How to Choose an International School in Chiang Mai
A practical checklist for families comparing international schools in Chiang Mai — curriculum, class size, English support, visas and the questions worth asking on a campus visit.
Chiang Mai has more international schools per capita than almost anywhere else in Thailand, and from the outside they can look interchangeable: a green campus, a curriculum acronym, smiling photographs. They are not interchangeable. The differences that matter to your child are rarely the ones on the brochure.
Here is the checklist we give families who ask us how to compare — including the questions that are uncomfortable for us to answer.
1. Start with the curriculum, not the campus
The curriculum decides what your child studies, how they are assessed, and which universities will recognise the transcript later. In Chiang Mai you will mostly meet three families of curriculum:
- American — standards-based, with a high-school transcript and GPA. Chiangmai Cedar offers an English-medium American education covering PK through Grade 12, on an American-style school year.
- British — IGCSE at 16, A-Levels at 18.
- IB — the Diploma Programme in the final two years.
None of these is better in the abstract. What matters is the fit with where your child has come from and where they are likely to go next. A student returning to a US-style system mid-way through high school pays a real cost for switching curriculum twice.
Ask each school: if we leave after two years, what document does my child leave with, and who accepts it?
2. Ask what happens when a child's English is not ready
This is the single most useful question, and the answers vary enormously.
Every international school will accept that a new arrival needs time. Fewer will tell you concretely what that time looks like: who teaches the support, how many hours a week, and whether the child sits out of subject lessons to get it.
At CCS, new students take a pre-admission assessment covering English, Maths, Grammar and Reading. The point is not to filter children out — it is to know precisely where a child is starting from, so the teaching team can plan for it before the first day rather than after the first report card.
3. Look at who is actually in the classroom
Class size gets quoted; teacher continuity rarely does. A school with small classes and a teacher leaving every June is not a small school in any way that helps your child.
Worth asking:
- How long have the teachers of my child's grade been here?
- What qualifications do they hold beyond a degree?
- Who covers a class when a teacher is away?
Our own teaching team comes from Thailand, China, the US, the UK, Ireland, the Philippines, Myanmar and India, and holds credentials including TESOL, CELTA, TEFL and child-protection certification alongside master's and honours degrees. You can read the full list on the About page.
4. Get the visa question answered early
For most families moving to Chiang Mai, the school is also the visa route — and the paperwork takes longer than anyone expects. The documents schools here typically ask for are:
| Document | Notes |
|---|---|
| Birth certificate | Notarised and authenticated |
| Proof of the parent–child relationship | Notarised and authenticated; needed for the guardian visa |
| Passport copies and photos | For every family member applying |
| Previous school transcripts | In English |
| Proof of enrolment at the previous school | In English |
Notarisation and authentication happen in your home country, not in Thailand. Starting that process the week before you fly is the most common — and most avoidable — reason a family's move slips by a term.
5. Visit, and pay attention to the unscripted parts
Every campus tour shows you the good rooms. What tells you more:
- What are the children doing between lessons, when nobody is presenting?
- How do staff speak to students who are not on their best behaviour?
- Does the school answer a hard question directly, or redirect it?
The academic year at CCS runs in four terms from August to June, so most families visit between January and May for an August start. If you are further out than that, come anyway — a school on an ordinary Tuesday tells you more than a school on an open day.
A short version
If you only ask five questions at each school, ask these:
- What curriculum, and what document does my child leave with?
- What exactly happens if their English is behind?
- How long have the teachers in their grade been here?
- What paperwork do you need from us, and by when?
- Can we visit on a normal school day?
If you would like to put those questions to us directly, the admissions page has our enquiry form, or you can call +66 (0) 62 620 8307 and speak to the admissions team.