Verso, Bangkok’s biggest international school, nears completion

Applications are now being accepted for Early Years 2-Grade 8. Grades 9-12 will be open next year.
Piyaporn Phanachet, chief executive at U City, an affiliate of infrastructure developer BTS Group Holdings, which has partnered with Fortune Hand Ventures of Hong Kong to build Verso, said it will be “a new educational innovation hub”.
U City is ready to offer strong and continuing support for Verso as it enrols 100-200 students for the first academic year using online and offline channels, including workshops for interested families and open houses.
Verso is offering a limited number of student grants to founding families, equivalent to 20 per cent of the tuition fee for a four-year consecutive period. It’s available to families who apply by March 31.
“The Thana City area is known for its convenient access to amenities and transportation links,” Piyaporn said. “Verso will further drive the growth in the area and in turn ensure a better quality of life for residents, students and families, fostering an integrated live-work-play community.”
Verso will be the largest international school in the Bangkok metropolitan area, boasting a capacity for 1,800 students.
It’s four kilometres from Suvarnabhumi Airport and will be near Light Rail Transit on the future Brown Line.

“Now that our buildings and programmes are close to completion,” said founding head of school Cameron Fox, “our learning designers [teachers] are getting really excited about meeting our founding students and helping them take the first steps on an incredible journey together.”
The school will use an American curriculum model aligned with New York State education standards. Learning will be interdisciplinary, project-based and highly personalised for every student.
“We’ve all experienced the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach to learning,” Fox said. “At Verso we want to look at the school experience differently. Research shows us that young people learn best when they are actively engaged, creating and solving problems they care about. That’s our starting point.
“Two years before the school opened, we recruited 12 highly qualified foreign educators to form a Learning Design Team. This team shares a common desire to make school a place where every student discovers who they are and develops the confidence and skills needed to lead their own journey.”
Verso partnered with San Francisco-based design company Ideo to consider inspiring examples of school innovation from around the world to Bangkok, testing the ideas with students, teachers and families living in Bangkok, the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“At Verso, we think and behave like designers,” said Fox. “Working with Ideo, we found out what families in Bangkok wanted most from an international school. That’s how we identified Verso’s three founding beliefs. We learned that students need to develop a strong sense of personal and cultural identity, they need to know how to actively engage with the world around them, and they will flourish if they have the confidence to lead their own journey.”
Verso will be fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which ensures quality and validates the school’s certificates, diplomas and transcripts acceptable for university admissions worldwide.