Balance International School Suratthani (BISS).

Overview

Balance International School Suratthani sits at 88/8 Moo 1 in Bang Bai Mai, inside Mueang Surat Thani district, and is the only school on the Surat Thani mainland that takes a child all the way to an external school-leaving examination. It runs the Cambridge Pathway end to end: the Cambridge Early Years curriculum in the foundation stage, blending Montessori, Reggio Emilia and play-based approaches; project-based learning through Key Stage 1; academic preparation in Key Stage 2 for the first Cambridge Checkpoint at the end of Year 6; a second Checkpoint and IGCSE option choices through Key Stage 3; and a two-year, examination-driven IGCSE course across Years 10 and 11. What distinguishes BISS from the other two mainland schools is not its curriculum but its candour about the end of it -- the school states on its own overview page that it has no sixth form and sets out the two routes it expects families to take instead.

BAANLYY is not affiliated with BISS and takes no paid placement in this guide. We publish no per-school fee figures anywhere on this site -- they change every year, and the figures circulating for Surat Thani's three schools are not comparable with one another. Ask the school for its current schedule.

Key facts

The pathway, stage by stage

• Early Years Foundation Stage -- the Cambridge Early Years curriculum, which the school describes as play-based and drawing on Montessori and Reggio Emilia
• Key Stage 1 -- play-based learning giving way to project-based learning
• Key Stage 2 -- academic preparation for the first Cambridge Checkpoint at the end of Year 6
• Key Stage 3 -- a second Checkpoint, and IGCSE subject choices made by the end of the stage
• Key Stage 4, Years 10-11 -- a two-year, examination-driven IGCSE course. The school states that six subjects are offered, and that a student needs a grade C or above in them to be considered for Thai university entrance.

Where the school stops

Year 11 and IGCSE, at about 16. BISS is unusually straight about this: its own overview page tells families that a student wanting sixth form has two options -- move to a school that offers it, for which BISS says it can help with schools in Bangkok and overseas, or take a bridging course at a UK university on a fast-tracked post-16 qualification, for which it names a memorandum of understanding with Liverpool John Moores University. Read that as the school telling you plainly that your child will leave Surat Thani at sixteen. Plan for it rather than discover it.

No school on the Surat Thani mainland teaches to 18. See the Surat Thani schools guide for how all three compare on this, and the Koh Samui schools guide for the nearest schools that do.

Accreditation & memberships

What BISS itself publishes. Where an independent source disagrees, it is named in the flags below rather than quietly dropped.

• Cambridge International -- the school describes itself as a fully credited Cambridge International School and structures its entire curriculum, Checkpoints and IGCSE around the Cambridge Pathway
• Memorandum of understanding with Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, which the school names on its overview page as its bridging route for students who want a post-16 qualification
• Beyond its Cambridge status, BISS publishes no whole-school accreditation. It holds a .ac.th domain, which in Thailand is issued to registered educational institutions.

Who it’s for

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.

Compare with STIS and DIS.

Location & the school run

Bang Bai Mai is a sub-district of Mueang Surat Thani west of the centre. There is no rail transit in the province, and BISS publishes no bus service or catchment on its site. Note that the map embedded in the school's own footer is not a campus pin at all -- it resolves to the Bang Bai Mai sub-district centroid -- so measure the drive from your shortlisted rental yourself before signing anything.

Areas families use for this school run: Central Plaza / Talat Kaset →Near Phun Phin →

What we could not verify, and where sources disagree

We publish this rather than tidy it away. Every item below is something a family should raise directly with the school.

• BISS runs two live domains -- biss.ac.th and biss.in.th -- with overlapping content. Our previous guide cited biss.in.th. We now cite the .ac.th site, which carries the more recent uploads and a 2026 copyright line, but the school has not retired the other, so a family comparing the two may find them disagreeing. Ask which is authoritative.
• The claim that BISS is the first fully credited Cambridge International School is the school's own marketing, and its scope shifts within a single page: the overview paragraph says in Surat Thani, while the callout further down the same page says in the South of Thailand and Surat Thani City. Cambridge International registers and authorises schools rather than accrediting them, and the school's own wording is credited rather than accredited. We report the claim as the school's, not as a finding.
• Neither the International Schools Database nor doris lists BISS at all. That absence is not evidence the school does not exist -- it has an .ac.th domain, a Thai landline, a full multi-page site in English and Thai, and active Facebook, Instagram and LINE channels. It does mean the two directories most families will search are both incomplete for this city, and that no independent record of the school's size or accreditation exists for us to check the school's own account against.
• The number of IGCSE subjects is the school's own figure -- six. Ask which six, in writing, before a Key Stage 3 child commits, because six is a narrow menu and it constrains what a sixth form elsewhere will accept.
• The school names its bridging partner as John Moore Liverpool University. The institution's actual name is Liverpool John Moores University. We have corrected it here; the school has not corrected it on its own page.
• BISS states that a grade C or above is needed for consideration for Thai university entrance. That is the school's framing of Thai admissions, not a rule we can verify, and it says nothing about entry requirements outside Thailand.

Confirm these before you enrol

• 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.

Sources & References

• Ministry of Education, Thailand
• Balance International School Suratthani -- official site

Facts are taken from the school's own official website first. Independent directories are used only as a cross-check and are named wherever we rely on them. BAANLYY is not affiliated with this school and takes no paid placement in this content -- always confirm current fees, admissions, licensing and campus details directly with the school.