Asia
Scottish-Heritage School Opens in Phuket With Mandatory Mandarin and Singapore Maths
Glenalmond Phuket International School begins classes in August inside a sports resort, pairing the English National Curriculum with compulsory Mandarin and a digital literacy programme built into every timetable.
A new British-heritage primary school is set to open in Phuket next month, adding another entry to Thailand's busiest wave of international school launches in recent memory. Glenalmond Phuket International School, developed in partnership with the 178-year-old Glenalmond College in Perthshire, Scotland, will welcome its first cohort of Early Years and Primary pupils from August, according to WhichSchoolAdvisor.
The school is housed inside Thanyapura Sports and Health Resort, a purpose-built campus featuring specialist rooms for digital literacy, science, art, drama and mindfulness, alongside a lecture theatre, library and 450-seat auditorium. The resort setting is deliberate; the school is positioning itself partly on the lifestyle draw of Phuket rather than the commuter-belt model that defines most Bangkok-area openings.
Curriculum choices that stand out
Unlike the majority of British-heritage schools in Southeast Asia, Glenalmond Phuket has made Mandarin Chinese compulsory throughout all year groups and adopted the Singapore mathematics curriculum from Year 1 upward, a combination more commonly found at bilingual schools in Shanghai or Kuala Lumpur than at a UK-affiliated primary in a Thai resort town.
Digital literacy, including coding, AI awareness and robotics, is embedded into the timetable from the earliest years rather than treated as an enrichment extra. The school says it intends to extend into Key Stage 3 and eventually offer IGCSE and A Level pathways as the cohort matures, with strong local interest already registered for secondary places.
A crowded year for Thailand
Glenalmond Phuket is one of five new international schools opening in Thailand in August 2026, alongside Dulwich College Bangkok, Highgate International School in Chonburi, Wycombe Abbey International School Bangkok and The Jataka School. The wave reflects sustained investment from UK independent school brands across the country, though most expansions have targeted families in Bangkok rather than the island markets.
Phuket's tourism economy and a growing base of longer-term residents give the island a different demographic profile from the capital. Whether that community is large enough to fill an all-through school over time is a question the Glenalmond Group will be watching closely as it decides how quickly to extend beyond primary.