One Tutor, One Student, at Your Own Table

อนุบาล is not compulsory and covers roughly ages three to five. ป.1 begins at six, and across the six primary years the eight learning areas of the core curriculum start to bite. Two of them decide access to all the others: ภาษาไทย and คณิตศาสตร์. A child who cannot read Thai fluently cannot read the science paper either, and a maths gap that opens at ป.3 is still open at ม.1 unless somebody goes back for it.

Two national assessments sit inside primary, and parents often meet them without warning. RT at ป.1 is a reading assessment and NT at ป.3 covers Thai and mathematics; both are run by สพฐ. through its educational testing office. Neither is a gate, and neither is O-NET, which is run by สทศ. and arrives at ป.6. Knowing which body runs which assessment is the difference between preparing calmly and preparing for the wrong thing.

ป.6 is the first year with two things happening at once. O-NET covers four subjects, Thai, mathematics, science and English, and in the same season the family is trying to win a place at the ม.1 they actually want. Tutoring at this age is short on lecture and long on the child doing the work while somebody watches, because at eleven the skill being built is working alone for twenty minutes without drifting.

• อนุบาล: routine, listening, letters and early number, with no examination and no reason to teach one.
• ป.1 to ป.3: Thai reading fluency first. RT at ป.1 and NT at ป.3 are assessments run by สพฐ., not gates.
• ป.4 to ป.6: fractions, decimals, and the first science that demands real reading.
• ป.6: O-NET in four subjects, and ม.1 entrance in the same season.
• The habit being built at this age is twenty unbroken minutes of independent work.

In Thailand, English is not one subject among eight. It is the medium an international school teaches in, the TGAT1 paper, TCAS A-Level 82, the IELTS or TOEFL score an international programme asks for, and the CU-TEP or TU-GET paper a particular university sets for itself. A student's English quietly sets the ceiling on almost every plan described on this page, including the ones that look like mathematics.

Four different jobs hide under the one word. Classroom English, often called EAL, is about following the lesson while it is happening. Examination English is a format to be learned: IGCSE English as a Second Language, TGAT1, TCAS A-Level 82. Admission English is a threshold to be cleared, and IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, CU-TEP and TU-GET each have their own shape and their own minimum. Working English is the interview, the presentation and the email that has to land correctly the first time. A tutor who is excellent at one of these is not automatically the right person for another, and saying which one you need saves a term.

One practical change matters for anyone practising now. IELTS in Thailand has been delivered on computer since March 2026, so paper practice no longer resembles the day itself, particularly in the writing sections. Beyond English, Mandarin has been part of the Thai upper-secondary curriculum for decades and now sits as a TCAS A-Level paper under code 87, and several other foreign languages appear among the TCAS A-Level papers in the same code block. A language treated as an interest in one household is an examination subject in the next.

• Classroom English, or EAL: following the lesson while it happens.
• Examination English: IGCSE English as a Second Language, TGAT1, TCAS A-Level 82.
• Admission English: IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, CU-TEP and TU-GET, each with its own format and threshold.
• IELTS in Thailand has been computer-delivered since March 2026, so paper practice no longer matches the day.
• Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Pali and Arabic are all taught here, and several sit as TCAS A-Level papers.

Before the first session the tutor reads what already exists: the most recent school report, a marked paper, the school's scheme of work, and the examination the family is aiming at. Out of that comes a written plan that names what will be repaired first and why that order. A plan that begins at chapter one because chapter one is at the front is not a plan.

Session one is diagnosis carried out in the student's own working. The tutor asks the student to do rather than to listen, and writes down three things: what the student manages unaided, what they manage with a single prompt, and what is missing altogether. That third list is usually shorter than it looks from the outside, and more specific than any report card or transcript manages to be.

After every session a short written note goes out the same day, to whoever booked the sessions: what was covered, what the student did without help, what is still shaky, and what to practise before next time. It is written to be read on a phone between meetings, and it includes the sessions that went badly, because a report that is always positive stops carrying information after the third one. Every few weeks the plan is checked against the work and changed if the work says so. A plan that never changes was never really a plan.

Term ends with a comparison in writing between what was planned and what happened, including the parts that did not work. Schedules move in the meantime, for school trips, fevers and examination weeks, and a session moved with notice keeps its place in the plan.

• Before session one: the last report, a marked paper, the school's scheme of work, and the exam with a date on it.
• Session one is diagnosis: the student works, the tutor watches and records unaided, prompted and absent.
• After every session: a short written note the same day, addressed to the parent or to the adult learner, including what went badly.
• Every few weeks: the plan is re-checked against the work and changed when the work says so.
• Sessions moved with notice keep their place in the plan.
• End of term: the plan and what actually happened, compared in writing.