Redundancy forces big life changes

Welcome Jan

I will answer separately to your query, and I will start by the Schools in Chiang Mai

In Chiang Mai there is one school which follow british curriculum which is Lanna International School ( http://www.lannaist.ac.th ) a bit quite expensive you can find the fees online ( count as an average of 200,000 THB per year usually increase 5% per year ), my daughter is there.

You have also a US school called American Pacific school ( http://www.apis.ac.th/index.php/en/ ), another well know is Grace International School ( http://www.gisthailand.org/ ) which is more Christian.

These 3 schools are located in Hang Dong area

Anyway you can filter in this website all the schools in Thailand, and which curriculum  you are looking for.

Regarding rental, with a budget of 20,000 THB you can rent a house in gated community area like Hang Dong with all facilities, that mean you will have playground, club house, fitness centre, swimming pool, sometimes tennis, badmington, sauna, etc...

Personnally I think with a kid it is better to live in an house than a condominium. I can list some few mooban in the areas of Hang Dong, but if there are one specific you are looking for I can advice.

Look also at the housing section of this website, as well as other websites.

The cheapest price in Hang Dong gated community I have seen was a bungalow furnished 3 bedrooms for 10,000 THB per month, excluding obviously all the utilities bills and common fees.

Swimming pool fees will depends on the place you stay but fee can vary between 30 THB to 80 THB each time you use it, sometimes you pay annual fees to use the whole facilities.

Common area fees depends on the size of the land and will be in a wide range between 6 THB to 18 THB per sqwah ( 1 sqwah = 4 sqm ). For a plot of 400 sqm = 100sqw you will pay between 600 THB to 1800 THB ( but average will be more 12 THB per sqw )

If you live in Doi Saket or Mae Rim, it will be cheaper, but far from international schools with morning traffic...

Avoid area under plane pathway as it can be noisy, as well as close to river because of flooding,....

Hi cthierrymk,

That's all great information, thanks so much.
Schools are my biggest concern at the moment because whichever one we choose determines living area, etc.
I've worked out british curriculum (bc) is not for us because daughter only has 2.5 years left in Oz high school but would have to do another 4 yrs with a bc school.  American curriculum only adds another 6 months to the 2.5 years, so that's better for us.
Also, we're not religious so any heavy handed religious school isn't an option either.  APIS looks ok, but can't find their fees online. Have you heard of chiang mai international school (cmis) and would that be suitable? Is it in a good area?
Fees up to 250000 are ok, but not much more above that.
Interesting about a house in a moobaan, I'd just thought of apartments but I suppose if we were in an expat area near the school it might be more social for my daughter.
Food for thought....

thanks   

Regarding schools there are competition and some does not publish their fees online or they are old, you need to ask them by email.

For example Lanna Internation School alwyas ask us to pay since march an non refundable deposit of 30,000 THB to book a place for the next year, and they justify it by saying they have a long waiting list, whatsoever be aware that you will have to book the school in advance and not when you arrive here, 1 year in dadvance maybe just ask by email what I have done in the past from UK, but what more easy for my wife to travel and see also...

Some building can be old, some others can be news, some school can have their private pool, etc... most of the school have private school bus but even they have 10 mini bus they will manage to go in the area where the kids live, I use it 1st year for my daughter, but I found it too long as they have to pick up kids in different place, and the 15mn drive could turn in an hour with stop in all the places.

Sorry I dont know the others schools, most have their websites to read over and judge, and plan a visit of the one you have selected,.. as i said fees increase quickly,,,, even I calculated the next 12 years for my daughter based on published fees in the past, all will be wrong without included a yearly increase, I was shocked to get over 8% increase for next year even it was frozen the year before,,I tried to et all the previous fees on internet but no traceability, now I compile all in my computer,.....

They do what they want there will be no control about school cost increase as they are private, but if the quality of teachers they recruit from abroad are good why not, depends on how much they really pay them...

cthierrymk wrote:

Welcome Jan

Anyway you can filter in this website all the schools in Thailand, and which curriculum  you are looking for.

I just discover that the link was missing, now you can do a wider search, sorry for that :

http://www.isat.or.th/schools