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In 2018 the long-established Burapha group — operators of BEST, the Thai-English Programme school that opened on 1 February 1997 in Nongprue — opened a separate, purpose-built international secondary school next door: BPIS. The reason was simple. Families who'd done seven years of bilingual primary at BEST faced an awkward Y7 decision: leave the Burapha system for an international secondary (TPIS, MIS, Regents) and pay ฿350K-฿600K/year, or stay in the Thai system at a Thai-bilingual secondary. BPIS solved that — same neighbourhood, same group, but now international curriculum, English-medium, publishing Cambridge IGCSE and A-Level pathways, and (critically) priced just slightly above a Thai-bilingual school.
The pitch in one line: The pragmatic continuation school for Thai-bilingual primary graduates who want a Y7-Y13 international British pathway without the international-school price tag. Whether that pricing strategy is sustainable, and whether the academic structure delivers what families need for university entry, is the editorial question of this school.
BPIS sits at 253/17 Moo 13, Sukhumvit-Pattaya Alley 81, Nongprue, Banglamung — same Nongprue postal area as MIS and TPIS. The BEST primary campus is at the related Burapha address. Families on the published pathway send their child through BEST's Thai-bilingual programme (Pre-K through Y6, Thai MoE curriculum with significant English-medium content) and then transition into BPIS at Year 7. The transition is the editorial question. BEST primary students aren't being prepared for Cambridge IGCSE the way a pure-British primary student is — they've been on a Thai MoE curriculum with bilingual delivery. Joining Y7 at BPIS means stepping onto a Cambridge-aligned secondary track for the first time. The school doesn't publish a transition bridging programme or English-language readiness assessment specifically for incoming BEST graduates — that's a real question to ask on tour.
The curriculum is straightforward: Y7-9 Key Stage 3 (the standard British middle-years curriculum), Y10-11 Cambridge IGCSE (typically 8-9 subjects), Y12-13 AS/A-Level Sixth Form (typically 3-4 subjects in depth). Single exam board (Cambridge / CAIE) — no Edexcel option (that's TPIS's dual-board differentiator). No IB Diploma option (Regents Pattaya, Garden Rayong, St Andrew's GV territory).
The school publishes a separate page for each Key Stage on its site (Y7-9 KS3, Y10-11 IGCSE, Y12-13 A-Level). Subject offerings at A-Level — the most important question for a Sixth Form decision — are not fully published on the site as of May 2026. Verify on tour which A-Level subjects are actively delivered each year and what the Sixth Form cohort size looks like. At a school of BPIS's age (8 years) and likely cohort scale, A-Level subjects will run only when there's enough demand. Some specs (Further Maths, Computer Science, specific Modern Languages) may not run every year. That's true at most small Sixth Forms — but it matters more here because the alternative for a BEST-pathway family is to switch schools at Y12, which is structurally painful.
BPIS's published fee page says tuition is all-inclusive and has no hidden fees. The school's own 2025/26 Parent-Student Handbook creates an important boundary around that headline: it says extra classes require payment, the bookstore sells textbooks, and the school shop sells uniforms and class supplies. Neither source publishes the prices of those items, transport, trips or external examinations. The public sources therefore do not support treating ฿126,000 or ฿157,500 as a guaranteed final annual bill. Ask admissions for a grade-specific written inclusion list and current tariffs before paying the non-refundable registration charge.
One structural quirk worth understanding: BPIS publishes its fee table with only two columns — Term 1 and Term 2. Most international schools in this directory operate on a 3-term British academic year (Autumn, Spring, Summer). BPIS appears to run a 2-semester academic year, which is closer to an American university structure. That changes the calendar. Holiday windows are different, parent-teacher cycles are different, and end-of-semester assessments fall at different points in the year. For families with siblings at a 3-term school (Regents, MIS, TPIS, or BEST primary), this means non-aligned school calendars — different holiday weeks, different report cycles, potentially different family-trip windows. Not a deal-breaker, but worth knowing before enrolment.
