HISTORY OF ISB 70 Years

This school year was a special one as we commemorated our 70th anniversary. Back in 1950, a group of parents led by Mrs. W.T. Turner, the wife of the U.S. Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires, drew up plans to establish a school for English-speaking children in Bangkok. Utilizing an old wooden building on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy, the International Children’s Center (ICC) opened on May 14th, 1951, with more than 50 students from Grades 1-4.

On August 29th, 1957, the International School Association (ISA) was formed, and the ICC was officially renamed International School Bangkok (ISB). As we continued to expand, we built a new campus at the end of Sukhumvit Soi 15, opening with over 550 students representing 25 different nationalities - the start of a new era for English-speaking children in Thailand. By the next decade, the ISB Panther had made its first appearance on campus, and the student population had grown to over 3,600 students overwhelming the Soi 15 campus and necessitating an additional campus in the Bangsue area of Bangkok.

ISB entered the 1970s with two campuses, numerous activities, clubs, sports, organizations, and a large student body that was active and happy. Some of these programs included the wildly popular “House Games” led by ISB’s dynamic Athletic Director and Head of Physical Education, Mr. P.E. Rajendra., and the ISB Young Internationals, a performance group that entertained audiences across Thailand.

By the 1980s, the money contributed to ISB by the U.S. Government during the Vietnam War meant that we had installed well-resourced science labs and libraries, audiovisual equipment, and support positions such as special education teachers, reading specialists, a school psychologist, and a speech therapist. Thus, even though two-thirds of the student population departed after the war, ISB was still well positioned to be the best international school in Thailand and one of the leading such institutions in the region.

With an improved curriculum, a state-of-the-art educational program, expanding activities and athletics program, and an increasing student population, ISB entered the 1990s once again facing a familiar problem: the campus was too small for its vision of ISB in the 21st century. So we built a new award-winning campus on a large piece of land in Pak Kret, Nonthaburi. We moved into the campus in January of 1992, and the beautiful, brand-new facilities became home to an abundance of athletic, fine and performing arts activities that were previously impossible. These programs have become an integral part of the community and only increased as the years went by, with new and exciting offerings on the horizon.

In recent years, ISB has continued to modernize and revitalize our Pak Kret Campus, adding a state-of-the-art golf facility, new playgrounds, new athletics facilities, and a cultural center. We’ve been in our Pak Kret campus for 30 years and Thailand’s premier international school for over 70 years - enjoy this snapshot of our campus “Then & Now!”