What Changes in the First-Year Budget When a Family Chooses BIS or CCS?

This comparison uses a single child who was eight years old on 1 September 2026. Bali Island School (BIS) publishes an age-on-1-September entry table that places an eight-year-old in Grade 3. Canggu Community School (CCS) uses British-style year groups: its earlier published placement charts put the same age in Year 4. A spreadsheet matching BIS Grade 3 to CCS Year 3 would therefore compare different cohorts even though the numbers appear to line up.

CCS retained the eight-year-old/Year 4 mapping in its 2025–26 handbook, as well as in an older 2020–21 chart. Its 2026–27 handbook does not provide the same complete placement grid, so the Year 4 assignment here remains provisional. The school reviews previous records, age suitability and support requirements before deciding on placement; a place must also be available. BIS likewise processes applications and may use a waiting pool. Neither a stated entry age nor a paid application fee constitutes an offer of a seat. BIS says its own Learning Support service carries no separate charge. CCS describes in-school support but notes that some outside professional assessments, if requested, are paid for by parents; needs and possible charges should be discussed for the individual child.

Why does that distinction matter to a housing budget? Fee schedules attach prices to year groups, and those prices do not always change at the same school stages. CCS currently has one tuition band for Years 3–6, but its capital levy changes at Year 6; BIS uses a different pattern of grade bands. The shared eight-year-old assumption keeps this example comparable, while an actual offer turns a provisional year group into a reliable starting point for household cash planning. Families with a different birth date need a fresh calculation for both schools, not a relabelled version of the numbers below.

2026–27 fee sheets checked 19 October 2026 (BIS dated 5 February 2026; the CCS PDF gives no separate issue date). One new student, annual tuition option; IDR amounts exclude rent. CCS has IDR 16,596,000 less in disclosed annual charges, yet needs IDR 33,404,000 more cash with the RND, before its unpriced camp fee. The non-refundable-total row represents full-year charges; part of annual tuition may be refundable on early withdrawal under separate conditions.

Timing is the first reason a published annual figure may be a poor relocation quote in October. BIS began its 2026–27 year on 4 August 2026 and ends on 16 June 2027. CCS ran Term 1 from 3 August to 9 October; Term 2 opens on 19 October and finishes on 18 December. Its remaining terms are 18 January–25 March and 5 April–9 June 2027. An October applicant is joining an academic year already in progress, not signing up for a fresh August-to-June year. The comparison table retains the full-year basis so the schools can be compared fairly, while an admissions offer must establish the actual start date, place and invoice. The 2026–27 prices should not be presented as a 2027–28 forecast.

At BIS the application fee for a new student is IDR 2,500,000 and is non-refundable. Grade 3 annual tuition is IDR 211,921,000; the separate capital levy charge (CLC) is IDR 25,675,000, giving IDR 240,096,000 once the application is included. A different IDR 15,000,000 registration line often causes double counting. That amount applies to current pupils renewing their place and is credited against tuition, so it is not an additional new-entry fee in this example. BIS offers an instalment schedule with a 1.5% tuition uplift. For Grade 3 its published four-payment total is IDR 240,774,815 including the CLC but excluding the application fee; the schedule lists 1 July and 1 October 2026, followed by 1 January and 1 March 2027. Those published dates do not turn into arrears for a family applying now.

BIS states that new entrants can pay for the full term in which they first enrol, or elect to pay the full year at enrolment. It specifies a full CLC for entry in Terms 1 or 2, 80% for Term 3 and 50% for Term 4, payable alongside the first invoiced tuition instalment. It does not provide a universal October tuition proration formula that families can safely apply themselves. The finance office needs to calculate the amount due for the proposed start and tell the family whether any later instalments remain. A 5% early full-payment promotion shown in the 2026 schedule had an April 2026 deadline; it is no longer a general discount available to October applicants. BIS includes required educational camps and curriculum field visits in tuition, unlike optional trips or sports selected by a student.

The CCS offer produces a different cash sequence. IDR 2,500,000 is due at application, without a seat guarantee. Once a place is offered and accepted, the first child incurs a separate IDR 17,000,000 registration fee and an IDR 50,000,000 refundable notice deposit (RND). Years 3–6 tuition is IDR 173,000,000 under the annual option, IDR 88,500,000 twice under the semester option (IDR 177,000,000 a year), or IDR 46,500,000 four times under the term option (IDR 186,000,000 a year). These are alternative pricing and billing methods, not cumulative charges. The Year 4 illustration also carries an IDR 21,500,000 capital levy and an IDR 9,500,000 materials-and-resources levy. CCS says a camp fee is added to the Term 1 invoice but gives no amount. Its published 5% annual and 2% semester discount language needs clarification before anyone applies another percentage deduction to those displayed tuition rates. Sibling discounts do not apply to the one-child example; the schedule makes them conditional on all siblings having attended a full year.

