International school fees · Bangkok · 2026-27
ELC International Schools (The City School and The Purple Elephant) fees 2026-27: 950,200 THB a year (£21,161)
Sukhumvit (The City School; Purple Elephant 39, 49, 55), Bangkok · ages Toddler (Purple Elephant) to Year 6 (The City School) · checked 27 October 2026
- Tuition, Year 6950,200 THB
- Registration fee, paid once237,000 THB
- Pre-enrolment fee, paid once95,000 THB
- First year, not refundable1,282,200 THB
- Plus deposit, refundable20,000 THB £445
At the 12-month low of 41.876 this first year was £30,619. At the high of 45.194 it was £28,371.
Source: elc.ac.th (pdf), the school’s own fee schedule. Checked 27 October 2026. Refundable deposits are shown separately and are not in the total. Optional extras, trips, transport and uniform are not in it either.
What a year costs here.
ELC International Schools (The City School and The Purple Elephant) charges 950,200 THB a year for Year 6 in 2026-27: about £21,161 at 44.9 baht to the pound. Non-refundable one-off fees add 332,000 THB, plus 20,000 THB of refundable deposits, so the first year at this year group costs about 1,282,200 THB (£28,555). Figures are from the school's own fee schedule, checked 27 October 2026.
ELC International Schools (The City School and The Purple Elephant) is an international school in Sukhumvit (The City School; Purple Elephant 39, 49, 55), Bangkok, taking children aged Toddler (Purple Elephant) to Year 6 (The City School). The figures on this page are the school's own published fees for 2026-27, converted to pounds at the mid-market rate on the day The Baht last rebuilt this page. Nothing here is an estimate: where the school does not publish a number, the line is left blank.
Rate used at build: 44.9 THB per GBP, Latest daily mid-market snapshot · 10 November 2026.
Tuition by year group.
Tap a row for the source and the sum.
Every row above is from the school's own fee schedule at elc.ac.th (pdf), read on 27 October 2026. Nothing is estimated or taken from a third-party site. Where a row says so, the annual figure is the school’s termly fee multiplied by the number of terms.
One-off fees and deposits.
Same source and date as the tuition table: elc.ac.th, checked 27 October 2026.
What the fee schedule says.
- Payment. Two payment periods (August-December, January-June); full payment required before a child joins. New enrolments: remainder due 1 May / 15 Oct; returning: 1 July / 15 Nov. Late payment interest 1.5% per month.
- Only one fee document is published on the ELC site: the 2026-27 fee policy for The City School (linked from the homepage and school pages). The Purple Elephant toddler centres have no fee schedule on the site. Annual figures are 2 x the per-period figures (derived). Re-enrolment fee for returning families 95,000 (due March; applied to the first payment term's tuition, so not an extra cost on top). Student Services and Wellbeing department fees and bus fees are extra. Online payments carry a 2% surcharge; card fees 1.7-2.6% depending on card. Curriculum and founding year not read from the school's site (not recorded). Fee year note: The City School only.
- How the figures were read: the page URL https://www.elc.ac.th/feepolicy-2026-2027-elc-the-city-school-1/ redirects to the PDF.
What it costs in pounds, and why that moves.
The school bills in baht. A British family paying from sterling income pays a different amount every term because GBP/THB moves. The same Year 6 fee of 950,200 THB is:
| GBP/THB | Annual fee in pounds |
|---|---|
| 48 | £19,796 |
| 44.9 (today) | £21,161 |
| 42 | £22,624 |
Between a strong-pound year and a weak one the sterling cost of this school moves by about £2,828 a year per child. A family paying termly from a UK account at a high-street bank's 3 to 5 per cent spread adds £846 a year on top. Fee payments are the single largest transfer most expat families make, which is why the transfer method matters more here than anywhere else in the budget.
A termly 316,733 THB transfer at the mid-market rate costs a fraction of a bank's spread. Compare the GBP to THB quote before the first invoice.
Schools in Bangkok at a similar fee.
Source: each school’s own fee page; open a school for its source and checked date.
Side by side: ELC vs Dulwich College Bangkok · ELC vs Wellington College Bangkok · ELC vs Shrewsbury Riverside · ELC vs King's Bangkok.
All Bangkok schools, cheapest first, with the median and range: international school fees in Bangkok. The national picture is on Thailand international school fees 2026-27: the statistics.
Report a figure, read the method.
What did you actually pay at ELC International Schools (The City School and The Purple Elephant)?
Published figures are the starting point; the real bill is what readers tell us. Reports are checked by hand before anything appears here, and no name or email is published.
Reading the fee schedule
- The hidden fees catalogue: the £30,000 to £70,000 your school will charge that is not in the tuition schedule.
- The fee inflation trap: how £18,000 in Year 1 becomes £32,000 by Year 13.
- The British family's decision framework for international schools in Asia.
- Where the £25,000 actually goes: the international school operating budget nobody publishes.
How The Baht records school fees
Every figure comes from the school's own website or fee document, recorded with its URL and the date it was checked. Figures are annual tuition as the school states them, in Thai baht, for the academic year shown. Where a school prints termly fees only, the annual figure is the termly fee multiplied by the number of terms and is marked as such. Refundable deposits are listed but excluded from first-year totals. Pound figures use the mid-market GBP/THB rate on the day the page was built (Latest daily mid-market snapshot · 10 November 2026) and are rounded to the nearest pound. Fee schedules change every year, usually between March and July; the checked date on this page is the date the figures were last read from the school's site. Corrections: editorial@thebaht.com.