The short version
Surat Thani is the mainland gateway to the Samui archipelago rather than an established expat base, and its international-school field is correspondingly small: three schools, all within about half an hour of the city, all comparatively young. Suratthani International School is the oldest, teaching the IB Primary Years Programme as a Candidate School ten minutes from the centre. Balance International School, in Bang Bai Mai, runs the Cambridge Pathway to IGCSE and is the only school here that reaches an external school-leaving examination. Daniel International School, on the Tapi River in Kanchanadit, opened in 2023 — Christian, trilingual in English, Chinese and Thai, and the only one with a host-family programme for children living outside the city. Below: where each school stops, what each is accredited by, how the school run works in a city with no rail, and everything we could not verify. For day-to-day budgeting pair this with the Surat Thani cost-of-living guide, and use the areas guide to match a neighbourhood to your school.
Surat Thani the city, not Surat Thani the province
This is worth getting straight before you compare anything, because it makes both national directories misleading here. Surat Thani is a province as well as a city, and the province contains Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan. The International Schools Database currently returns one school for Surat Thani — Daniel International School — and files eight more under Koh Samui and one under Ko Pha Ngan. doris returns three, but one of them is Lamai International School, which is in Maret on Koh Samui; its Surat Thani page then derives its “largest school by enrolment” and its average-school-size figure from that island school. Meanwhile Balance International School appears in neither directory, despite an .ac.th domain, a Thai landline and a full bilingual website. Both censuses are incomplete for this city, in opposite directions. If a listing shows you a Surat Thani school you have not heard of, check which side of the water it is on — the islands are a ferry crossing, not a school run. For those, see the Koh Samui schools guide and the Koh Pha Ngan guide.
The three schools
Every international school serving the Surat Thani mainland. This is a starting point, not a ranking — the right fit depends on curriculum, values, your child's age and where you plan to live.
| School | Where | Curriculum | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suratthani International School (STIS) | Phorkhuntale Road, about ten minutes by car from the city centre — Mueang Surat Thani district | California State / Common Core foundation, with the IB Primary Years Programme taught as a Candidate School | Families with primary-age children who want an inquiry-led IB PYP classroom, a small community-scale school and a secular setting, inside the city and on a short school run. It is the most established of the three and the only one in Surat Thani teaching an IB programme. It suits families with a teenager far less well: nothing the school currently publishes describes a secondary programme in any detail. |
| Balance International School Suratthani (BISS) | Bang Bai Mai, west of the city centre toward the Tapi River — Mueang Surat Thani district | The Cambridge Pathway, from the Cambridge Early Years curriculum through Key Stages 1-4, ending with IGCSE | Families who want a clean, externally examined Cambridge pathway -- Checkpoint at Year 6, Checkpoint at Year 9, IGCSE at Year 11 -- inside Mueang district, and who either plan to leave Thailand around 16 or are comfortable moving the child to a sixth form elsewhere. It is the only school on the Surat Thani mainland taking a child as far as IGCSE. |
| Daniel International School (DIS) | Ban Bo Chalok, on the Tapi River east of the city on the road toward Don Sak — Kanchanadit district | A bespoke, American-influenced standards-based curriculum drawing on American, British, Australian, Chinese and Thai standards, taught trilingually in English, Chinese and Thai | Families who specifically want a Christian framework, a trilingual English-Chinese-Thai programme and a STEAM-heavy environment on a large campus, and who are comfortable being early in a school's life. Its homestay programme makes it the one realistic mainland option for a family based outside the city -- including island families who want a mainland school -- and it is the only one of the three with a published fee schedule, published boarding costs and a published scholarship programme, though that scholarship is restricted to Thai nationals. |
Where each school stops
In Bangkok or Phuket you compare sixth forms. In Surat Thani you compare endings. None of the three mainland schools teaches to 18, they stop in three different places, and only one of them documents the ending cleanly. A family arriving with a nine-year-old has a comfortable few years here. A family arriving with a fifteen-year-old has a problem to solve before they sign a lease.
