VSPrimary
Comparison · French vs British primary
EFIP vs. ISC
Specialist pathway split
AEFE-listed French pathway through Terminale vs NEASC-accredited English National Curriculum primary (ages 2–11).
// TRANSFER GUIDE · 2026/27
Leaving and transferring.
Read the exit rules.
Six schools in the current source set publish a usable withdrawal, deposit-refund or mid-year billing rule. The patterns are different: ISE uses a three-month notice rule for deposit return, St Andrew's and SISB Rayong use term-specific deadlines, Wells publishes a day-count refund ladder, and several schools make tuition itself non-refundable.
Source checked 27 July 2026 · six published rule sets
// In this hub → ISE ↗ · St Andrew's GV ↗ · Wells Chonburi ↗ · SISB Rayong ↗ · Hastin International ↗ · EFIP ↗ · British schools hub ↗ · IB Diploma hub ↗
// 01 · Start with the legal date
The leaving date matters
more than the intention.
// In this hub → ISE ↗ · St Andrew's GV ↗ · Wells Chonburi ↗ · SISB Rayong ↗ · Start Here primer ↗ · All 34 comparisons ↗ · Where to live ↗ · Parent FAQ ↗
The common parent mistake is to decide the child is leaving, then treat the school notice as admin. The published rules do the reverse. ISE conditions deposit return on a form submitted at least three months before the last day. St Andrew's and SISB Rayong both use deadline dates tied to the term-end exit. Miss those dates and the argument usually shifts from refund to forfeiture.
The second mistake is to treat every payment as tuition. Hastin explicitly separates refundable tuition from non-refundable deposits, books, uniforms and service fees. EFIP separately says the first registration fee cannot be reimbursed once schooling has effectively started for at least one day. Families need the invoice split before they can price the move honestly.
// 02 · Notice and deposit rules
Five schools publish
usable exit mechanics.
These rules are not interchangeable. Some control deposit return, some control tuition refund, and some only confirm that fees already paid are not coming back. Read the consequence column before assuming “notice given” solves the whole problem.
| School | Published notice rule | Published money consequence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISE | Official withdrawal form at least three months before the student’s last day for the security deposit to be returned. | All fees are non-refundable except the security deposit; exit meeting and cleared balance required. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| St Andrew's | Written withdrawal by 1 September 2026, 18 January 2027 or 26 April 2027 depending on the final term. | Late notice forfeits the general deposit; tuition, canteen and transport refund by term stage. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| SISB Rayong | Withdrawal form by 17 August 2026, 4 January 2027 or 19 April 2027 to keep deposit eligibility for the corresponding term-end exit. | Fees received are non-transferable and non-refundable; deposit returned after charges are cleared and can offset the final term. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| Hastin | Written notice at least one month before a new trimester starts. | Only tuition is refundable; deposits, application, enrolment, books, uniforms, class and visa-service fees are non-refundable. | Refund policy ↗ |
| Wells Chonburi | Official withdrawal form required as part of the refund request. | Refund is time-based after term commencement and requests older than one year become school revenue. | Fee PDF ↗ |
// 03 · Refund logic
Refunds exist,
but on different bases.
The strongest published refund ladders in this source set come from Wells and St Andrew's, because both tell you what happens after the term has already begun. Other schools publish the harder line: fees paid stay paid, and the only recoverable amount is the deposit if the process was followed exactly.
| School | Published refund treatment | How to read it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Andrew's | Full term if the child leaves before the next term starts; half term if the child leaves before the half-term break; no refund once the child attends the second half of term. | The date inside the term matters, not just the fact of leaving mid-year. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| Wells Chonburi | 80% before term starts, 50% on days 1–21, 25% on days 22–39, and no refund from day 40 onward. | Wells publishes the clearest day-count ladder in the current source set. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| Hastin | Tuition only, if the school receives the published one-month notice before the next trimester; non-tuition charges stay non-refundable. | Families need the invoice split because the refundable and non-refundable lines are different. | Refund policy ↗ |
| ISE | No tuition refund rule is published; the school instead states that all fees are non-refundable except the security deposit. | Once paid, the key lever is deposit compliance rather than tuition reimbursement. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| SISB Rayong | Fees received are non-transferable and non-refundable; only the deposit has a published return path. | SISB publishes notice timing for the deposit, not a mid-term tuition rebate. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| EFIP | The first registration fee becomes non-reimbursable once schooling has effectively started for at least one day. | EFIP publishes a hard cut-off on the entry fee even where broader tuition-refund language is not the same focus of the document. | Financial rules PDF ↗ |
If the current school says “non-refundable” and the next school wants immediate payment, the cash-flow issue is usually timing rather than total education cost. This is why the exit email, signed form, last attendance day and finance clearance all need to be dated and saved.
