Good International School In Chiang Mai

[cardinalblue]

Not actually factual the traffic is worse by a mile in bkk than CM...

 

CM has no public transportation system...many westerners in bkk live specifically off BTS or subway in order To access PT...

 

CM solely relies on private vehicles to get around...the traffic gets worse and worse every year b/c city planners cannot or won’t keep up with increasing # of vehicles especially in the suburbs surrounding the city..

 

w/o PT, the main arteries into town are clogged w/ traffic...The very limited PT system planned is a decade away And not a proper response to increasing traffic flows...

 

it is wrong to downplay the traffic woes of CM....

[Dante99]

1 hour ago, cardinalblue said:

CM has no public transportation system.

Songtaews(red trucks, green trucks, yellow trucks and ....), buses, taxis and tuktuks, none are public transportation? but all are available to the public to use so they sure seem to be public transportation.

[XGM]

On 6/3/2020 at 12:28 AM, tigerbeer said:

I was trying to find newer threads on international schools but was not able to. maybe i did not search enough  but just curious to know what is the latest consensus about schools in Chiang mai. My son has just been enrolled into Montfort school English Program but was enquiring about Lanna International school as he is keen in doing A-levels next year. I have spoken to a couple people i recently met who actually had kids taken off from Lanna saying that the standard of education has dropped. Does anyone here have any opinions to add to this mainly about Lanna and Monfort college. Also just read Greenside mention that Varee has a British curriculum program  but this was mentioned 9 years ago in this thread. Any info to this would also be appreciated. 

I don't know if there is a consensus (or if there ever was one) - parents have different opinions due to different exposure to information (after a few years, most parents will have a pretty good idea about the school their kid go to, but mostly rumors about the rest), and more importantly due to a range of expectations from school.

 

There are two major factors that were not present when this thread started, back in 2011.

 

First is the massive influx of Chinese families that started about 4 years ago. Many of them come here especially for Education. Moms stay here with the kids while dads work back in China. I can't say I completely understand it, but CM is perceived by them as a pleasant place with reasonably priced International Schools. At any case, the effect of them arriving here is massive. If 4 years ago Chinese kids were perhaps 3-4 percent of the students, they are now 30-40 percent in many schools, and more than that in the lower grades. It isn't common to now see Elementary classes with over 50% of kids being Chinese. This has created a huge jump in demand, and in my opinion made the school's job too easy. They don't need to work hard anymore in finding "customers". They don't need to make an effort retaining existing ones. They can let those who aren't happy go because new, excited (some will say unsuspecting) prospects are lined up to join. More and more every year. So - although I have nothing against Chinese coming here - many of the kids are well behaved, intelligent and work hard - the massive change in demand / supply caused, in my opinion, a degradation of value schools here provide.

 

Second is, of course, the covid19 situation. This has somehow shook the paradise like situation (for schools) I described above. Travel restrictions and general weariness, fears and worries of parents now make it very hard for schools to get new sign ups from abroad. Some move back to China. In addition, many parents were not very happy with the different arrangements made during online learning period and perhaps that prompted more moving between the schools.

 

I also heard Lanna lost some students recently, and that there were changes in ownership that may have been related. I held them in high regard in the past. I need to hear something more substantial for that opinion to change. Where did the people you met move their kids to? Regarding Monfort, it's really not at the same league of the better International Schools here in my opinion. Or any Thai school with an English Program, especially if your son is looking to do his A-levels.

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by XGM

[tigerbeer]

27 minutes ago, XGM said:

I don't know if there is a consensus (or if there ever was one) - parents have different opinions due to different exposure to information (after a few years, most parents will have a pretty good idea about the school their kid go to, but mostly rumors about the rest), and more importantly due to a range of expectations from school.

 

There are two major factors that were not present when this thread started, back in 2011.

 

First is the massive influx of Chinese families that started about 4 years ago. Many of them come here especially for Education. Moms stay here with the kids while dads work back in China. I can't say I completely understand it, but CM is perceived by them as a pleasant place with reasonably priced International Schools. At any case, the effect of them arriving here is massive. If 4 years ago Chinese kids were perhaps 3-4 percent of the students, they are now 30-40 percent in many schools, and more than that in the lower grades. It isn't common to now see Elementary classes with over 50% of kids being Chinese. This has created a huge jump in demand, and in my opinion made the school's job too easy. They don't need to work hard anymore in finding "customers". They don't need to make an effort retaining existing ones. They can let those who aren't happy go because new, excited (some will say unsuspecting) prospects are lined up to join. More and more every year. So - although I have nothing against Chinese coming here - many of the kids are well behaved, intelligent and work hard - the massive change in demand / supply caused, in my opinion, a degradation of value schools here provide.

 

Second is, of course, the covid19 situation. This has somehow shook the paradise like situation (for schools) I described above. Travel restrictions and general weariness, fears and worries of parents now make it very hard for schools to get new sign ups from abroad. Some move back to China. In addition, many parents were not very happy with the different arrangements made during online learning period and perhaps that prompted more moving between the schools.

 

I also heard Lanna lost some students recently, and that there were changes in ownership that may have been related. I held them in high regard in the past. I need to hear something more substantial for that opinion to change. Where did the people you met move their kids to? Regarding Monfort, it's really not at the same league of the better International Schools here in my opinion. Or any Thai school with an English Program, especially if your son is looking to do his A-levels.

 

Thank a lot for your response. Apparently Lanna is bought over by some Chinese party. The two people I spoke to one sent their kid to Sarasas and another to Varee. The problem is that there is only Lanna that has an A Levels program. Montfort is a center to do the examinations but I am not sure about their coaching sessions for A-levels. They do have a SAT program I think. 

