American Pacific International School is a privately owned, for profit boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 in Chiang Mai, Thailand with a kindergarten

Kindergarten

A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

, elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

, middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

, and high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

. The school operates on two campuses. American Pacific International Kindergarten (APIK) is in suburban Chiang Mai while the main boarding campus (MBC) is 25 kilometers from the city center. APIK has pre-nursery to grade 1 and the MBC has grades 1-12. It is a fee paying school, that opened in 1997, and makes annual tuition charges of 480,000 baht

Thai baht

The baht is the currency of Thailand. It is subdivided into 100 satang . The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand.-History:The baht, like the pound, originated from a traditional unit of mass...

, or 12,800 USD.

Residence

The school is one of only a few to accept residential students from the age of six. The school currently maintains four boarding houses: Odden Hall, Bundarik Hall, Sakthong House and Inthanon House.

Curriculum

The school's curriculum aims to generate the skills of creativity and enquiry in a multi-cultural environment.

It offers an American-style curriculum to those aged from two to eighteen within Thailand, and is fully registered with the Royal Thai Ministry of Education. The school has been accredited by The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The head teacher is Ross Hall, and has been previously Peter Welch, Keith Wacker and Barry Sutherland.The founding head was Gordon Jones, formerly of the Taft School, Connecticut, USA.

Teaching staff

The teaching staff of the school mainly originate from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, with some from Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 , Thailand and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Keith Wecker, a previous head teacher, did a podcast in late 2006 about his experience of being the head of the school.