Boarding Schools in Phuket for Bangkok Families: BISP and UWC (2026/27)

Two international schools in Phuket take boarders: the British International School, Phuket (BISP) in Koh Kaew and UWC Thailand in Thalang. From Bangkok they are a flight of about an hour and a half, with many flights a day from both Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, which makes them a realistic option for Bangkok families who want boarding without sending a child to the UK. This guide compares the two, with the 2026/27 fees and the questions worth asking before you apply.

BISP: boarding from age 8

BISP is the island's largest school, founded in 1996 on a 44-acre campus, and the only one on Phuket offering both A Levels and the IB Diploma. It takes boarders from Year 4 (age 8) to Year 13, either weekly or full, and one school directory puts the number of boarders at about 120. Its boarding houses are staffed by full-time house parents with assistants and matrons.

BISP publishes its 2026/27 fees in full, and boarding is charged on top of tuition. Weekly boarding costs 396,400 baht a year for Years 4 to 6 and 457,800 baht for Years 7 to 13. Full boarding costs 473,550 baht for Years 4 to 6 and 509,300 baht for Years 7 to 13. Tuition runs from 755,900 baht in Year 4 to 982,700 baht in Years 9, 10 and 12, so a full boarder in Year 9 costs about 1.49 million baht a year in tuition and boarding together.

New families also pay a 6,000 baht application fee, a placement fee of 200,000 baht (250,000 baht for a family with more than one child) and a refundable 150,000 baht bond. For children whose English needs work, BISP runs an Intensive English Course in Years 7 and 8, charged at 63,000 baht in the first term and 42,000 baht in each of the next two.

UWC Thailand: boarding from Grade 9

UWC Thailand is a non-profit IB school (Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma) next to Thanyapura in Thalang, part of the worldwide UWC movement, with mindfulness and outdoor education built into school life. Boarding is for Grades 9 to 12 only. Boarders live in two houses on campus with houseparents and can use Thanyapura's pool and sports facilities. The school also offers day boarding, where students stay for meals, study and evening activities until 9pm.

UWC publishes its 2026/27 fees as an image and a PDF rather than page text. A school directory gives the boarding fee as 633,000 baht a year for 2025/26, alongside tuition of 845,000 baht for Grades 6 to 10 and 904,000 baht for Grades 11 and 12, so expect 2026/27 to be a little higher and ask admissions for the current figure. Students applying for the IB Diploma can also apply through their national UWC committee, which offers need-based scholarships.

UWC boarders go home on long weekends when staff have training days, and the school expects them to arrive on time and stay through the full term, which is worth knowing when you book flights.

Weekly or full boarding from Bangkok?

Weekly boarding means coming home every weekend, which from Bangkok means two flights a week, so most Bangkok families will be looking at full boarding. If one parent can spend part of the year in Phuket, weekly boarding at BISP or day boarding at UWC gives more flexibility, and our guide to where to live in Phuket with kids covers the areas near each school.

Try a summer camp first

Both schools run residential summer camps, an easy way to see how a child copes with boarding before you commit. In 2026 Summer@BISP's Full Camp took boarders aged 10 to 15 for 29,400 baht a week, and UWC's Residential Camp took ages 12 to 18 for 36,500 baht a week. The 2027 dates aren't out yet, and we'll add them to the camps directory as soon as they are.

Questions to ask before you apply

Ask each school how weekends work for full boarders, which weekends and holidays students must go home, whether staff take students to and from the airport, and whether a local guardian is required. Airlines set their own rules for children flying alone, and many charge for an unaccompanied minor service, so check those before you plan regular flights.

It is also worth asking how the boarding staff handle illness and who takes a child to hospital. Phuket's private hospitals are covered in our Phuket hospitals guide, including children's clinic hours.

To compare boarding in Phuket with staying in Bangkok, our Bangkok site has a guide to what international school really costs in Bangkok, and our Phuket school fees guide covers every day school on the island.