Bangkok
Highgate School to Open Its First International Campus in Thailand This August
The north London independent, ranked among Britain's leading day schools, is partnering with the Siam Motors Group to bring its curriculum to Bangkok from August 2026.
One of London's most selective independent schools is about to plant its flag in Southeast Asia. Highgate School, whose north London campus has produced alumni ranging from poets to prime ministers, will open Highgate International School Thailand in August 2026, making it the latest in a string of elite British names to choose Bangkok as their first Asian base.
The school is being developed in partnership with the Siam Motors Group and the Phornprapha family, according to WhichSchoolAdvisor, which listed it among five new international schools set to open across Thailand this year. The partnership follows a now-familiar model in which a Thai conglomerate provides land, capital, and local regulatory navigation while the UK brand brings curriculum, staffing pipelines, and reputational pull.
What the campus will offer
Highgate International School Thailand will open initially as a co-educational Pre-Prep and Junior School, with a Senior School to follow in subsequent years. Teaching will follow the National Curriculum for England, leading to IGCSEs and A Levels, with staff primarily recruited from the UK. The purpose-built campus will include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a FIFA-standard football pitch, a golf academy, a library and media centre, an auditorium, and specialist spaces for STEM, music, and the arts.
The scale of the facilities places Highgate firmly at the upper end of Bangkok's already competitive British school market, where recent arrivals including Dulwich College Bangkok and the forthcoming SPGS International School have raised expectations for what a premium campus should look like.
A crowded field, but continued appetite
Bangkok now has more than 105 international schools, and observers have begun asking whether the city can absorb so many near-simultaneous openings. The market's answer so far appears to be yes. Thai families of the professional class have consistently driven enrolment growth even as the expatriate population has flattened, and a school carrying the Highgate name is likely to attract both demographics from the outset.
For Highgate itself, the Bangkok campus represents a significant strategic step. The school has no existing international campuses; this is its first. How quickly it can transplant its culture and academic standards to a new continent, while its senior school remains years away from opening, will be the defining test of the venture.