This is a Chiang Rai province school, not a Chiang Rai city school
OHIS sits at Ban Pong Pha in Mae Sai district, at the top of Thailand on the Myanmar border. Every international-school directory files it under “Chiang Rai” because Chiang Rai is the province — but the campus is roughly an hour’s drive north of Chiang Rai city up Highway 1, well beyond any sensible daily school run from Rim Kok, Ban Du or the city centre. Families who send children here live in or near Mae Sai.
That makes OHIS a real and useful option for one specific group — families already based in the far north, or drawn there by border trade, mission work or the Golden Triangle — and the wrong answer for a family relocating to Chiang Rai city itself. Our Chiang Rai schools guide sets out the two city schools, and our areas guide covers where city families actually live.
Key facts
| Location | Ban Pong Pha, Pong Pha sub-district, Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai province. A street address and telephone number circulate in third-party listings; we have not been able to confirm them from the school’s own site, so we publish the sub-district and district only — ask the school for the exact address. |
| Opened | September 2019, with Kindergarten through Grade 5 |
| Curriculum | American, Common Core based, taught in English by native English speakers, with a Christian worldview applied intentionally. Thai and Chinese offered as additional languages. |
| Year groups (2026/27) | Early years through Grade 8. Grade 7 opened August 2025, Grade 8 August 2026. High school phased in from 2027, starting with Grade 9. |
| Leaving qualification | None yet — recorded as “N/A”, consistent with a school that has no graduating cohort |
| Accreditation | None published. We could find no accrediting body named by the school — unlike both Chiang Rai city schools, which publish WASC accreditation. Ask directly rather than assume. |
| Scale | Around 70 students across six nationalities; most commonly Thai, Chinese and Burmese, roughly 60% local |
| Class size | Average around 12, capped at 20; teaching assistants employed |
| School day | 07:45 to 15:20, with supervised care before and after; uniform required; school lunches provided with dietary alternatives |
| Transport | A van is described as available to Burmese students. There is no general catchment school bus. |
| Official website | onehope.ac.th |
Admissions — unusually open, and that matters
OHIS states that it operates no waiting list, that its registration deadline for a new academic year is 15 September, and that students can join after the academic year has begun. Entry is by assessment rather than competition: the school checks a child’s reading, speaking and listening comprehension in English against the American Common Core, and provides language support for students who are not yet fluent. It also reports keeping a virtual-classroom structure ready so students can study from home in an emergency.
For a family on a DTV or another mobile long-stay route, that combination — no queue, mid-year entry, an assessment rather than an entrance exam — is worth more than a longer prospectus. It is the same structural openness we found at the international school on Koh Lanta, and it is rare. The constraint is the ceiling, not the door: the school currently stops at Grade 8.
Learning support
OHIS reports a special-needs specialist supporting children with ADD, ADHD and dyslexia, plus a psychologist available to students when needed and student access to an educational psychologist. For a school of roughly seventy pupils in a border district that is a stronger published provision than the size would suggest, and stronger than several larger schools elsewhere in the north publish. As with everything on this page, ask to meet the people concerned rather than take the listing at face value.
Facilities — and a directory disagreement worth knowing about
On the school-verified record, OHIS has a library, a computer-science lab, a music lab and a science lab, a football field and an open volleyball and basketball court, with a gymnasium under construction intended to support futsal, dance, volleyball, basketball, swimming and athletics. Extracurriculars run to phonics, reading and writing by level, Thai, computer science, music, robotics, maths and art; sports played include football, volleyball, basketball, athletics and dance. The school states plainly that it does not yet field competitive sports teams, and that doing so is part of its development plan as it grows grade by grade.
A separate, AI-compiled directory profile that the school has not claimed describes OHIS as already having a swimming pool, a gymnasium, Apple technology studios and boarding. Those claims do not match the record the school itself verified, which puts the gym under construction and mentions no pool and no boarding. We are not calling either version wrong — a campus can change between updates — but a family should not book a flight on the strength of the unclaimed profile. Ask what exists on the day you visit.
