British Concordance International School
Chiang Mai, Thailand · PrivateKey facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
CIS · membershipPearson · A-Level · authorised programmeAmbassador Education Group · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →It gives a school approved centre status: that means Pearson exams can be sat in the school itself. What is checked is the premises, the equipment, the secure storage of papers and the presence of trained invigilators.
What the badge means for this school. The school can run Pearson exams on its own premises. The status says nothing about teaching, about results or about the school itself: any school able to run an exam securely holds it. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: A-Level (ages 16-18). A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →A group with its own site, aegcm.com; all of its schools are in Chiang Mai. The site gives two dates that do not agree: the "About Us" section writes "Ambassador Education was founded in 2005", while the footer and the home page say "Providing Education in Chiang Mai for 30 Years" and "For over 30 years", and we give both. The "Our Schools" section lists six schools: Unity Concord International School (named the flagship), Americana Chinese International School, Ambassador Bilingual School, Ambassador Bilingual Academy, British Concordance International School (opened in September 2022) and Chiang Mai Educational Center. The programmes declared are American, British and Thai-English bilingual, from PreK to grade 12; pupils, in the words of the site, come from more than 30 countries. The site does not name owners or founders and nowhere says whether the group owns these schools or manages them, so ownership, management and franchise cannot be told apart from it.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.