Rugby School Thailand.

The campus

Address: Khao Mai Kaew, Bang Lamung, Chonburi 20150

An 80-acre purpose-built countryside site — the largest school campus in the Pattaya area — with boarding houses, a Sixth Form Centre and the sports provision you would expect of a school carrying that particular name. The scale is the point: this is a school built as an English public school in the Thai countryside rather than a city campus that grew.

Where this campus actually is

Khao Mai Kaew is genuinely rural and genuinely inland — budget around 25 minutes from central Pattaya without traffic, and treat that as a floor rather than an average. There is no rail and no useful public transport; it is the school bus, your own car, or boarding. Families who take a beachfront condo at Jomtien or Wong Amat and then send a child here should price the drive honestly before signing a lease. A large number of families solve this with weekly or part boarding instead, which is a real and commonly-used option rather than a last resort.

There is no urban rail anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard — no BTS, no MRT, no metro. The State Railway's eastern line calls at Pattaya but it is a sparse intercity service, not a school run, and the Bangkok–U-Tapao high-speed rail scheme is not in service. Baht buses cover the beach strip and do not usefully reach the inland campuses where most of these schools sit. Every school run here is a car, a school bus, a motorbike or a Grab — so the neighbourhood you choose and the bus route you qualify for matter more in Pattaya than in almost any Thai city. Read the Pattaya getting-around guide and the Pattaya area guides before you sign a lease.

The curriculum pathway

How a child progresses through the school, stage by stage:

• Pre-Prep from age 2, on the English Early Years Foundation Stage and national curriculum.
• Prep School through the primary and lower-secondary years, on the English national curriculum.
• Senior School to IGCSE.
• Sixth Form (Years 12–13) centred on A-levels, with students taking three to four subjects in depth over two years.

Accreditation & memberships

Accreditation is the closest thing to an objective quality signal in international schooling — it means an outside body has inspected governance, teaching and safeguarding. BAANLYY does not rank schools, so this is what Rugby School Thailand and its accrediting bodies publish, not our verdict:

• The Thailand sister school of Rugby School, England — one of the original English public schools.
• Co-educational British international school registered with Thailand's Ministry of Education.
• Cambridge and Pearson examination pathways to IGCSE and A-level. We have not verified an independent whole-school accreditation (CIS, NEASC, WASC) from primary sources, so we do not claim one — ask the school directly.

Boarding and the size of the school

Boarding: Yes, and it is central to the school's model rather than an add-on. Boarding is available from age 11 upwards in part (three nights), weekly (five nights) and full (seven nights) formats, run on the English house system.

Scale: Around 1,200 students, with the school reporting a roughly 40% Thai and 60% international mix — a more Thai-weighted community than ISE or the French school, and more balanced than most. Roll and nationality figures move every year and schools report them differently — treat these as indicative and ask the admissions office for current numbers.

Who this school tends to suit

Families who specifically want an English public-school education — houses, boarding, the full pastoral structure — without sending a child to England, and families posted to the Eastern Seaboard for whom weekly boarding solves the geography. It suits a child who will thrive in a large, structured, tradition-heavy institution. Families who want an IB Diploma should look at Regents, ISE, St Andrews Green Valley or Garden International instead: Rugby's sixth form is an A-level school.

This is our editorial read for relocation planning, not a ranking or a recommendation — and no school pays to appear on BAANLYY. Visit shortlisted campuses before you decide.

Living near Rugby School Thailand

Khao Mai Kaew sits inland and east. Families choosing to live rather than board generally look at the eastern and lake-side areas:

Confirm the bus catchment before you sign. Pattaya's international schools are strung along a 60-kilometre corridor across three districts and two provinces — Nongprue in the city, Pong and Khao Mai Kaew inland, Green Valley towards Sriracha, Bo Win beyond it and Ban Chang in Rayong. Choosing a home on the wrong side of that corridor turns a ten-minute run into a daily hour each way.

What to confirm directly with the school

BAANLYY deliberately does not publish per-school tuition figures: they change annually, schools publish their own current schedules, and a stale number is worse than none. Take this list to the admissions office:

• Whether the sixth form offers the subject combination your child needs — an A-level-only sixth form is a narrower commitment than a school offering both A-level and IB, and subject availability at A-level depends on cohort numbers each year.
• The current fee schedule — tuition, application and registration fees, any refundable deposit or capital/development levy, uniforms, lunches, the bus and trips.
• Whether the year group you need has a place, or a waitlist, for your intended start date.
• The school bus route, catchment zone and pick-up time for the exact neighbourhood you are considering — then ask what time the bus actually arrives back. On the Eastern Seaboard this is the single most important question a family can ask. Campuses are spread across three districts and two provinces, and an hour each way is entirely possible if you choose the wrong side of the city.
• Whether the drive you were quoted was measured in rush hour. Sukhumvit Road through Pattaya and the Highway 7 / Highway 36 junctions bear little resemblance at 07:30 to what a mid-morning school tour suggests.
• Entry requirements: assessments, interviews, English-language support and the school reports or transcripts you must supply.
• How far the school takes your child, and on which exam pathway — the Eastern Seaboard mixes Cambridge IGCSE and A-level, IB Diploma, American high-school diploma and the French baccalauréat, and switching between them mid-secondary is disruptive and sometimes not possible at all.
• For boarding: the weekly and flexi options actually running this year, the age they start, and the exeat and weekend arrangements.

Visit the official Rugby School Thailand website →

Sources & References

• Ministry of Education, Thailand

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.