The International School of Asia, Koh Lanta — Curriculum, Cohort Size & Admissions

Ages 2–18Pre-K to Grade 12

Common Core + English NCCurriculum, per the school

82 full-time studentsWhole school, all ages

Sala Dan, Ko LantaLocation — no school bus

Overview

The International School of Asia is, per its own website, the island's sole international school recognised by Thailand's Ministry of Education, teaching from Pre-K to Grade 12 on a single campus in Sala Dan. It is genuinely small — 82 full-time students across the entire age range — and what makes it distinctive is not its size but how it admits people: no entry evaluation, no waiting list, registration up to two weeks before term, mid-year joiners accepted, short-term students taken as routine, and virtual classrooms available. For families arriving on a DTV or another long-stay visa without a fixed departure date, that is a rare combination in Thailand and the single strongest reason to look here.

It is also the only school on Koh Lanta teaching its own senior years on campus. Read the flags below before deciding: learning support is limited by the school's own account, no examination board is named, and the senior cohort is very small. BAANLYY is not affiliated with this school and takes no paid placement in this content.

Curriculum & academics

ISA's Elementary page states that the school combines the U.S. Common Core Standards with the English National Curriculum: Common Core providing the structured progression in English and Mathematics, and the English National Curriculum covering core and foundation subjects including Science, with an inquiry-led approach. Elementary runs Grade 1 to Grade 6, ages 6 to 11. The school organises itself into an Early Years Program, a Primary Years Program and a Secondary Years Program, and instruction is in English with Thai language classes alongside. Physical education, it notes, follows the English National Curriculum.

The curriculum is in transition. The school's own account is that it has taught a Common Core-based curriculum from preschool through Grade 12 and is moving to the English National Curriculum over roughly three years. That is a normal thing for a school to do and a very abnormal thing to be halfway through when you enrol a child, so make it your first question: which curriculum will this year group be taught under, and what will it leave with? On the second half of that question the school names no examination board at all — the only external assessment reported is "university access testing", and the leaving-qualifications field on its directory record is empty.

The Canadian-curriculum confusion, explained

If you research this school you will meet two different descriptions of it, and it is worth knowing why. ISA was previously Global Village School Lanta. Several directories still carry that older entry, describing a Canadian curriculum from Grade 1 to 12, a UK Early Years preschool, and boarding for ages 14 to 18. The International Schools Database has resolved this in the clearest possible way — its URL for Global Village International School, Ko Lanta now redirects to ISA's record, meaning the directory treats them as one school.

So: the Canadian curriculum and the boarding house belong to the former identity, and the school's current record reports no boarding and no bus. An earlier version of this BAANLYY page carried the Canadian description as current, and we were wrong to. If a listing you are reading gives a curriculum that does not match the school's own site, check its date before you trust it — and if boarding matters to you, get it confirmed in writing rather than inferred from a directory.

Cohort, class sizes and the senior years

This is the field that matters most here, and the school answers it plainly. It reports 82 full-time students across the whole age range from preschool to Grade 12, plus an average of about 15 short-term students a year, drawn from 18 nationalities, with roughly one local child for every international one and Thai as the most common nationality. Average class size is 16 and the cap is 25; the school employs teaching assistants. Asked what proportion of students go on to further education, its own answer is that roughly one student a year graduates high school and joins university.

Read that plainly rather than pessimistically. For a primary-age child, a school of this size on an island like this is an attractive, personal, well-supervised environment, and the after-school clubs — sports, chess, arts and crafts, board games, and both Swedish and Chinese lessons — reflect who actually lives here. For a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old aiming at a competitive university, the same numbers describe a very small upper school with no named examination board. Both things are true. Ask how many children are in your child's specific year group this year.

Getting there, and the school day

The campus is at 251 Moo 5, Sala Dan, at the island's northern tip where the bridge and vehicle ferry arrive — practical for anywhere on the populated west coast, and a long run from Lanta Old Town and the south. There is no school bus service at all, by the school's own report, and Koh Lanta has no public transport, so every family drives or scoots. Treat that as a housing constraint rather than a logistics footnote and drive your shortlisted areas at 07:30 before signing a lease. The day runs from 08:25 to 14:45 for kindergarten and 15:00 for elementary and high school, with no supervised care before or after school.

