Southern International School Hat Yai opened in 2015 on Rajuthit Road, in the middle of the city, and is the most centrally located of Hat Yai's three international schools. It takes children from Pre-KG through to Year 13 and describes itself as a premium British international school for ages 2 to 18. Its academic structure is worth reading carefully, because it is not the generic 'British curriculum' a directory listing implies: SIH delivers the Oxford International Curriculum from EYFS all the way to Year 9, and only at Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 do students move to external examinations, sat through both the Oxford AQA and Cambridge International boards. The school is led by Head of School Luke Peacock and reports students from fifteen or more nationalities.
Where the campus is
789 Rajuthit Road, Hat Yai, Songkhla
Rajuthit Road puts the school inside Hat Yai's densest rental and condo supply, minutes from Lee Gardens and the Central shopping area. For a family basing itself in the city centre this is the shortest school run available in Hat Yai — short enough to walk or take a songthaew on many days, which is not true of the airport-corridor campus. As everywhere in the city there is no rail commuter option; Hat Yai Junction serves intercity trains only.
The campus
A central city campus on Rajuthit Road, which the school describes as having charm and space with room for further development. Being in the middle of Hat Yai is the practical point: this is the one campus in the city that a family living in the central condo belt can reach without a cross-town drive.
The academic pathway
- Early Years from age 2 on the EYFS.
- Primary and lower secondary on the Oxford International Curriculum, which the school runs continuously from EYFS through to Year 9 — a single curriculum spine rather than a handover between a primary scheme and a separate secondary one.
- Key Stage 4: iGCSE examinations.
- Key Stage 5: A-Level.
- Examinations at both KS4 and KS5 are entered through the Oxford AQA and Cambridge International boards.
- Named Learning Support and EAL provision, both run as distinct programmes.
- The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award runs at the school, alongside a house system, a student council and an ECA programme.
Accreditation, exam boards & membership
- Cambridge International — SIH enters students for Cambridge examinations.
- Oxford AQA — the school's second examination board, used alongside Cambridge at KS4 and KS5.
- National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) 'Quality Counts' at Platinum level. The school states this is the highest level NDNA awards. It is an early-years quality mark and it is unusual to see it on a school in Thailand — it speaks to the Pre-KG and EYFS end of the school specifically, not to the Sixth Form.
- Thai Ministry of Education standards. The school states it was the first international school in Hat Yai to gain accreditation meeting the Ministry's standards, and that this also makes it a full member of the International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT).
- ISQM — the school lists an ISQM award among its accreditations. We do not state the level: the school's accreditations page names the award but we could not verify the grade from a primary source, and BAANLYY would rather leave a gap than print a tier we cannot stand behind.
Boarding
SIH is a day school. The school publishes no boarding provision, and we do not imply one. A family that needs boarding in Hat Yai has one option, and it is not this school.
Scale of the school
The school reports students from fifteen or more nationalities. It does not publish a current roll figure on the pages we could verify, so we do not print one — ask admissions for the current whole-school number and for the size of your child's specific year group, which in a school this size is the figure that actually affects a child's day.
Who it tends to suit
Families basing themselves in central Hat Yai who want the shortest possible school run and a complete British pathway to A-Level, and families who want a single curriculum spine from age 2 to Year 9 rather than a change of scheme partway through primary. The NDNA Platinum mark makes it particularly worth a look for families whose immediate need is the Pre-KG and Early Years end.
This is a BAANLYY editorial view offered to help you shortlist. It is not a ranking, and no school pays to appear here.
Living near this school
SIH is the one Hat Yai campus that sits inside the city's main rental supply, which makes the housing decision unusually simple.
Hat Yai areas guideWhere to live in Hat YaiHat Yai condo towersHat Yai rental market
Confirm these with the school before you commit
- The grade of the ISQM award. The school lists ISQM among its accreditations; we could not verify the level from a primary source and have deliberately not stated one.
- Which subjects are entered with Oxford AQA and which with Cambridge International, and whether that split changes between iGCSE and A-Level.
- What the Oxford International Curriculum means in practice for a child transferring in from a school running the English National Curriculum or the IPC — the destination qualifications are the same, but the Year 7 to Year 9 content sequence is not.
- Which website you are actually reading. The school runs southerninter.ac.th as its canonical site, and southerninter.co.uk redirects to it. Other domains circulating in directories are not the school's.
- The current fee schedule — tuition, application and enrolment or admission fees, any refundable deposit, uniforms, lunches, the bus and trips. We link each school's own fees page rather than reprint a number that goes stale every August.
- Whether the year group you need has a place, or a waitlist, for your intended start date. With three schools in the city, a single full cohort can decide where you live.
- How far the school actually takes your child. This is the Hat Yai question. One of the three does not run a secondary programme at all, so a family with a seven-year-old is making a decision that expires.
- Which examination board each subject is entered with. Hat Yai's two through-schools both use a mix of Cambridge International and Oxford AQA, and the mix is set subject by subject, not school-wide.
- The school bus route, catchment and pick-up time for the exact neighbourhood you are considering — then ask what time the bus gets back. Hat Yai is compact, but the Kuanlung airport corridor and the city centre are opposite ends of a real drive at 07:30.
- Entry requirements: assessment or placement testing, interviews, English-language support, and the reports or transcripts you must supply.
- For boarding: the age it starts, the flexible and full options actually running this year, and the weekend and exeat arrangements.
BAANLYY does not publish per-school tuition figures — they change every year and every school publishes its own. See the current Southern International School Hat Yai (SIH) fee schedule on the school's own site →
BAANLYY does not rank, endorse or accept payment from schools. Facts on this page are compiled from Southern International School Hat Yai (SIH)'s own official website and its accrediting bodies, and where a fact is reported inconsistently we say so rather than pick one. Always confirm current admissions, fees and campus details directly with the school. Visit the official Southern International School Hat Yai (SIH) website →
Sources & References
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
Find a home near Southern International School Hat Yai (SIH)
Browse Hat Yai condos and homes near 789 Rajuthit Road, central Hat Yai, or see our full Hat Yai schools guide for how the three realistic options compare.
