Term starts on Monday. The British International School Phuket brings its boarders back on Sunday 23 August and everyone else the following morning, and the rest of the island's international schools open within the same fortnight. Every 2026/27 fee schedule is now published. That makes this the one week in the year when the whole picture can be seen at once.
So here it is. Seven international schools, what each one charges, where each one sits, and — the part nobody puts in the brochure — what it costs to live within a sensible drive of the gate.
Two things this is not. It is not a ranking. We have not sat in these classrooms, we do not know your child, and a table of fees cannot tell you which staffroom is happy. And it carries no parent opinion, no anonymous quotes and no stars. Every figure below comes from a school's own published schedule or from our own rental book, and every one is dated.
The map
Seven schools, spread from Thalang in the north to Chalong in the south. The tuition column is the full published range, from the youngest fee-paying year to the oldest, for the 2026/27 academic year.
| School | Where | Curriculum | 2026/27 tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| BISP | Ko Kaeo | IGCSE, A Level, IB DP | ฿489,000–982,700 |
| UWC Thailand | Thalang | IB continuum | ฿345,000–933,000 |
| Glenalmond Phuket | Thalang | EYFS, English NC | ฿270,000–950,000 |
| HeadStart | Wichit & Cherng Talay | IGCSE, A Level, BTEC | ฿347,000–540,000 |
| BCIS | Chalong | Cambridge and French | ฿302,000–502,500 |
| KIS | Kathu | English NC | ฿285,000–454,000 |
| Oak Meadow | Wichit | Not published | ฿231,000–408,240 |
Ranges exclude boarding, pre-nursery half-day options and English-support fees, all of which are set out school by school further down.
What a primary place actually costs
Full ranges are hard to compare, because schools divide their year groups differently. The cleanest single comparison is one child of about ten — Year 6 in the British system, Grade 5 in the American one — because every school on the island teaches that year and prices it.
| School | Year group | Annual tuition |
|---|---|---|
| BISP | Year 6 | ฿767,700 |
| UWC Thailand | Grades 1–5 | ฿753,500 |
| Glenalmond Phuket | Years 1–6 | ฿750,000 |
| HeadStart | Years 1–6 | ฿480,000 |
| BCIS | Years 3–6 | ฿403,500 |
| KIS | Years 5–6 | ฿365,000 |
| Oak Meadow | Grades 1–5 | ฿317,520 |
The spread is 2.4 times, top to bottom, for the same year of the same child's life. There is a clear break in the middle: three schools sit around ฿750,000 and four sit between ฿318,000 and ฿480,000, with almost nothing in between. Phuket does not have a gently sloping fee market. It has two of them.
The cost of walking through the door
Tuition is the recurring number, and it is the one every comparison quotes. The one-off cost of joining is the number that surprises people, because it lands in the same month as the deposit on a house.
| School | Non-refundable | Refundable | First-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| BISP | ฿206,000 | ฿150,000 | ฿356,000 |
| Glenalmond Phuket | ฿205,000 | ฿150,000 | ฿355,000 |
| UWC Thailand | ฿272,000 | ฿25,000 | ฿297,000 |
| HeadStart | ฿108,000 | ฿75,000 | ฿183,000 |
| KIS | ฿62,000 | ฿50,000 | ฿112,000 |
| Oak Meadow | ฿53,000 | ฿30,000 | ฿83,000 |
| BCIS | ฿10,000 | Not published | ฿10,000 |
Read the middle column carefully, because the refundable half usually comes back only on the school's terms — typically a term's written notice and a child who finishes the academic year. UWC Thailand is the outlier by design: its ฿165,000 School Development Fund is a one-off family contribution towards the UWC global scholarship programme, and it is not returned. BCIS charges a ฿10,000 registration fee and ฿5,000 a year thereafter, and publishes no entrance or endowment fee at all.
On a first child at BISP or Glenalmond, roughly ฿205,000 is gone before a single lesson is taught.
Fees are about half the bill
Here is where our own book adds something the school websites cannot. A family moving to Phuket for a school does not just pay that school. It rents a house it can do the run from, twice a day, in traffic. And rents on this island vary far more by district than fees vary by school.