| School | Ends at | What that actually means |
|---|---|---|
| Suratthani International School (STIS) | Genuinely unresolved | The school's curriculum pages describe EY Prep (2-3) and the IB PYP (3-11, Grades 1-5) and no secondary school. Its own fee schedule carries a Middle School band from Grade 6 up, plus IGCSE and SAT examination fees. Both documents are the school's. Get the current year-group list in writing. |
| Balance International School (BISS) | Year 11 / IGCSE, about 16 | The clearest of the three. BISS states on its own overview page that it has no sixth form, and sets out the two routes it expects families to take: move to a school that offers one, in Bangkok or overseas, or take a university bridging course — it names a memorandum of understanding with Liverpool John Moores University. |
| Daniel International School (DIS) | Around Grade 10, and rising | Opened 2023 and adding a year group at a time. Its own 2026 open house welcomes pre-nursery to Grade 10 (ages 2-15). Advanced Placement in Grades 11-12 is described as the plan. Published age ranges disagree: the International Schools Database says to 16, doris says to 13. |
The nearest schools running to 18 are on Koh Samui, which is a ferry crossing away and where the post-16 picture has its own complications — of the island schools reaching 18, only one teaches its sixth form wholly on campus. Weigh that before assuming the islands solve the problem.
Accreditation and religious character
What each school publishes about itself — and, where an independent record disagrees, both readings. Note that none of the three holds a whole-school international accreditation we can confirm as complete and current: STIS's Cognia status is reported one way by the school and another by doris, DIS describes its WASC accreditation in the future tense, and BISS publishes nothing beyond its Cambridge status.
| School | Character | What it publishes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| STIS | Secular | IB PYP Candidate School; Cognia (school says accredited, doris says candidate); ONESQA; ISAT member; Common Core framework | Runs Vipassana meditation retreats with local Buddhist organisations as a community programme, with no confessional requirement |
| BISS | Secular | Cambridge International school, running Checkpoints and IGCSE; no whole-school accreditation published beyond that; holds a .ac.th domain | No statement of faith, worship requirement or religious studies condition anywhere on its site |
| DIS | Christian | ACSI member school; WASC self-study and initial accreditation visit described as intended, not held; school states its curriculum is approved and its school licence is still being obtained | Religion taught as a subject alongside the core programme; the host-family programme describes care for a child's spiritual needs |
One item on that table deserves lifting out of it. Daniel International School states on its own website — in the description carried site-wide on every page — that it is in the process of obtaining its school licence, and that its curriculum has already been approved. We report that verbatim, without interpretation, because school licensing is not something a relocating family should have to infer. Ask the school for its current position and for documentation.
The school run, in a city with no rail
Surat Thani has no BTS, no MRT and no urban rail of any kind, so where you live is decided by the drive. That would matter less if the schools ran buses — but only one of the three publishes any transport at all, and it does so as part of a homestay rather than as a route network. Measure your shortlisted commute yourself, at 07:00.
| Area | Schools within reach | Why families live there |
|---|---|---|
| Central Plaza / Talat Kaset | STIS (about 10 min), BISS | The city's everyday-amenity core and the shortest school run to STIS. The practical default for a family choosing either Mueang-district school. |
| Ban Don riverside | STIS, and the near end of the run to DIS | Old-town Surat Thani on the Tapi. Close enough to the centre for the STIS run and pointed the right way for the drive out to Kanchanadit. |
| Near Phun Phin | BISS | West of the city toward the railway station and airport road. Bang Bai Mai sits on this side of town — but BISS publishes no bus catchment, so drive it yourself. |
| Don Sak ferry corridor | DIS | East along the road to the Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan piers. DIS is the school nearest the ferries, which is precisely why it runs a host-family programme for children living outside the city. |
IB primary, Cambridge to IGCSE, or Christian and trilingual?