Koh Lanta areas & rents →All Koh Lanta schooling options

Read before you decide

Flags and open questions

The cohort, admissions, facilities and school-day figures on this page are the school's own answers to an International Schools Database questionnaire rather than statements on its own website. They are the school's own words, but small schools change fast — confirm them directly.
The school reports no dedicated staff or programmes for students with special learning needs, no student access to an educational psychologist, and limited support for gifted and talented students. It states this itself. If your child needs learning support, this is decisive.
No external examination board is named. "University access testing" is the only external assessment reported, and the leaving-qualification field on its directory record is blank. If your child needs IGCSEs or A-Levels on a transcript, establish in writing how that would happen here.
The curriculum is mid-transition. Ask which curriculum your child's year group will be taught and examined under, and what qualification they will leave with.
The school describes its current facilities as "currently not many" and reports a new campus opening for the 2026–27 academic year. Ask what is finished and what is not. Sports provision is a 7-a-side football pitch and a half basketball court.
ISA's stage names — Early Years Program, Primary Years Program (PYP) and Secondary Years Program — closely echo the International Baccalaureate's programme names. ISA names no IB authorisation anywhere on its site and we could not identify it as an IB World School. Do not read "PYP" here as an IB programme without asking.
The Year / Grade Placement page carries age guidelines for 2026–27 under those three headings, but the tables themselves did not render to us, so we cannot publish the entry ages. Open that page yourself, or ask admissions.
Not all teachers are native English speakers, by the school's own account, and classroom technology is limited to televisions. School lunches are provided but the school reports no alternatives for special dietary needs. Uniform is required.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is The International School of Asia, Koh Lanta a real, licensed school?Yes. Its own website states it is the island's sole international school recognised by Thailand's Ministry of Education, offering classes from Pre-K to Grade 12, and it holds a verified listing in the International Schools Database. It maintains active Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn accounts. Note that "the island's sole international school" is a statement about international-school licensing, not about schooling on Koh Lanta generally — two long-established Swedish overseas schools also operate in Saladan.

What curriculum does it teach?The school's own Elementary page says ISA combines the U.S. Common Core Standards with the English National Curriculum — Common Core providing the structure for English and Mathematics, the English National Curriculum covering core and foundation subjects including Science. In its own account to the International Schools Database, it has taught a Common Core-based curriculum from preschool through Grade 12 and is now in the process of changing to the English National Curriculum over about three years. Instruction is in English, with Thai language classes alongside. Ask which curriculum your child's specific year group will be taught and examined under during the transition.

Did this school previously teach a Canadian curriculum?That description belongs to Global Village School, the school's former identity, and it is out of date. The International Schools Database's own URL for Global Village International School, Ko Lanta now redirects to this school's record — the directory has merged them — while other directories still carry the older Global Village entry with its Canadian-curriculum and boarding descriptions attached. Earlier versions of this BAANLYY page repeated the Canadian description, and we have corrected it. If you are comparing listings, check the date and the address before trusting the curriculum line.

How big is the school, really?Small, and the school is candid about it. It reports 82 full-time students across the entire range from preschool to Grade 12, plus an average of about 15 short-term students a year, drawn from 18 nationalities with roughly one local child for every international one. Average class size is 16, capped at 25. Asked what proportion of students go on to further education, the school's own answer is that roughly one student a year graduates high school and goes to university. For a primary-age child that is a genuinely personal environment; for a sixteen-year-old aiming at a competitive university, ask exactly who else is in the class.

What are the admissions like?Unusually open, and this is the school's most distinctive feature for the audience this site serves. It reports no entry evaluation, no waiting list, registration accepted up to two weeks before the academic year starts, and students able to join after the year has begun. It takes short-term students as a matter of course and is set up to run virtual classrooms when needed. For DTV holders, remote-working parents and world-schooling families without a fixed departure date, that combination is rare in Thailand.

Where exactly is the school, and is there a bus?251 Moo 5, Sala Dan (Saladan), Ko Lanta District, Krabi 81150 — in the island's main town, at the northern tip where the bridge and ferry arrive. There is no school bus service at all, by the school's own report, so every family drives or scoots. On an island with no public transport that makes your choice of area a schooling decision. The school day starts at 08:25 and finishes at 14:45 for kindergarten, 15:00 for elementary and high school.

What does it cost?BAANLYY does not publish per-school fee figures, and Koh Lanta is a good illustration of why. The widely-quoted band for this school is third-party directory data, is not published on the school's own site, and sits on a listing that until recently also carried facts belonging to the school's former identity. The school publishes a Prices and Fees page and a Fee Policy of its own — that is the figure to budget against. Ask separately about registration, uniform, lunch and any exam entry costs.

Sources & References

Curriculum, licensing, stage structure and location are taken from the school's own website. Cohort, class-size, admissions, school-day and facilities figures are the school's own answers to the International Schools Database questionnaire, not statements on its own site, and are attributed as such throughout. BAANLYY does not publish per-school fee figures. BAANLYY is not affiliated with this school and takes no paid placement in this content.

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