// 04 · Incoming side of the move
Only two schools publish
clear late-entry billing.
Families often focus on what they may lose by leaving and forget to ask how the new school bills a child arriving after term start. In this sweep, the cleanest published incoming rules are from Wells and SISB Rayong.
| School | Published incoming-billing rule | What it solves | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wells Chonburi | During the first three weeks, full tuition applies; after the first three weeks, tuition is calculated from the enrolment date. | Useful for families arriving after term start who need a published proration rule. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| SISB Rayong | Tuition is prorated according to the remaining school days for students enrolling ten school days after term starts. | A later move can avoid paying a full term, but only after the published threshold is passed. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| St Andrew's | The published fee structure is clearer on leaving than on later-entry proration. | Use this source mainly to price the exit side of a move, not the incoming side. | Fee PDF ↗ |
| ISE | The published document gives the withdrawal mechanics, but no comparable late-entry proration rule was located in this sweep. | Families should ask admissions to separate the exit rule from the incoming billing rule. | Fee PDF ↗ |
Wells is useful for families landing shortly after a term opens because it distinguishes the first three weeks from later entry. SISB Rayong is useful when the move happens further into term because it explicitly switches to school-day proration after ten school days.
// 05 · Before you trigger the move
Get four items
in writing.
First: the child’s last attendance day and the school’s required notice deadline. Second: the exact treatment of each paid line item — tuition, deposit, meals, transport, support, books, uniforms and registration. Third: the release conditions for reports, references and transfer documents. Fourth: the incoming school’s billing basis if the start date is already inside term.
A move is clean only when the current school’s exit obligations and the new school’s entry charges can sit on one dated timeline. If either side stays verbal, the family is carrying the risk.
// Editorial verdict
Plan the transfer as two contracts, not one life event.
The leaving school governs notice, refund and document release. The incoming school governs proration, new registration charges and start date. Put both sides on paper before the child’s final day at the first campus.
// 06 · Who this guide helps
Use it to scope risk.
Not to assume recovery.
This guide suits families planning a relocation, a curriculum switch, a post-primary transfer or a mid-year move from one Eastern Seaboard school to another. It is especially useful where a deposit, a registration fee or a partly elapsed term makes timing expensive.
Do not use the public wording as a substitute for the school finance office when the child has a bespoke support package, a boarding contract, a visa-services bundle or any side agreement not shown in the public fee schedule. Public rules set the floor, not every possible exception.
// 07 · Sources + receipts
Every transfer claim,
tied to the school source.
- ISEofficial fee PDF
- St Andrew'sofficial 2026/27 fee structure
- Wellsofficial 2026/27 Chonburi fee schedule
- SISB Rayongofficial 2026/27 fee schedule
- Hastinofficial refund policy page
- EFIPofficial 2026/27 financial regulations
Search results helped identify the planning question. The rule statements on this page are taken from each school's own page or PDF. Any summary on this page is explicitly narrower than the school wording where the source does not publish a broader promise.
// FAQ
Quick answers
about transfers.
Do Pattaya schools refund tuition if a child leaves mid-year?
Usually not in full. In the current published source set, ISE and SISB Rayong say fees received are non-refundable apart from the deposit conditions they separately publish. Wells uses a time-based refund ladder, St Andrew's refunds by term stage, and Hastin says only tuition is refundable if the published notice rule is met.
Which schools publish a withdrawal notice period?
ISE publishes a three-month notice rule for deposit return. St Andrew's Green Valley and SISB Rayong publish term-specific withdrawal deadlines. Hastin requires written notice at least one month before a new trimester starts. Wells requires an official withdrawal form as part of its refund process.
Can a deposit usually be used against the final term?
Sometimes, but not universally. SISB Rayong explicitly says the deposit can offset the final term once charges are settled. Other schools frame the deposit mainly as refundable or forfeitable depending on notice timing, so families should ask whether the last invoice can actually be netted off.
What matters most before moving schools mid-year?
Get the dates and billing basis in writing before paying anywhere else. Ask the current school for the final attendance date, notice deadline, deposit treatment, report and records release conditions, and whether tuition, meals, transport or support fees continue after the child stops attending.
// This topic hub → ISE ↗ · St Andrew's GV ↗ · Wells Chonburi ↗ · SISB Rayong ↗ · Hastin International ↗ · EFIP ↗ · British schools hub ↗ · IB Diploma hub ↗ · French schools hub ↗ · American schools hub ↗ · Budget schools hub ↗ · Boarding schools hub ↗
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