North London Collegiate School Plans Its First Thailand Campus in Phuket

North London Collegiate School's international division has signed a partnership agreement with VLC Group, the owner of several premium hotels and resorts in Phuket and Khao Lak, to develop a co-ed day and boarding school in Cherng Talay on the island's northwest coast. According to Tes, NLCS Phuket is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2028, making it the group's first campus in Thailand and its sixth international school.

Cherng Talay is among Phuket's fastest-growing residential corridors. A combination of premium villa developments, domestic relocations from Bangkok, and a growing cohort of long-stay international residents has created demand for a secondary and senior school option beyond the limited international provision currently available on the island. Most international families in Phuket have previously faced a choice between small bilingual schools and the disruption of boarding children on the mainland.

Scale and curriculum

NLCS Phuket will serve students from Early Years through Year 13. Initial capacity is set at approximately 1,000 students, with room to expand to around 1,500 as the school matures. Planned facilities include boarding accommodation, dedicated junior and senior school buildings, science and technology centres, a 50-metre pool, an indoor sports hall, covered tennis courts, and football pitches. The boarding element is specifically intended to draw students from across Thailand and from the broader Southeast Asian region, rather than serving Phuket's residential population alone.

Daniel Lewis, managing director of NLCS International, said the school would aim to "deliver an education that develops scholarship, in a joyful and exciting environment, that celebrates every individual for who they are." Lewis has overseen the group's recent expansion phase, which has included the NLCS Hong Kong campus that opened to its first students this September.

Brand and market positioning

North London Collegiate School, founded in 1850 by educator Frances Mary Buss, is consistently placed among the United Kingdom's highest-performing independent schools, with a track record of Oxbridge and Russell Group placements that remains a selling point in Asia, where that particular metric carries considerable weight among affluent local families. The international division's existing network spans South Korea, the UAE, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

The choice of VLC Group as a development partner reflects a pattern that has become familiar in Phuket's premium school market. Operators new to the island have increasingly looked to hospitality and resort developers for land assembly, licensing relationships, and familiarity with the island's planning environment. VLC brings direct experience in the Cherng Talay micro-market, where its hotel properties give it established relationships with local and provincial authorities.

Several other British-affiliated school operators have entered or committed to Phuket in the past two years, supported by projections that show the island's permanent expatriate population and resident affluent Thai family base continuing to grow. Whether that demand can sustain multiple premium new entrants through 2028 and beyond remains an open question for operators, particularly as the senior school years that underpin revenue at boarding institutions will not open at NLCS Phuket until the school has been running for several years. Fees have not yet been announced.