International schools in Nonthaburi.

The short version

Nonthaburi has more international schooling than almost anyone outside the province realises — eight full international schools, two of them authorised IB World Schools running the Diploma, a third running the IB Primary and Middle Years Programmes, plus British, Singapore-Cambridge and two explicitly Christian American options. It is also, since November 2023, the best-railed province in Thailand outside Bangkok, with the Purple Line and the Pink Line monorail both running through it. What it does not have is a school at a station gate, or a boarding house of any kind. Below: every school, where each one stops, what each is genuinely accredited by, the religious-character question answered plainly in both directions, where to live, and the questions to ask before you enrol. For day-to-day budgeting pair this with the Nonthaburi cost-of-living guide, and use the areas guide to match a neighbourhood to your school.

Where each school stops

Build your shortlist from this table before you look at anything else. Nonthaburi’s eight schools end at three different ages, and two of them finish well before the end of secondary — which means a planned second school, not a surprise one. The good news, and it is genuinely unusual for a Thai province outside Bangkok: every school here that runs to 18 teaches those final years on its own campus. There is no blended, hybrid or distance-learning sixth form in Nonthaburi, which is more than can be said for Pattaya, Koh Samui or Krabi.

No school in Nonthaburi runs a boarding house. The one to watch is SISB — the group operates boarding, but at its Pracha Uthit campus in Bangkok, not here. A directory reading “SISB: boarding yes” is describing a campus on the other side of the city.

The schools, and where they actually are

District, not province. Several of these schools are marketed on a road or an area name that does not match the district they sit in — RISR is branded “Ratchapruek” but is addressed on Bang Kruai–Sai Noi Road in Bang Krang, and directories routinely file it under Pak Kret. Every row below gives the district the school itself publishes.

International School Bangkok (ISB) profile Denla British School (DBS) profile International Christian School Nonthaburi (ICSN) profile Ruamrudee International School Ratchapruek (RISR) profile St. Andrews Samakee International School profile SISB Nonthaburi Campus profile Rose Marie Academy (RMA) profile Magic Years International School (MYIS) profile

Accreditation & religious character

The column families most often forget to ask about, and the one with the longest consequences. Separate two things: an examination-board authorisation (Cambridge, IB, College Board) means a school may enter pupils for those exams. A whole-school accreditation (WASC, CIS, COBIS, Cognia, Middle States, ISQM) means an external body has assessed the school itself. A school can hold one without the other, and several here do.

Two things worth stating plainly. First, ICSN is not WASC accredited — its own site says it is “currently seeking accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges”. It holds a Thai Ministry of Education licence, OPEC oversight, ONESQA accreditation, ACSI membership and College Board authorisation, and it is an SAT and AP examination centre for Nonthaburi, which is a genuine service to the whole province. But WASC is in progress, not held, and our previous version of this page did not say so. Second, Rose Marie Academy’s accreditation is split: Cognia and the Middle States Association accredit its Senior High School Keystone Program, while the Primary and Junior High programmes are described as approved by the Thai Ministry of Education. A family enrolling a seven-year-old and a family enrolling a sixteen-year-old are not buying the same thing.

Do the MRT lines help? Honestly: sometimes

Almost every relocation guide written about Nonthaburi schools — including, until this update, ours — tells families there is no rail and they will be driving. That advice is out of date. The province is served by two urban rail lines: the MRT Purple Line (Khlong Bang Phai to Tao Poon), open since 2016 and running through Bang Yai, Rattanathibet and Mueang Nonthaburi; and the MRT Pink Line monorail (Khae Rai to Min Buri), thirty stations, opened 21 November 2023, running along Tiwanon Road and then the length of Chaeng Wattana Road straight through Pak Kret. The two interchange at Nonthaburi Civic Center. No other Thai province outside Bangkok has anything close to this.

The honest other half: no campus in Nonthaburi sits at a station gate. A line through your district is not a line to your school. The table below is the version of this fact that is actually useful when you are choosing where to live.

Where to live for Nonthaburi’s schools

Five clusters, and one correction we owe readers of the previous version of this page.

What tuition costs — and why there is no table here

This page used to carry a twelve-row per-school fee table. It has been removed, and we do not intend to replace it. School fees are reset every year, vary by year group, and differ again depending on what is bundled — and the directories that publish them disagree with each other, and with the schools’ own current schedules, by tens of thousands of baht. A confidently wrong number is worse for a relocating family than no number, because it gets budgeted against. What we will say is structural rather than numerical: the spread across these eight schools is unusually wide for one province, every school bills one-time application, assessment or registration fees separately from tuition, and uniforms, transport, meals and activities are separate again. Ask each school for its current schedule in writing, and ask specifically what is not included. Each school’s own fee page is linked from its profile above.