STIS suits families with primary-age children who want inquiry-led IB PYP teaching, a small secular community school and a ten-minute run into the city centre. It has real pastoral machinery behind it — a Learning Support Coordinator, a pastoral counsellor, and a tiered English Language Support programme that is compulsory once a child is assessed into it and carries a supplementary fee, which is worth knowing in advance if your child is not a confident English speaker. It suits a family with a teenager far less well. BISS suits families who want an externally examined Cambridge pathway with Checkpoints at Years 6 and 9 and IGCSE at Year 11, and who are clear-eyed that the child leaves Surat Thani at sixteen. DIS suits families who specifically want a Christian framework, trilingual English-Chinese-Thai teaching and a STEAM-heavy programme on a large campus, who are comfortable being early in a school's life, and — uniquely here — who live outside the city and need the host-family option.
Admissions & relocation
It is tempting to assume that a three-school city has places to spare. Do not: STIS operates a waiting list with its own registration fee, refunded only if no place opens within twelve months, which is not the machinery of a school with empty desks. All three assess before placing — STIS runs a suitability test with a fee scaled by level, BISS places on academic and English-language assessment, DIS runs its own admissions testing. Gather school reports, immunisation records and references before you leave home, and confirm whether an employer relocation package covers tuition before you commit to either a lease or a school. Then work through the list below, which is Surat Thani-specific and not the same set of questions you would ask in Bangkok.
- Ask for the current list of year groups actually running, in writing, with the number of children in each. This is the single highest-stakes question in Surat Thani. All three schools are small and comparatively young, published age ranges disagree with each other and in one case with the school's own fee schedule, and a stage can appear on a website while no class exists behind it.
- Ask what happens after the school ends -- because none of the three takes a child to 18. Get the school's honest answer on where its leavers actually go, and what it will and will not do to help you place a child who is 14 or 15 when you arrive.
- Ask whether the school holds a current Thai Ministry of Education school licence, and ask to see it. One of the three states on its own website that it is still in the process of obtaining one.
- Ask whether the school runs a bus, and exactly which sub-districts it covers. With no rail transit anywhere in the province, the bus catchment -- or its absence -- quietly decides which neighbourhoods are realistic for you.
- If your child is not a confident English speaker, ask how English language support is assessed, whether it is compulsory once a child is placed in it, and what it costs. At one school the programme is compulsory on assessment and carries a supplementary fee treated as part of standard tuition.
- Ask what is genuinely included and what is billed on top -- lunch, uniform, residential trips, external examination entries, after-school care, insurance. Surat Thani's schools split these very differently, which makes headline tuition figures close to useless for comparison.
- Request the school's own current fee schedule in writing. We do not publish per-school fees because they change annually, and because the figures circulating for these three schools are not comparable with one another.
Surat Thani international school questions
How many international schools are there in Surat Thani?
Three on the mainland: Suratthani International School (STIS), Balance International School (BISS) and Daniel International School (DIS). Be careful with directory counts, because Surat Thani is a province as well as a city and the province includes Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan. The International Schools Database currently lists one school for Surat Thani — DIS — and files the rest under the islands. doris lists three, but one of them is Lamai International School, which is in Maret on Koh Samui, and its Surat Thani averages are computed with that island school included. BISS appears in neither directory. Both national censuses are incomplete for this city, in different directions.
Does any school in Surat Thani teach to 18?
No. Not one of the three mainland schools takes a child to 18. BISS goes furthest, to Year 11 and IGCSE at about 16, and says openly on its own site that it has no sixth form. DIS is building upward from its 2023 opening and currently welcomes students to about Grade 10, with Advanced Placement in Grades 11-12 described as planned. STIS's own curriculum pages describe nothing beyond the Primary Years Programme at age 11, although its fee schedule contradicts that. If you are relocating with a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old, this is the fact to plan around — the nearest schools running to 18 are on Koh Samui, a ferry ride away.
Is there an IB or Cambridge school in Surat Thani?
Both, in a limited form. STIS teaches the IB Primary Years Programme as a Candidate School pursuing authorisation as an IB World School; candidate status is not authorisation, and the IB's own disclaimer, which STIS publishes, says it is no guarantee of it. There is no IB Middle Years or Diploma Programme anywhere in the city. BISS runs the Cambridge Pathway end to end — Cambridge Early Years, Checkpoint at Year 6, Checkpoint at Year 9 and IGCSE across Years 10 and 11, in six subjects by the school's own count. There are no A-levels on the Surat Thani mainland.
