Phuket Is Quietly Becoming a Hub for British Curriculum Schools

Within the space of a few months, Phuket has collected a remarkable roster of British school names. Glenalmond International School opens there in August 2026. NLCS International has just signed a development agreement for a 1,000-place day and boarding campus due in 2028. And both sit within a market that, according to ACN Newswire, Kasikorn Research Centre expects to grow by 9.7 percent this year, with international student numbers projected to increase by 8.3 percent and Phuket explicitly named among the key provincial markets.

The concentration is not accidental. Phuket has spent a decade attracting digitally mobile families and regional entrepreneurs who want the lifestyle of a resort destination without the educational trade-off of a smaller city. Until recently, that trade-off was real: the island's international school options were thin and largely mid-market. The arrivals of Glenalmond and NLCS signal that premium British operators now see the gap as commercially viable.

Why Phuket, and why now

Thailand already hosts more than 250 international schools serving roughly 70,000 to 80,000 students, with the sector valued at over 80 billion baht and growing at around 10 percent annually. The bulk of that capacity sits in Bangkok, where the British curriculum market has matured and new entrants face established competitors: Harrow, Shrewsbury, Patana, and now Dulwich, which opens its first Thai campus in the capital in August 2026. Phuket offers a less crowded pitch, a concentration of high-net-worth residents, and, for boarding schools, a drawcard that Bangkok cannot easily replicate.

VLC Group, the Phuket hospitality company developing NLCS Phuket, has made the regional comparison explicit. Naruj Chirayus, its managing director, pointed to Dubai and Jeju as examples of destinations where a single prestigious school helped transform a leisure hub into a family residential one. Whether Phuket follows that trajectory depends partly on infrastructure: the island's international connectivity has improved markedly, but secondary transport links and housing supply for staff remain live concerns for any school planning a full boarding operation.

The long build-out

Glenalmond Phuket opens this August within the Thanyapura Sports and Health Resort, starting with primary-age students and planning secondary phases later. NLCS, targeting a 2028 launch, is building from the ground up in Cherng Talay, with planned facilities including a 50-metre pool, boarding residences, and dedicated junior and senior school spaces. The two schools serve overlapping but not identical markets: Glenalmond is day-focused in its early phase; NLCS is positioning boarding as central to its proposition from the outset. Both, however, are betting on the same fundamental shift: that for a growing number of families in Asia, Phuket is no longer a holiday, it is home.