Bangkok
Highgate School Opens Its First International Campus, in Thailand
The 460-year-old London school has launched its inaugural overseas branch in Chonburi province, just south of Bangkok, bringing British curriculum education to Thailand's Eastern Seaboard for the first time.
Highgate International School Thailand opened its doors to its first cohort of pupils this August, establishing the 460-year-old London school's first campus outside the United Kingdom. The launch, on a purpose-built site in Chonburi province roughly 80 minutes south-east of Bangkok, comes two years after Highgate announced its partnership with Thailand's Siam Motors Group, and places a recognisably British school brand at the heart of a market that has so far been dominated by operators based in the capital.
The campus opens this year as a Pre-Prep and Junior School, welcoming children aged two to 11 on the English National Curriculum. A Senior School and boarding provision are planned for August 2027, when the site will begin preparing students for GCSEs and, eventually, A Levels. At full build-out, the school expects to enrol up to 1,400 day and boarding pupils.
Facilities and fees
The purpose-built 27-acre campus was designed to benchmark against Bangkok's most established schools. It features an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a FIFA-standard football pitch, a Golf Academy, a dedicated STEM building, and a black-box theatre. Annual tuition for the 2026 intake runs from THB 375,000 for Pre-Nursery to THB 795,000 for Years 4 to 6, alongside a one-time enrolment fee of THB 200,000, positioning the school firmly at the premium end of Thailand's growing international market.
What the founders are saying
Highgate's head, Adam Pettitt, described the launch as "an enormous privilege," saying the school was bringing centuries of expertise to bear in partnership with "the strength, dynamism and ambition of the Siam Motors Group." Board Chair Tanyaporn Phornprapha Tangcravakoon struck a wider note: "This project is not just about establishing a school. It's about shaping the future of education in the region."
According to The PIE News, the Chonburi opening follows Mill Hill School's recent announcement of its own first international campus, reflecting a broader pattern of British independent schools seeking new enrolment pools in Southeast Asia as domestic headroom tightens.
For families on the Eastern Seaboard, in Pattaya, Rayong, and Chonburi itself, the school offers a premium British option that has not previously existed outside Bangkok. Whether demand at the senior level, still two years away, proves as robust as the inaugural junior intake will be the defining test of the project.