Drilling down into the thinking of “Ornsirin” to create “Mill Hill”, the first world-class international school in Chiang Mai, a magnet attracting purchasing power for housing, an area of 40 rai on a 600 rai empire, in the area of the Ornsirin head office, preparing to start construction, opening teaching, first phase, year 68, kindergarten to year 6 (3-11 years old)
“Perfect Living” is a business concept for over 17 years for Ornsirin Holding Company Limited (Public Company) or ORN, a major real estate developer in the North. It has created work that has gained the trust of consumers with over 24 projects, 4,878 units, worth over 17,300 million baht, both horizontal and vertical. This year, “Ornsirin” has a plan to develop 6 more projects and spread its wings to Phuket Province.
Highlights: Ornsirin plans to build “Mill Hill School” or “Mill Hill International School Thailand”, the first British international school in Chiang Mai Province, after announcing a plan to expand a new business in education and signing an MOU with The Mill Hill Education Group, England.
There are goals to create stability in various businesses. Important jigsaw pieces complete the real estate business on a large empire of more than 600 rai, a superhighway location, the location of the Ornsirin head office. It is estimated that the first students will be introduced in phase 2025, aged 3-11 years, before expanding to phase 2 in 2027, up to 18 years old, the products that will advance to the world’s leading universities.
Because the world-class curriculum is combined with learning through extra-curricular activities to prepare students in line with Thai and international educational standards, with a vision to be a school that provides integrated learning through an international curriculum and focuses on activities to prepare students for the present and the future through complete preparation tools in various aspects.
Mr. Arkadech Udomsirithamrong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of “Ornsirin” and Mrs. Kate Simon , Head of Grimsdell School and Mill Hill School from England, as one of the executives of Mill Hill in Thailand, gave an interview about the concept of developing “Mill Hill”, the first international school outside of England. Starting from Mrs. Kate, who saw that Thailand has a similar culture and Chiang Mai has forests and mountains, and is very natural, no different from the school she taught at in England, which also has a large green forest area.
Kate shared her experiences from being a parent to becoming the director of a school that is over 200 years old. Although it looks old, she said that she has developed a modern curriculum that molds children to have their own ideas, dare to think and make decisions. Kindergarteners are doing Photoshop, children are learning AI, using iPads, being with technology, and can edit by themselves, creating students who are creative.
Have the freedom to carry out activities by yourself that will be in line with learning, create a foundation for children to grow up on a good foundation. The vision is to make children ready both mentally and physically. As a former parent, when becoming a teacher, makes you understand the management and producing each child to have good quality and want to focus on childhood because each child only has one childhood, which will give good meaning.
As for expanding the school to other areas or countries, Ms. Kate believes that she wants to develop Chiang Mai to be the best first and move forward with Ornsirin only. Importantly, there is no ranking of which brand of school is the best, but rather, the quality of success that children and parents receive will be considered.
Mr. Arkadet reflected that the opening of an international school started from looking for a school for his son and found that “Mill Hill” in England was interesting, with its natural green forests, which was close to the Ornsirin project area in Chiang Mai. Therefore, it led to the decision to invest in the existing project area without having to travel far to England to study.
At the same time, the cost of tuition is much cheaper, averaging 300,000 baht per year, compared to studying in England, which is almost 1 million to 1 million baht per year, while the teaching and learning is equally effective, which supports parents to send their children to study in schools near home, from kindergarten to the end of high school, and guarantees that they can continue on to the world’s leading universities, especially in England, continuously, helping to save a lot on the cost of tuition, while the interest of parents in Chiang Mai is quite high.
Mr. Arkadech believes that it exceeds expectations and the set target. When thinking about the income that will come in, he wants it, but chooses to focus on quality, not quantity, which is a strategy. It would be better if parents think of Mill Hill first.
“The original plan was to focus only on kindergarten children, but when there were requests from parents that if they had two children who were siblings, they did not want them to go to separate schools because it was convenient to pick up and drop off and they wanted the older child to take care of the younger child while they were in the same school, the company considered these feedbacks and adjusted the plan so that the first phase would open for teaching from kindergarten to Year 6 (3-11 years old) by opening 1 room per floor, a total of 8 classes, 20 students per floor. Currently, preparations are underway to construct 2 buildings covering an area of 20,000 square meters, to be completed by the end of this year, and teaching will begin in 2025.”
In terms of competition for international schools in Chiang Mai, it must be admitted that there is high competition, with 22 schools at present. When combined with the whole country, there are about 203 schools, most of which are in Bangkok. Investment in international schools is a magnet to attract people to buy housing projects for their children to live near good schools or who want to have good schools near home. Most foreigners are Chinese, Taiwanese, Burmese, and other countries who do business in Thailand or send their children to study in Thailand, with Chiang Mai being the closest and being a tourist, residential, and vacation destination for both Thais and foreigners.
With a climate and landscape that is quite good, similar to England, but will focus on integration, giving more importance to the number of Thai children coming to study because we want to support good quality teaching and learning that can be used throughout life. As for expanding investment in international schools to other provinces or not, Mr. Akkaradet emphasized that he wants to develop Chiang Mai to be the best. But for “Mill Hill”, a British national, he will definitely go everywhere Ornsirin goes!
Source: Thansettakij
