should be assumed to apply to a particular family.

Calendars vary by school and system. Several international schools publish August starts and three-term structures; Thai-system, Japanese-medium and other specialist routes may use different dates or year labels. Confirm the exact current calendar and the child’s proposed entry date before planning housing, travel or a transfer. The admissions timeline guide records dated examples and evidence gaps.

Most schools in the directory are day schools. Where boarding is offered it starts at very different ages — Regents International Pattaya boards from Year 3, while Rugby School Thailand boards from age 10. If boarding matters to you, check the starting age carefully — it varies more than parents expect.

The live directory currently tracks 29 source-verified school records across Pattaya and the wider Eastern Seaboard. That set includes full international schools, Thai-bilingual routes, selected Thai-private schools and specialist French or Japanese pathways where families make the same decision in practice. See the full list on the homepage directory or browse by topic hub.

The complete verified list lives on the homepage directory — filter by area or curriculum, or use + Shortlist to build a shareable list. For route-first browsing, start with Thai vs bilingual vs international; for curriculum-first browsing, open British schools, IB Diploma, fees by school, or Rayong schools. The full catalog has 120 head-to-head comparisons.