Which Surat Thani schools are secular, and which are religious?
STIS and BISS are secular: neither publishes a statement of faith, a worship requirement or a religious studies condition. STIS does run full-day Vipassana meditation retreats with local Buddhist organisations and calls itself the region's Centre for Vipassana Meditation, but that is a community and mindfulness programme rather than a confessional requirement. DIS is explicitly Christian — founded by a couple from Hong Kong who came to Thailand as Chinese teachers, a member school of the Association of Christian Schools International, with religion taught as a separate subject and a host-family programme that describes caring for a child's spiritual needs. Two secular out of three is not true of every provincial Thai city, and it is worth knowing which is which before you tour.
Does any Surat Thani school offer boarding?
Not in the sense most families mean. DIS advertises a Boarding Program and at least one directory records the city as having one boarding school — but read the school's own page and it is a host-family homestay: children are placed with selected and trained host parents, with transport to and from school where needed, breakfast and dinner daily, laundry and a study space, and the option to request an English- or Chinese-speaking household subject to availability. It is designed for students whose home is outside Surat Thani city, which in this province means the islands and outlying districts. It is a genuinely useful arrangement and it is not a supervised on-campus boarding house. STIS is a day school with after-school care to 16:45, and BISS advertises nothing of either kind.
Is there a school bus in Surat Thani?
Not one you can count on. Surat Thani city has no rail transit of any kind, so the school run is entirely a road question. STIS publishes no bus or coach service and doris records the same absence — which makes where you live matter more for STIS families than for anyone else. BISS publishes no catchment either, and the map embedded in its own footer is not a campus pin but the Bang Bai Mai sub-district centroid. DIS provides transport to and from school as part of its host-family programme where the home is not within walking distance. Ask each school directly, and drive your shortlisted route at 07:00 rather than at midday.
Why doesn't this page list tuition fees?
Because we do not publish per-school fee figures anywhere on this site — they change every year, and a stale number does a relocating family more harm than no number. This page previously carried a full grade-by-grade tuition table for one school, presented as a benchmark for the city. It was not one. The three schools split what tuition includes very differently: at STIS lunch is included in tuition while English Language Support carries a supplementary fee and residential trips are compulsory from Grade 1; DIS bills boarding separately by term; BISS publishes its own schedule. Ask each admissions office for its current schedule in writing, with registration, deposit, uniform, lunch, trips, examination entries and any language-support charges itemised.
Where should families live for schools in Surat Thani?
It depends almost entirely on which school you choose, because there is no rail and only one school publishes any transport at all. Families at STIS generally base themselves in or near the city centre along the Phorkhuntale Road and Central Plaza corridor, about ten minutes from campus. BISS is in Bang Bai Mai, on the western side of Mueang district toward Phun Phin. DIS is not in the city at all — it is at Ban Bo Chalok in Kanchanadit district, east on the corridor running out toward the Don Sak ferry piers, and is the longest daily drive of the three from the centre. See our Surat Thani areas guide for the full breakdown.
This guide is general information for relocation planning, not admissions or financial advice. School fees, curricula, campus locations, licensing and admissions rules change — confirm current details directly with each school. BAANLYY takes no paid placement in this content and is not affiliated with any school named on this page.
International schools near Surat Thani
International schools in and around Surat Thani, 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
- Suratthani International School (STIS) — official site
- STIS — our curriculum (EY Prep and the IB PYP)
- STIS — FAQ (English Language Support, school year, lunches)
- Balance International School (BISS) — overview and Cambridge pathway
- Daniel International School — official site
- Daniel International School — Boarding Program (host-family)
- International Schools Database — Surat Thani
- doris — international schools in Surat Thani
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.
Plan the rest of your move.
School shortlisted — now match a family-friendly area near your chosen school and line up banking and your visa.
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