Farang in a Farang Land: The School Experience

Happy but crowded on the morning commute

In our previous trips here as a family (there have been 2) Luke was enrolled in an International School that was close to the university. He started in the nursery class there at 2 1/2 (for 6 months) and then returned for a shorter time (2 months) in 2011. Needless to say, as he has aged the need for monitoring what he is learning has become more consequential. Knowing that we would be finishing Kindergarten here brought a new (albeit self-imposed) pressure to find a school that was the right "fit" for him both academically and socially. The other difficulty is that the Thai school calendar is not at all compatible with the one in the US. Children start school in June and end the first term at the end of September. October is a break (much like our winter break) and then they return to school from November through mid-late March. This allows them to be out for the hottest part of the year (April and May). If we enrolled Luke in his old school he would cross 3 school terms but not be here for the entirety of the first or second term--no go.

I spent a fair amount of time prior to our arrival looking at school options on the internet and requesting information from some of the ones we thought might work. I thought we'd spend a couple days visiting schools, talking with other parents and weighing options. In fact, we stopped with one visit at one school because everything just felt right. Luke is attending St. Andrews-Sathorn campus http://www.standrewssathorn.com/ (there are 3 others) and it has been a wonderful environment for all of us. It is a British curriculum and a truly International mix of children-37% Thai and the other 63% from the rest of the world. One of MY favorite (petty) things about school here is the uniforms. There is no discussion about what he will wear to school except whether it is a regular uniform day OR a sport uniform day (worn on days they have PE). We were told on the first day that all the children must have a hat every day to wear on the playground. If they forget their hat then they aren't allowed to play in the sunny parts of the playground which is, of course, where everyone wants to play. We were told that there is a hat that comes with the uniform but that Luke could also choose another (non-uniform) hat. Here are the uniform pictures, I'll let you guess what he chose. ;)

Getting to school is an adventure. We live very close to the BTS (Bangkok Transit System) Skytrain. This allows us to walk about a block, hop on the BTS and be in the city in about 15 minutes. From our stop in the city it is a quick walk to the school. I think the novelty has worn off a bit but it was a lot of fun initially. We're slowly figuring out how early we need to be there and where to stand on the platform to get a space on the train as it is quite packed during the morning commute. Below are some pictures from the first day of school (we hadn't purchased the uniform yet) and trying out our morning routine.