The CCS due-date grid deserves special care: it is expressly for returning students only. It lists 12 June and 9 October 2026, then 4 January and 25 March 2027. The first two dates have passed as of 19 October; the later two are not automatically the payment dates for a new arrival. CCS says it shares payment choices with successful applicants and completes enrolment once tuition and the required documents have been received. For a midyear entrant, admissions and finance must specify the current term charge, levies, camp treatment and deadline in writing. The CCS schedule also allows fee changes during the year subject to Governing Body approval. The individual invoice is the school figure to put beside rent due before move-in. The refundable school deposit belongs in a separate calculator input: cash must be available for it now even though its ultimate return depends on a later notice.

For a family taking a child to school every day, “near Sanur” and “near Canggu” are not interchangeable location filters. BIS is at Jalan Danau Buyan IV No. 15, Sanur, Denpasar, Bali 80228. CCS is at Jalan Subak Sari, Banjar Tegal Gundul, Tibubeneng, Kuta Utara, Badung, Bali 80361. Berawa is a useful neighbourhood label for the second search, but the school’s official address is Tibubeneng. Property listings may use Canggu to describe a much wider area, without saying anything useful about which roads lead to the actual gate.

A confirmed BIS place makes the roads feeding into Jalan Danau Buyan IV relevant. A confirmed CCS place changes the search to the streets approaching Jalan Subak Sari. Two homes with a similar map distance can have very different access arrangements: a one-way exit, an awkward turn, a narrow access lane or a longer approach to the school’s authorised drop-off point. None of those constraints can be settled by a listing description. Nor do the school fee documents establish an average commute, a transport price or an entitlement to a particular school bus route.

The most informative inspection is a weekday school run on the actual proposed route. Parents can travel from the prospective front door to the school’s drop-off area at morning arrival, and repeat the trip during dismissal, ideally on more than one ordinary teaching day. School start and collection times should be taken from the age-group schedule, not inferred from the overall academic calendar. If transport is to be outsourced, availability, pickup point, supervision and price require a separate written answer. A route trial cannot eliminate changing traffic conditions, but it is a meaningful check against a listing promising an implausibly neat number of minutes.

Rent also has its own cash timing, entirely separate from the school calendar. Some lease offers require advance rent well beyond the first month; others split payments differently, and deposits have their own return conditions. The correct housing input is whatever the actual agreement requires before possession, with any genuinely refundable security treated separately. There is no defensible all-purpose family rental average to add to this school-fee comparison. Committing to a long lease before receiving a confirmed year group, available place and school invoice risks selecting the wrong part of the island and locking away money needed for admissions.

The word refundable in CCS’s refundable notice deposit is conditional. For a Year 4 entrant, IDR 50,000,000 is payable when a school place is offered and accepted. The 2026–27 parent handbook explains the timing more precisely than the short fee sheet: CCS must receive written withdrawal notice a full school term in advance, before the pupil’s final term begins. For a child leaving at the end of the 2026–27 year, that means before the start of Term 4 on 5 April 2027. School holidays do not count towards the required notice period. A family that waits until Term 4 to announce a June departure may forfeit the deposit despite the payment being described as refundable.

Tuition refunds operate under a different rule. CCS says termly and semester tuition payments are not refundable following premature permanent departure. Annual payers may be eligible for a refund relating to complete terms not attended, capped at two terms; it is not a promise to return everything left on a family’s own calendar. The fee sheet also treats capital and materials/resources levies as non-refundable. The application charge and first-child registration are expressly non-refundable too. As the camp fee amount and the terms of any adjustment are not published in the compulsory schedule, families should not book an assumed camp refund into their emergency funds.

BIS instead asks for six calendar weeks of written notice, together with its formal withdrawal process, including the withdrawal form and exit interview. For pupils whose tuition was paid on an annual basis, it allows a refund of 50% of tuition attributable to unattended terms when the conditions are met. No tuition refund is offered for term payments, and the CLC is non-refundable. The BIS fee sheet does not contain a separate refundable notice deposit comparable to CCS’s RND. That establishes what the public schedule lists, not every possible amount on an individually issued invoice. Whether to choose the annual or term payment route therefore has a potential exit-cost consequence beyond the headline instalment premium.

Consider a family that may relocate again before June. At CCS the date the school receives the notice and the payment plan both shape what could come back. At BIS the six-week rule and whether tuition was paid annually are central. Neither school’s refund arrangements should be confused with the family’s rental security deposit, which is controlled by the specific lease and its handover provisions. A move-in cash calculation tells the family how much must be available at the peak of the move; it does not tell them how much of that cash they will eventually recover. Until the school and landlord have acknowledged the relevant conditions in writing, those potential refunds are uncertain future receipts.