[1arry1iu]

On 6/5/2020 at 10:08 AM, tigerbeer said:

Thank a lot for your response. Apparently Lanna is bought over by some Chinese party. The two people I spoke to one sent their kid to Sarasas and another to Varee. The problem is that there is only Lanna that has an A Levels program. Montfort is a center to do the examinations but I am not sure about their coaching sessions for A-levels. They do have a SAT program I think. 

Apparently, Satit Rangsit offers A-level programs. They advertise heavily in China. 

[Bill97]

2 hours ago, 1arry1iu said:

Apparently, Satit Rangsit offers A-level programs. They advertise heavily in China. 

Is that in Chiang Mai?

[1arry1iu]

2 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Is that in Chiang Mai?

It is. https://www.sbs.ac.th/

[Bill97]

7 hours ago, 1arry1iu said:

It is. https://www.sbs.ac.th/

Thanks.  I’m not up to speed on schools South of CM but now doing better.

[Greenside]

On 6/5/2020 at 10:08 AM, tigerbeer said:

Thank a lot for your response. Apparently Lanna is bought over by some Chinese party. The two people I spoke to one sent their kid to Sarasas and another to Varee. The problem is that there is only Lanna that has an A Levels program. Montfort is a center to do the examinations but I am not sure about their coaching sessions for A-levels. They do have a SAT program I think. 

Varee has the Cambridge IGCSE A Levels program, the same as Lanna, although I don't know exactly what this year's arrangements will be due to the Corvid-19 problem.  In the UK I believe that GCSE exams have been cancelled in favour of assessments and one has got to feel sorry for the kids who have put a lot of effort into studying for them (although I suppose it may benefit a few).

 

I have two children in the English Programme at Varee and they've been doing online learning sessions for the past few weeks.  The general consensus is that online learning is not an effective substitute for classroom lessons, especially for younger children, and I have been reliably told that the school is going to make up the lost periods over the first few months when they are allowed to open.  The exact plan for doing this has yet to be published and as yet of course no-one knows if the government will be able to stick to the announced date which calls into question arrangements for the entire year.

 

It's a really tough time for the teachers and students, not to mention us parents... 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Greenside

[flare]

Unity Concord just announced yesterday that they're starting their on-campus summer program on July 6th, so they must have received official word they can open (with social distancing as mentioned in their FB page)- no doubt other schools will be following suit if this is accurate:

 

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Edited June 7, 2020 by flare

[just_Elaine]

There is a Land and Houses moo baan off canal road called Siwalee Klong Choi. It had very good security, pool and restaurant. I would say the best moo baan that we lived at in Chiang Mai.
Baan nai fan 2/3 has pool, fitness room and restaurant. A few years ago, I even saw that they now operate a spa. 

I do not remember much about Koolapunt 7. 

 

Regarding public transportation, there is RTC Citybus which I last used a year and a half ago to get from near city center to the airport and back. They have multiple routes. 

[stament]

On 6/6/2020 at 5:45 PM, 1arry1iu said:

Apparently, Satit Rangsit offers A-level programs. They advertise heavily in China. 

I recall on another post you said you were impressed with Sarasas but didn't go into any details. Are you able to share please?

 

 

[beau thai]

It has pluses and minuses as with every other school in other countries I have experienced.

Our 12 y o is happy there and has progressed from thai stream to bilingual. Sarasas think he is ready to move up to english only international stream (they get double fees of bilingual!) . But we think the risk is too high that he will not understand subjects like science etc until his english comprehension is better. Maybe 2021 if his private english tutoring moves him on enough.

From what we see when we pick him up, other kids seem happy there too and the levels of discipline and homework feel about right. But it is up to the parents to check homework books weekly to ensure it is done and marked. If they lag behind teachers are not proactive, but are cooperative on request. Maybe that is normal here?

 

Not all filipino teachers there have good english unfortunately although some are very good. Others I struggle to understand

 

 

[stament]

2 hours ago, beau thai said:

It has pluses and minuses as with every other school in other countries I have experienced.

Our 12 y o is happy there and has progressed from thai stream to bilingual. Sarasas think he is ready to move up to english only international stream (they get double fees of bilingual!) . But we think the risk is too high that he will not understand subjects like science etc until his english comprehension is better. Maybe 2021 if his private english tutoring moves him on enough.

From what we see when we pick him up, other kids seem happy there too and the levels of discipline and homework feel about right. But it is up to the parents to check homework books weekly to ensure it is done and marked. If they lag behind teachers are not proactive, but are cooperative on request. Maybe that is normal here?

 

Not all filipino teachers there have good english unfortunately although some are very good. Others I struggle to understand

 

 

Double ouch. What are the fees could I ask as I couldn't see any details on their website.

 

 

[beau thai]

2 hours ago, stament said:

Double ouch. What are the fees could I ask as I couldn't see any details on their website.

 

 

bilingual about 50k a year, international 100k. cant recall thai only but maybe about 30k. plus the usual small extras

[Greenside]

A year or a term?  That looks unbelievably cheap.

[beau thai]

a year, as I wrote

[Greenside]

I just looked at http://international.scm.ac.th/index.php/joomla-stuff and there is no information on what curriculum their "Inter" programme teaches.  Can you enlighten me?

[beau thai]

7 hours ago, Greenside said:

I just looked at http://international.scm.ac.th/index.php/joomla-stuff and there is no information on what curriculum their "Inter" programme teaches.  Can you enlighten me?

no. sorry. suggest you contact them