BPIS publishes news of Bangkok University visits and university guidance sessions on its own site, and its achievements page names one alumnus, Mr. Daffa Cipta, as currently studying at Chulalongkorn University. That is real evidence of a Thai-university route, but it is still thin evidence: one named alumnus and one 2026 guidance-session article do not equal a cohort-level destination record. The safest reading is that BPIS is building a university pathway oriented primarily toward Thai universities, with some abroad, rather than the predominantly UK/US/Australian-bound trajectory of Rugby, Regents, or ISE graduates. This is consistent with the school's affordability positioning — the BEST→BPIS pathway typically serves Thai-resident, Thai-passport families (often half-Thai) who plan to attend university in Thailand or via specific Thai-track international scholarships. For families targeting Russell Group UK universities, Oxbridge, or US Ivy League, the cohort and counselling structure here is less aligned. Not better, not worse — different.
The British Established-tier secondary trio in Nongprue is BPIS, MIS, and TPIS. At Year 7, all-in tuition (including supplementary where applicable):
BPIS is 3.5x cheaper than MIS, 4.4x cheaper than TPIS, and 4.8x cheaper than Regents at Year 7. That's not a small difference — it's a structural one. What you trade for it: smaller school, less-published subject catalogue, single exam board, no Sixth Form A-Level breadth comparable to the bigger schools, no global-network operating layer, and an academic year structure different from peers. For Thai-resident families with realistic Thai-university destinations and a budget that doesn't stretch to the Premium tier, BPIS is the structural fit. For families targeting top-tier UK/US universities, the bigger schools have more developed counselling and a deeper subject catalogue at Sixth Form.
Sourced directly from BPIS's official school-fees page. Two semesters per year, not three terms. The page does not state an academic year. Its all-inclusive claim should be read alongside the 2025/26 handbook, which identifies paid extra classes and school-sold textbooks, uniforms and supplies without publishing their prices.
| Year group | Age | Per semester | Annual (2 sem) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key Stage 3 (Middle Years) | |||
| Year 7 | 11-12 | ฿63,000 | ฿126,000 |
| Year 8 | 12-13 | ฿63,000 | ฿126,000 |
| Year 9 | 13-14 | ฿63,000 | ฿126,000 |
| Cambridge IGCSE (Key Stage 4) | |||
| Year 10 | 14-15 | ฿63,000 | ฿126,000 |
| Year 11 | 15-16 | ฿78,750 | ฿157,500 |
| Sixth Form A-Level (Key Stage 5) | |||
| Year 12 | 16-17 | ฿78,750 | ฿157,500 |
| Year 13 | 17-18 | ฿78,750 | ฿157,500 |
| One-time admission fees | |||
| Application Form | — | ฿200 | |
| Admission / Registration Fee | — | ฿30,000 | |
| Insurance Fee (annual, billed first year) | — | ฿1,200 | |
| One-time admission total | — | ฿31,400 | |
| First-year total · typical Y7 student | 11 | ~ ฿157,400 | |
| First-year total · typical Y12 A-Level student | 16 | ~ ฿188,900 | |
Primary-source conflict: the fee page says tuition is all-inclusive, while the 2025/26 handbook explicitly refers to paid extra classes and school-sold textbooks, uniforms and class supplies. The handbook does not say whether any of those are compulsory for a particular grade, and neither source prices them. External examinations, transport and trips are also unpriced in the public fee material. Do not estimate them. Require the written offer to mark each line included, optional, compulsory or not yet set.
If your child is finishing Year 6 at BEST and the Burapha group has been a good fit for primary, BPIS is the structurally obvious continuation. Same neighbourhood, same parent organisation, same English-medium-but-with-Thai-context environment, and a Cambridge IGCSE + A-Level pathway that opens international university applications. The right family wants a budget-comfortable secondary beginning at ฿126K tuition, is willing to obtain the unpriced books, uniform, classes, transport, trip and exam lines in writing, is comfortable with a smaller school of unpublished cohort size, and doesn't need IBDP optionality.
Side-by-side fee tables and fit frameworks — the fastest way to decide between two schools you are already considering.
Burapha Pattanasart International School offers British (English National Curriculum, KS3-5), Cambridge IGCSE (Y10-11), AS/A-Level (Y12-13). Ages 11-18. Verify current pathways with the school's admissions office.
Published annual tuition is approximately ฿126K–฿158K per year (Jul 2026 verification). One-time fees, boarding, transport, and supplementary charges are additional — see the editorial fee table.
Burapha Pattanasart International School is in Banglamung (253/17 Moo 13, Sukhumvit-Pattaya Alley 81, Nongprue, Banglamung, Chonburi 20150). Commute times from central Pattaya vary — see the editorial for area context.
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