Grade 1 Tuition at 15 International Schools in Bangkok, What Each One Charges, and What the First Year Actually Costs

Grade 1 tuition at international schools in Bangkok runs from THB 654,700 to THB 1,015,000 a year for 2026/27. Those figures cover tuition alone. They exclude the entrance fee, the refundable deposit and the compulsory annual levies that each school bills separately, and once those are added the order of the first-year bill no longer matches the order of the tuition table.

Is Year 2 in a British School the Same Stage as Grade 1?

It is the same stage. The English national curriculum places Year 2 at ages 6 to 7 within Key Stage 1, and King’s College International School Bangkok maps UK Year 2 directly onto US and Canadian Grade 1 in its own age-comparison table, so the schools are comparable on tuition. One caveat: most schools do not price a single grade but a band. ISB charges one rate from kindergarten through Grade 5, Harrow and Denla British School charge one rate from Year 1 to Year 5, and only King’s and St. Andrews give Year 2 a line of its own.

Add the Entrance Fee and ISB Drops From First to Fourth

The first year is not only tuition. Every school charges a one-off entrance fee and most also hold a refundable deposit. What reorders the list is that ISB holds no deposit at all, while Harrow, King’s and Shrewsbury each hold THB 200,000 to 225,000 on top of a THB 225,000 entrance fee:

Calculated by the Luxe Addict team from tuition plus entrance, application, compulsory annual fees and refundable deposits as published by each school. This table covers 12 of the 15, because NIST, Wellington College and Concordian publish no tuition on their own sites; those three are covered in the next section. Links to every school’s official fee page sit under the table below.

What Happens if the Deposit Is Left Out?

The original order returns. ISB leads outright at THB 1,301,700, while Harrow falls to THB 1,110,300, King’s to THB 1,109,400 and Shrewsbury to THB 1,081,400. The answer therefore turns on whether a refundable deposit counts as a cost. It does come back, but the money still has to be on the table on day one.

What About NIST, Wellington and Concordian?

None of the three has been dropped; there is simply no figure confirmed on their own sites solid enough to rank beside the other twelve. What is known is that all three ask for a large opening payment. NIST charges a Campus Development Fee of THB 575,000, refundable, or THB 60,500 a year instead, and Concordian charges a refundable Capital Fund of THB 400,000, both larger than any deposit in the table. If the unconfirmed tuition figures hold, NIST would land near THB 1.74 million for the first year and Concordian near THB 1.48 million, which would put both above Harrow at the top of this table. Wellington College, with a THB 225,000 entrance fee and a THB 175,000 deposit, would land near THB 1.29 million, the same band as ISB.

Some Rates Include Lunch and Some Add Another THB 34,000

The tuition figures are not directly comparable, because what sits inside them differs:

• Lunch included — Harrow, King’s, Shrewsbury, Bangkok Patana (to Year 6), Bangkok Prep, BASIS and Rugby School Thailand.

• Lunch billed separately — Brighton College at THB 34,200 a year for Reception to Year 2, and KIS at THB 34,000 a year for Grade 1 to Grade 5.

• Compulsory annual levies on top — ISB Annual Fee 22,000, BASIS Campus Development Fee 22,000, Bangkok Patana Capital Assessment Fee 30,000 and KIS Annual Development Fee 45,000.

• Rugby School Thailand bundles the most — lunch, two snacks, after-school activities, the annual residential trip, textbooks and external examination entries.

Fold the annual levies and meals back in and the real yearly figure for KIS becomes THB 835,800 rather than 756,800, and Brighton College becomes THB 884,100 rather than 849,900, which shifts the order again.

Why Do Some Schools Not Publish a Fee Table at All?

Because they do not. NIST embeds its table in a Google Drive file that will not open from the page, Wellington College renders its fee page in JavaScript so the table never appears in the source, and Concordian publishes no figures at all beyond a policy document dated 2019-2020. All three have to be phoned, which is why tuition for those three cannot yet be confirmed.

Brighton and St. Andrews Run Several Campuses at Different Rates

Brighton College Bangkok has two campuses, Krungthep Kreetha and Vibhavadi, each publishing its own fee schedule, and the THB 849,900 figure is Krungthep Kreetha. St. Andrews is the same: Sukhumvit 107 and St Andrews Dusit are separate schools with separate structures, and THB 654,700 is Sukhumvit 107. Shrewsbury is the exception, since Years 1 and 2 cost the same at both the City and Riverside campuses.

What Sets These 15 Schools Apart From One Another

Similar tuition does not buy the same thing. Each school here does something the others do not:

Sources — International School Bangkok · NIST · Wellington College · Harrow · King’s College · Shrewsbury · Brighton College · Denla British School · Concordian · BASIS · KIS · Bangkok Patana · Rugby School Thailand · Bangkok Prep · St. Andrews

How Do IB, British and American Differ in Practice Here?

Of the 15, ten follow the British route ending in IGCSE and A-Level, three run the full IB from PYP to DP (NIST, Concordian and KIS), ISB is American with the IB Diploma available at the top end, and BASIS is American ending in AP. The difference that touches the bill directly is external examination entries, because the British route requires IGCSE and A-Level sittings that most schools charge separately. Only Rugby School Thailand states that external examination fees are already inside the tuition.

The Same Money Buys Different Things, and That Is Where Value Sits

Measured as what you get for the money, the figure to watch is not tuition but these four things:

• What is already included — Rugby School Thailand bundles the most: lunch, two snacks, after-school activities, the annual residential trip, textbooks and external examination entries. Harrow includes textbooks free to Year 9, and BASIS includes textbooks and laboratory materials.

• Discounts actually published — Shrewsbury takes 5% off a third child and 10% off a fourth or later. Bangkok Prep takes 2% off for paying the year in full and 5% from a second sibling. Harrow cuts THB 100,000 from admission where a parent is an alumnus. Bangkok Patana charges a second child THB 200,000 entrance rather than 250,000.

• The largest hidden cost — Bangkok Patana charges an EAL language support fee of THB 105,000 a year for up to six terms where a child needs it, a recurring cost larger than any compulsory levy in the group.

• Transport — Bangkok Prep runs a free BTS shuttle and KIS a free shuttle to the Thailand Cultural Centre MRT. ISB charges THB 111,300 to 178,000 a year, Harrow THB 125,200 to 143,000, and Bangkok Patana THB 47,000 to 120,800 plus a compulsory THB 5,400 car seat supplement for Nursery to Year 1.
  
  

Whose Tuition Is Closest to What You Actually Pay?

Rugby School Thailand, because it bundles the most and carries no compulsory annual levy. At the other end sit KIS and Brighton College, where meals and annual levies have to be added, putting the real figure THB 79,000 and THB 34,200 above the published tuition respectively. The quickest way to compare several schools at once is to add tuition, compulsory annual levies and meals first, then rank those totals rather than the published tuition.

How to Choose if the Opening Payment Is What Matters

Run three checks before setting any two schools side by side. First, whether the academic years match, since KIS moved from THB 725,500 to 756,800 between 2025/26 and 2026/27 and search results still surface the older file. Second, whether lunch is included, a difference worth THB 34,000 a year. Third, whether a compulsory annual levy of THB 22,000 to 45,000 sits on top. The figure worth taking into a family conversation is the first-year total in the table above rather than tuition alone, because that is the sum due on the opening day of term.