We have 1,838 long-term rentals with a published price on the book today. Taking the median asking rent for a three-bedroom home in the district each campus sits in, and adding twelve months of it to one primary child's tuition, the order changes considerably.
| District | Median 3-bed rent | Listings |
|---|---|---|
| Bang Tao / Cherng Talay | ฿150,000/mo | 344 |
| Thalang | ฿129,000/mo | 52 |
| Chalong | ฿100,000/mo | 105 |
| Phuket Town | ฿100,000/mo | 16 |
| Kathu | ฿90,000/mo | 31 |
| Ko Kaeo | ฿85,000/mo | 54 |
BISP charges the highest primary fee on the island and sits in its cheapest family-rental district. Ko Kaeo, the stretch of Thepkrasattri Road between Phuket Town and the airport, has the lowest three-bedroom median on our book at ฿85,000 a month — a little over half what the same house costs in Cherng Talay. Add the rent and BISP lands below HeadStart's Cherng Talay campus on total annual outlay, despite charging ฿288,000 more in tuition.
Say plainly what that table is and is not. It is a district median asking rent for a three-bedroom home, not what any particular family pays. Families rent two-bedroom condos and six-bedroom villas; they negotiate; some already own. Nobody is obliged to live in the district their school sits in, and plenty of Cherng Talay families drive to Ko Kaeo quite happily. The figure is useful as a relative signal — the housing market around these schools is not flat, and the difference between the cheapest and dearest school district is roughly ฿780,000 a year, which is more than most of the fee gaps on this page.
The seven schools
British International School Phuket (BISP)
Ko Kaeo, on Thepkrasattri Road. A 44-acre campus, ages 2 to 18, day and boarding with more than 100 boarders and over 60 nationalities. IGCSE and A Level, an IB Diploma stream and BTEC Level 3 in sport and business. Fees run from ฿489,000 for Nursery and Reception to ฿982,700 in the upper secondary years; Year 11 and Year 13 are slightly cheaper at ฿960,200. School transport is ฿99,900 a year and an intensive English course is ฿147,000. The pre-nursery provision, Little Ducks, is priced separately from ฿179,000 for mornings to ฿393,700 for full days. It is the largest and most expensive school on the island, with the deepest sports and boarding provision, and it is the only one whose fee page publishes a bus figure.
UWC Thailand
Thepkrasattri, Thalang. The full IB continuum — Early Years, PYP, MYP and the Diploma — day and boarding, listing affiliations with the IBO, CIS, EARCOS, ISAT and OneSQA. Tuition runs ฿345,000 for junior pre-kindergarten to ฿933,000 in Grades 11 and 12, with boarding a further ฿653,000. The school describes its fees as all-inclusive, covering off-campus learning trips, grade-level camps and expeditions. Sibling discounts are the most generous on the island — 5% for a second child, rising to 50% for a fifth. It is also the only school here with a stated mission cost attached: the ฿165,000 School Development Fund.
Glenalmond Phuket
New this month, inside the Thanyapura Sports and Health Resort in Thalang, affiliated with Glenalmond College in Perthshire. It opens with Early Years through to Year 9 only — there is no Year 10 upwards in 2026/27, which matters if you have a teenager. EYFS and the English National Curriculum, with Singapore maths from Year 1 to 9 and compulsory Mandarin throughout. Tuition is ฿270,000 for five mornings in Early Years, ฿490,000 in Kindergarten, ฿750,000 for Years 1 to 6 and ฿950,000 for Years 7 to 9. The ฿200,000 placement fee includes a year's Thanyapura membership for two adults and a child; it halves for a second child. Transport is charged by route and no figure is published. A new school has no exam results and no leavers, and its fees are already at the top of the market — that is the trade being offered, and it is worth naming.
HeadStart International School
Two campuses: Chaofah City on Vichitsongkram Road in Wichit, and Cherngtalay on Srisoonthorn Road in Thalang. IGCSE, A Level and BTEC, more than 50 nationalities, and over 220 weekly clubs. Tuition is ฿347,000 for preschool, ฿360,000 for early years and Reception, ฿480,000 for Years 1 to 6 and ฿540,000 from Year 7 to Year 13. Fees are unusually inclusive — lunches and snacks, textbooks, materials, a selection of after-school activities, day and residential trips, and the Duke of Edinburgh award are all inside the fee. Uniforms, transport, examinations and the BTEC programme are billed separately. The school also publishes its fee-increase policy, which is rarer than it should be: a rise of up to 5% is notified by the end of Term 2, and anything above 5% a full academic year in advance. One caveat we cannot resolve — the published table does not state which academic year it applies to.
