Recommended international / bilingual early years schools in or around Ekkamai / Thonglor

[rwdrwdrwd]

We have a little boy who will be 3 in April, and are looking for a decent kindergarten (ideally kindergarten through to primary) school within reasonable distance of Ekkamai / Thonglor

He's been attending a Thai language private preschool full time since July, and loves it, but we're moving to Bangkok partially to get better English language education options.

Does anybody have any experience or recommendations?

Ideals:

- Focus on both English and Thai language - our boy is Thai/British, and speaks both currently, we'd like to promote this and also an understanding of Thai and Western culture

- More of a play based learning environment than rote learning.

- Secular as possible

- Decent balance of kids backgrounds - not 100% Thai and not 100% foreign. A good number of native English speakers.

- Good enough learning that we'd be able to switch to, for example, Bangkok Patana, as our son gets older

- Relatively good value for money

- Not solely kids from extremely wealthy backgrounds

We have our eye on Patana eventually, but it's a bit of a journey and I think we might prefer him to have more of a focus on Thai language / culture in early years - I might be underestimating the focus that Patana gives to these though.

Any suggestions very welcome, these are the places I've bookmarked to check out so far:

ABC Pathways

Anglo Singapore

Annabels

ELC International

Bangkok Prep

The First Steps

IPC International

Wells

Any thoughts on the above in regard to my ideal criteria, or any alternative suggestions?

Edited January 15, 2016 by rwdrwdrwd

[romain22]

Google Sataban, that should answer your question.

Cheers,

Romain

[rwdrwdrwd]

It didn't really, but thanks for the input

We went to look at a few schools, the favourite was Patana, second in line St Andrews Suk 71 - we'll more than likely choose one of these.

Does anyone here send kids from Ekamai to Patana either by school bus or by driving? Would be great to get an idea of just how much travel time would be involved.

Edited February 2, 2016 by rwdrwdrwd

[fletchsmile]

If you like Patana (around suk soi 105) - which to me is one of the very best in Bangkok - it's also worth a look at NIST (suk soi 15), which is another very good international school. Both are non-profit and similar ball park fees. Maybe a bit further from Thong Lor 55 / Ekamai 63, but worth considering.

I'd rate both of these ahead of all the other schools you listed. Each also has a balance/ cap on number of Thais so ends up being really "international". Many "international" schools here are 70%/80% Thai. Patana has I think 20% cap and NIST around 30%. 50/50 doesn't really happen.

Edited February 3, 2016 by fletchsmile

[rwdrwdrwd]

Thanks @fletchsmile - advice appreciated. He's half British so we're leaning toward British curriculum, but will take a look at NIST - I'd heard that NIST and Patana were considered the best and Patana certainly stood head and shoulders above the others that we visited.

The reason we're including St Andrews 71 for consideration is that it is in a really convenient location for us, and it was easily in second place when compared against the others we checked out however it does feel that we're sacrificing facilities. I know he's only 3 but we'd like to pick somewhere he can stay all the way through to 17.

St Andrews 71 seemed good, but we did feel Patana would be the 'best' option even at this age.

The potential downside to Patana is distance, hence last paragraph in my prior post - any idea how much travel we are looking at from Ekamai 12 to Patana in the mornings / early afternoons? If we drove for example, are we talking 20 minutes, 40 minutes, or an hour+ each way?

Edited February 3, 2016 by rwdrwdrwd

[fletchsmile]

Thanks @fletchsmile - advice appreciated. He's half British so we're leaning toward British curriculum, but will take a look at NIST - I'd heard that NIST and Patana were considered the best and Patana certainly stood head and shoulders above the others that we visited.

The reason we're including St Andrews 71 for consideration is that it is in a really convenient location for us, and it was easily in second place when compared against the others we checked out however it does feel that we're sacrificing facilities. I know he's only 3 but we'd like to pick somewhere he can stay all the way through to 17.

St Andrews 71 seemed good, but we did feel Patana would be the 'best' option even at this age.

The potential downside to Patana is distance, hence last paragraph in my prior post - any idea how much travel we are looking at from Ekamai 12 to Patana in the mornings / early afternoons? If we drove for example, are we talking 20 minutes, 40 minutes, or an hour+ each way?

For the first couple of years we sent them to a decent nearby international school which was convenient for us at 2 or 3 years old like you say. Cuts travel time as well as costing less. The plan was then to pick a "better school" later before they start secondary school. Move around 9 or 10 years old to give them a year/ time to settle before secondary school gets serious and then we don't want to move again.

Patana follows UK, i.e up to GCSE/16 years old, but then goes to IB for the last 2 years (IB= International Baccleaurat being A Level equivalent)

NIST is IB throughout.

Patana our main concern was the distance as well. As you say on traffic you need an idea from someone doing the journey .Hard to say unless you try the journey a few times on school days, as like anywhere it can be OK or bad. So guessing only for you could be 20 mins, 40 mins or 1 hour depending on time and traffic. We're close to Rama 3. If we used the school bus they'd pick up around 6.30am (expensive BTW). Other residents in our condo say they leave at around 6.30 too, but they go by car. So generally seem to set off early and allow an hour just in case. Yours sounds closer.

Edited February 4, 2016 by fletchsmile