Which curriculum?

American with an IB Diploma option: ISB and RISR both run a US framework with the IB Diploma available in the senior years, and RISR adds Advanced Placement. ISB is Thailand’s oldest international school and the more established name; RISR is newer, opened in 2019, WASC-accredited and explicitly built around inclusion and learning support. A true IB continuum: only MYIS, which teaches the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes from age one — but does not yet run the Diploma. British: Denla runs the Enhanced British Curriculum through IGCSE and A-Level with CIS, COBIS and Cambridge accreditation; St. Andrews Samakee teaches the English National Curriculum beautifully but only to age 14. Singapore and Cambridge: SISB Nonthaburi blends the Singapore curriculum through primary into Cambridge IGCSE and AS/A Level, with Chinese taught seriously from nursery. American in a Christian setting: ICSN, AERO and Common Core aligned with AP available and a Bible-based ethos; RISR is Catholic but describes itself as interfaith and inclusive. American with serious inclusion and SEN provision: Rose Marie Academy, which also runs a tailored programme for performance athletes — an option that barely exists elsewhere in Thailand. If you expect to relocate internationally again, the IB Diploma at ISB or RISR and A-Levels at Denla travel most easily.

Ask every Nonthaburi school this

• Does the school actually go as far as your child needs? Two of the eight -- St. Andrews Samakee (14) and MYIS (16 for now) -- stop before the end of secondary, so you will be choosing a second school. Ask before you enrol, not in Year 8.
• Which rail line, if any, is genuinely usable for your household? Nonthaburi has the Purple and Pink lines, but no campus here is a station-to-gate walk. Establish whether you are a rail family with a feeder leg, or a car family who happens to live near a station.
• What does the school bus actually cover, and is your address inside the catchment? In a province split by the Chao Phraya and by two motorway corridors, the bus map decides which neighbourhoods are realistic far more than the distance on a map does.
• Drive the run at 07:00 on a weekday before you sign a lease. Chaeng Watthana, Ratchaphruek and Tiwanon at rush hour bear no relation to the same roads at midday.
• Is the accreditation whole-school, or is it an examination-board authorisation? Cambridge, IB and College Board authorisations say a school may run those exams. WASC, CIS, COBIS, Cognia and ISQM assess the whole school. Both matter, and they are not the same claim.
• If faith matters to you in either direction, ask directly. Two of the eight schools are explicitly Christian -- one Catholic, one Bible-based and ACSI-affiliated -- and the other six publish no religious character at all.
• Ask what the year group's actual size is this year, not the school's total roll. Several of these schools are small by design, which many families want -- but you should know the number before you decide, not after.

Check the school exists before you check anything else

AI-generated school listicles now routinely invent schools, complete with curricula, locations and fee figures. We have found fabricated schools in write-ups of Hua Hin, Pattaya and Chiang Rai, and directory entries that merge two real schools into one or file a school under the wrong district. Nonthaburi has its own version of the problem: at least one census files Ruamrudee Ratchapruek as a Pak Kret school when the campus is in Mueang Nonthaburi, another places Rose Marie Academy inside the Nichada Thani estate when its published address is on Chaeng Wattana Soi 20, and several describe St. Andrews Samakee as part of the Cognita group — which Cognita’s own school listings do not confirm. Before you shortlist any school you found in a listicle, apply the three-part test: does it have its own website on its own domain, does it publish a findable street address, and does the phone number answer? Every school on this page passes all three. Anything that fails one is not a shortlist candidate — it is a research problem.

Nonthaburi international school questions

International schools near Nonthaburi

International schools in and around Nonthaburi, ordered by distance from the city centre and sourced live from Google Maps. Ratings and review counts update automatically — tap any name for directions, hours and contact details.

Distances are straight-line from the city centre, for rough comparison only. Listings are provided by Google and are not endorsements. BAANLYY does not manage these businesses.

Sources & References

• Ministry of Education, Thailand
• International School Bangkok (ISB) — official site
• Denla British School (DBS) — official site
• Ruamrudee International School Ratchapruek (RISR) — official site
• SISB Nonthaburi Campus — official campus page
• International Christian School Nonthaburi (ICSN) — accreditation page
• St. Andrews Samakee International School — official site
• Rose Marie Academy — about page
• Magic Years International School — IBO school register entry

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.