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 or transferring a school
In brief
Six schools publish a withdrawal, deposit-refund or mid-year billing rule in the documents checked for this guide. ISE requires three months' notice for deposit return; St Andrew's and SISB Rayong set term deadlines; Wells gives a day-count refund schedule. Several schools state that tuition is non-refundable.
Source checked 27 July 2026 · six published rule sets
01 · Start with the legal date
How withdrawal terms affect timing
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
Published notice rules
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
Deposit and tuition refunds
Wells and St Andrew's both publish refund rules for a term that has already begun. Other schools state that paid tuition stays with the school; only a deposit may be recoverable when its notice rules are met.
| 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
Mid-year entry charges
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. The clearest published incoming rules in these sources 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 found in the cited school sources. | 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.
Before you trigger the move
What to get in writing before transferring
Plan the exit and entry on one dated timeline. The leaving school controls notice, refunds and document release; the incoming school controls its start date, new charges and any mid-term proration.
- Set the dates. Confirm the last attendance day and the current school's notice deadline before accepting the new place.
- Break down both invoices. Ask how tuition, deposit, meals, transport, support, books, uniforms and registration are treated on exit. Get the incoming school's fee basis when the start date falls inside a term.
- Secure the records. Confirm when reports, references and transfer documents will be released and whether a cleared balance is required.
- Check special agreements. Ask finance to state the treatment of a bespoke support package, boarding contract, visa-services bundle or side agreement. Public fee rules do not settle every individual arrangement.
07 · Sources + receipts
Withdrawal and transfer sources
- 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
The links and check dates below identify each school's own page or PDF. Ask admissions for any exception in writing; the published rules above do not promise one.
