Wellington College Inaugurates First School in Southeast Asia: Wellington College Bangkok

15 September 2018 – Wellington College International School Bangkok (WCIB) held its official Grand Opening ceremony this month at their new campus on Krungthep Kreetha Rd in Saphan Sung District of eastern Bangkok. WCIB is closely affiliated with Wellington College, Berkshire which is recognised as one of the UK’s top* co-ed independent schools.

The ceremony was graciously attended by H.E. Dr. Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, Minister of Education of the Royal Thai Government, H.E. Abhisit Vejjajiva, Former Prime Minister of Thailand, and H.E. Brian Davidson, The UK Ambassador to Thailand.  Among the sizable contingent in attendance from the Wellington College family of schools, included Mr. Julian Thomas, Master of Wellington College UK and Ms. Joy Qiao, Founder and Chair of Governors of Wellington College China.

Hosting the grand opening in Bangkok were Dr. Darika Lathapipat, Chair of the Board of Governors of Wellington College Bangkok, Mr. Chris Nicholls, Founding Master of Wellington College Bangkok and Mr. Christian Bishop, Head of Junior School, Wellington College Bangkok. Among those in attendance were many of the founding families of Wellington College Bangkok, as well as Old Wellingtonians living in Thailand, who enjoyed a special musical performance by Wellington College Bangkok students.

The British-curriculum international school recently opened doors of the Junior School to its first cohort of students in Pre Nursery to Year 6, comprising children aged 2 to 10 years old. Next year, WCIB plans to open classes to Year 8 (12 years old) and progressively each year up to Year 13. Total capacity at WCIB would eventually be around 1,500 students, and they will offer IGSCE in Years 10 and 11 and plans to offer A-Levels and/or the IB Diploma in Years 12 and 13. The purpose-built campus spans 50 rai, with the Senior School scheduled for completion by 2021-2022.

WCIB is the fourth location Wellington College has chosen to open outside of the UK and is the first Wellington College in Southeast Asia. In China, Wellington College has successfully opened in Tianjin in 2011, followed by Shanghai in 2014, and Hangzhou in 2018, quickly becoming a well-recognised name throughout China for high quality education.

The reputation of Wellington College and Thailand’s location and amenities meant that WCIB’s academic leaders had a deep pool of applicants to select from, and an intensive interview process resulted in the hiring of an outstanding founding group of fully qualified teachers who are native language speakers with experience at top British and International schools and committed to the ethos and values of the College. Some of the teachers come to Bangkok with experience teaching at Wellington College in the UK and sister schools in China. The College has also engaged an exciting group of Assistants of Learning and Teaching (ALT) with exceptional backgrounds and qualifications, including experience as qualified teachers in their own right.

As with every Wellington College school, the Wellington Identity is at the heart of teaching children to become intellectual, independent, inspired, individual and inclusive people. The Wellington Values of courage, respect, integrity, kindness and responsibility are as important today as they were more than 159 years ago when Wellington College was founded by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the United Kingdom as a living monument to Sir Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington.

The WCIB Grand Opening celebration coincides with Thailand hosting the first Wellington College Global Heads’ Conference in Bangkok on 14 September 2018, where the heads of every school in the Wellington College family will meet to discuss opportunities for increased and deepened cooperation between schools, including exchange programmes and student summer conferences to be held at Wellington College UK.

For more information about Wellington College Bangkok, please call +6620878888 or email [email protected]

Wellington College UK was recently awarded “Boarding School of the Year” at the 2018 TES Independent School Awards.