Burning season
Chiang Rai province’s February-to-April smoke season is at least as severe as Chiang Mai’s, and Mae Sai — hemmed in by hills at the border — is one of the worst-affected towns in the country most years. OHIS publishes nothing we could find about classroom air filtration, monitoring or smoke-day policy. That is a statement about the available information, not an accusation: many schools filter without advertising it. It is, however, the first question we would ask on a visit, and it should be asked before a February start. See our Chiang Rai air-quality guide for what the season actually looks like.
Who this school suits
Families living in or near Mae Sai with primary-age or lower-secondary children who want an English-medium American programme with small classes and a Christian character, and who are comfortable with a school that is still assembling its upper years. Families arriving with a teenager, or living in Chiang Rai city, should look at CRIS and CRICS, both of which run to Grade 12 with a US high-school diploma.
One point of character worth recording, because it explains the school’s own language: OHIS describes itself with the acrostic School for LIFE, in which the O stands for “Oasis — to be an oasis to this city, region, country and other nationalities”. If you encounter the school under a garbled name in a search result, the initials OHIS and the word “oasis” are the reason; the school’s actual name is One Hope International School.
One Hope International School questions
Where is One Hope International School, and is it in Chiang Rai city?
No. OHIS is in Ban Pong Pha, Mae Sai district — the northernmost district of Chiang Rai province, on the Myanmar border. It is roughly an hour's drive north of Chiang Rai city on Highway 1. It appears on directory listings under "Chiang Rai" because that is the province, not because it is a city school. If you are relocating to Chiang Rai city and expecting a daily school run, OHIS is not a practical choice; families who choose it generally live in or near Mae Sai.
What year groups does OHIS actually teach right now?
OHIS opened in September 2019 with Kindergarten through Grade 5 and has added a year group at a time. Grade 7 opened in August 2025 and Grade 8 in August 2026. The school states that high school will be phased in from 2027, starting with Grade 9 and adding a grade each year after that. In practice that means a family arriving with a child of high-school age today does not yet have a place here, and a family arriving with a Grade 7 child is enrolling in a division that is still being built. Ask the school which year groups are staffed and filled for the specific year you are moving.
Is OHIS a Christian school?
Yes. The school states that it intentionally applies a Christian worldview to its approach to education, and confirms that Christianity is practised at the school. It also states that it respects each student's own identity and choice as part of its inclusive mission, and welcomes students of all nationalities, backgrounds and religions. There is no secular international school anywhere in Chiang Rai province — all three carry a Christian character of some kind, and they differ mainly in how explicit it is.
What qualification do OHIS students leave with?
None yet. The International Schools Database records OHIS's leaving qualification as "N/A", which is consistent with a school whose oldest year group is Grade 8 — there is no graduating cohort to award a diploma to. This is the single most important structural difference between OHIS and Chiang Rai's two established schools, both of which run to Grade 12 with a US high-school diploma at the end.
Does OHIS run a school bus?
Not a general one. The school's own verified listing describes a van available to Burmese students — that is, transport tied to the border crossing rather than a catchment bus serving a residential area. Treat OHIS as a school you drive to, and confirm any transport arrangement directly before choosing where to live.
BAANLYY is not affiliated with One Hope International School and takes no paid placement in this content. We do not publish per-school fee figures, because they change annually and stale numbers mislead — request the current schedule from the school. Year-group coverage, facilities and transport all change as this school grows; confirm everything here directly before you commit.
Sources & References
- Ministry of Education, Thailand
- One Hope International School — official site
- One Hope International School — International Schools Database listing (carries the database's school-verified badge)
Facts are drawn from the school's own website and from the International Schools Database listing that carries that database's school-verified badge. Where an unclaimed third-party profile contradicts the school-verified record, both are reported above and neither is presented as settled.
See the full Chiang Rai international schools guide for how OHIS compares with the province’s two city schools.
Hero photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels.