Berda Claude International School (BCIS)
Chalong, and the only school on the island running two full European streams side by side: Cambridge in English, and the French National Curriculum from maternelle to Terminale. Accreditations listed are Cambridge International, the French Baccalaureate and CIS. The two streams are priced identically — ฿302,000 in the early years, ฿362,000 for Years 1 and 2, ฿403,500 for Years 3 to 6, ฿488,000 for Years 7 to 9, ฿497,000 for Years 10 and 11 and ฿502,500 for the sixth form. Fees cover tuition, lunch and library; uniforms, books, transport and extracurricular activities are extra. Siblings get 5% and then 10%. For a French-speaking family this is effectively the only option in Phuket, which makes the comparison academic.
Kajonkiet International School Phuket (KIS)
Kathu, off Phra Phuket Keaw Road. The English National Curriculum from pre-nursery to Year 13, at the lowest full-range fees of any school here with a sixth form: ฿285,000 up to Reception, rising through ฿345,000, ฿353,000 and ฿365,000 in primary to ฿408,000 in Years 7 to 9, ฿425,000 in Years 10 and 11 and ฿454,000 in Years 12 and 13. A half-day pre-nursery place is ฿200,000. The second child gets 15% off. One number deserves attention before you budget: English as an Additional Language is compulsory for students below the school's academic standard and is billed on top, at ฿46,000 to ฿62,000 a year depending on year group. On a child who needs it, that is a real addition to a mid-market fee.
Oak Meadow International School
Wichit, in Mueang district. The cheapest school on this page: ฿231,000 for Kindergarten, ฿317,520 for Grades 1 to 5, ฿362,880 for Grades 6 to 8 and ฿408,240 from Grade 9 to Grade 12. Entry costs are correspondingly light — ฿3,000 for administration and the entrance exam, a ฿50,000 entrance fee and a ฿30,000 refundable deposit. Books and stationery are ฿6,000 to ฿15,000 a year and accident insurance is ฿1,800. We could not source its curriculum or accreditation from the school's own pages, so we are not going to state either. If that matters to you — and for a school at this price point it should — ask them directly and ask to see the certificate.
What none of these numbers include
Four things, stated plainly, because a fee table without them is a quotation and not a budget:
- Transport. Only BISP publishes a figure (฿99,900). Everywhere else it is quoted by route, and on an island where the school run can be forty minutes each way it is not a rounding error.
- Language support. KIS charges ฿46,000–62,000 for compulsory EAL. BISP prices an intensive English course at ฿147,000. Glenalmond and others charge for English support at rates published only in their admissions guidebooks. If your child is arriving without fluent English, ask for this figure in writing before you commit.
- Examinations, uniforms and trips. Inside the fee at HeadStart and UWC Thailand; billed separately at most of the others. Two schools quoting the same tuition can differ by six figures a year on what that tuition actually buys.
- The second child. Sibling discounts range from nothing published to 50%, and they change the arithmetic more than any fee difference on this page. Model your actual family, not one child.
Which school suits which family
On the criteria above, and only on those criteria:
- A teenager arriving with a UK or IB pathway in mind, and a budget to match. BISP or UWC Thailand. They are the two schools here with boarding, a long record of leavers and the deepest sixth-form provision. Glenalmond has no upper school yet.
- A family that wants the highest fee-inclusiveness. HeadStart or UWC Thailand. Lunches, trips and activities inside the fee remove the running costs that quietly add up elsewhere.
- A French-speaking family. BCIS, without much of a decision to make.
- A family watching the total, not the badge. KIS in Kathu, or HeadStart's Chaofah campus. Both sit in mid-priced rental districts and both keep first-year entry costs under ฿185,000.
- Young children and a west-coast life already decided. HeadStart Cherngtalay or Glenalmond. Understand that Cherng Talay is the most expensive district on our rental book, and that housing, not tuition, will be the larger line.
The dates that matter
BISP's 2026/27 year runs from Monday 24 August, with boarders arriving on the 23rd. Term 1 has a mid-term break from 10 to 18 October and closes from 12 December to 3 January. Term 2 breaks from 13 to 22 February and closes from 3 to 18 April. Other schools sit within a week or so of that shape, but confirm dates with the school rather than with us — they are revised.
The practical consequence for anyone moving: places for the following August are largely settled by the preceding spring, and the good rentals within a school run of a campus go at the same time. If you are aiming at August 2027, you are looking at houses around February.
We will publish a companion piece on 5 September mapping the neighbourhoods themselves by school run — where families actually end up living, and what the drive is really like at eight in the morning.
If you are moving for a school and want to see what is available within a sensible drive of it, our long-term rental book is the same one the figures above are drawn from, and the district guides cover what each area is like to live in. Tell us the school and the year group and we will send you what is on the market around it — including the houses that never reach the site.