History

Buds International School is the oldest bi-lingual nursery and kindergarten school in Phuket with a time proven schedule and curriculum. The school was started in the early ninety nineties by a Thai educator to help her own two children achieve a head start while they were still toddlers. While she ran the school both she and the school received many awards for excellence. She then sold the school and moved to Great Britain in 2004 to further the education of her growing children.

The current Holland-American and Thai management team have expanded and improved the curriculum by adopting the basic University of Minnesota Kindergarten Curriculum which incorporates modern educational thinking with the best parts of the traditional Montessori and Head Start programs. We have recently moved into a new school building designed specifically as a daycare, nursery, kindergarten and preschool facility.

Buds International School’s Purpose, Aims and Goals:

Our basic goal is to help your child achieve a great head start in today’s world by giving them a good basis of English and developing their social skills with both their peers and the teachers and adults on the staff.

At Buds International School, we will help your child learn English in a structured, planned environment. Math, science, arts and crafts, as well as Thai language are also taught. Whenever possible we communicate with the children in English.

We also strive to do fun things in groups to teach our children how to get along with and relate to others in their own age group, as well as get along our adult teachers. This of course helps develop the children’s social skills that are so important in today’s society.

At the same time we try to make sure that the children really enjoy their time and experience here at the school by having as much fun as possible while still learning. Our physical activities are designed to further develop our students’ fine motor skills. We also offer a Swimming class to children three years and above which takes place Wednesday through Friday and is at a local public swimming pool.

Of course the safety of our children is always uppermost in our mind; among other things we have a locked gate, padded play areas, and a trained nurse on the staff.

We are focused strictly on providing our children with a great head start in life both in our nursery and kindergarten. We do not provide overnights or do evening and or weekend daycare.

Classes:

Generally children up to 3 years old stay in the nursery and depending on your child’s development can be expected to be promoted to our kindergarten 1 preschool class at around age 3.

Once your child has mastered our kindergarten 1 class he or she is then promoted to our intermediate and then the advanced preschool kindergarten class where we prepare your child for their first year of formal primary schooling.

Staffing and Licensing

We always have a low ratio, generally (3:1), of children to staff. We have 4 experienced, licensed, native English speaking teachers on our staff and almost all of our Thai staff is fluent in English and also have Thai nursery-kindergarten teaching certificates.

There is a trained nurse always on duty. We are inspected and licensed by the Phuket and Thailand government and have recently received an award for excellence from them.

Finances

We have competitive rates. Invoices are issued at the beginning of each month and we have discounts available for 3, 6 and 12 month periods. We also provide daily and weekly school for temporary residents.

Admission:

We have a brochure available for those prospective parents that visit us that explains in detail our procedures and provides help in case your child is initially reluctant to “let go”. Parents are expected to fill out an application form and we need to make a copy of his or her passport or birth certificate.