Andrew C

Hi everyone.
We are considering opportunity to make a permanent move to Rome in the next year and would welcome any information, experiences or thoughts on International schools in Rome. Our children, 2 boys, are 7 and 5.
Looking forward to responses. Thank you.
ADL&M

Lorna at Vicenza

Sorry - not in Rome. The only thing I can positively tell you that may or may not alleviate a few doubts is this :

your kids at that age will pick up Italian amazingly quickly and much much faster than their parents will. They will be correcting your beginners Italian after just a few months here.

Hope you make it and enjoy it. Keep us all informed of your progress.
People on the forum like to know about progress and it gives others a chance to learn more about life here.

Good luck to you all.

Andrew C

Thank you very much for the input and support.
Certainly intend being very active member of this forum.
A.

Lorna at Vicenza

Welcome to Italy ..........Benvenuto in Italia

Lorna at Vicenza

By the way - Rome is fabulous but mad for driving. Don't even attempt the city without a sat nav on board.

Only ever went once from where I'm living now but I'm glad I wasn't driving. Rome however is one of the few cities with an underground system.

Mr Posh

Hello Andrew and welcome

We have been in Italy now for nearly three years, Our son this year is 16 and we put him into a state school after our second day here. I thought "sink or swim" and i have to say first couple of months it was hard the Teachers where FANTASTIC, now he is so fluent its unreal writting, reading and speaking

So what i wanted to say is do not worry about the children they will be fine
Lorna said they will be correcting you.

TestaRossa

Maybe the question people should be asking you is why do you want to send them to an International School? What, if any, are your concerns about them going to an Italian school? Or do you just want them to keep up with an English curriculum?

My daughter is in a private Italian school run by the Nuns, my son is in England at Public School. If my daughter is to follow my son, which at 4 seems a long way off but isn't, then eventually I will have to transfer her to the Int. School here for the back-up she will need in English. If you are seriously considering staying here permanently and your kids are going to be here until 18 for school then I would look at all the options available before going for the Int. Schools. Unless you have done this already of course!

chris120

Extrapolating a few years so your boys are 5, 8 & 10 will cost you about EU 35K per year plus extras (trips, school bus etc say EU40K in 2008 economics) and this will increase significantly each year so unless you have a very good salary you will probably need some corporate contribution to do this. The advantages of going to a good international school are not just being able to follow the UK curriculum and do GCSEs etc. There is a much better uni placement rate than an Italian local school (effectively almost 100% of those that want to go to uni). There are other advantages which might cause a howl of objections if I listed them but you can guess. They will learn Italian either way.

You will soon get used to the driving and the lay out of the city, since the introduction of the points system it has all calmed down significantly. Parking can be difficult so if you chose to live centrally try to get accommodation with dedicated parking. Sat Nav can be useful but don’t believe it implicitly as one way streets change frequently and they can also send you into prohibited parts of the city which you are not allowed to drive in unless you are a city center resident.

LivingHere

This isn't strictly true. My daughter spent three years at an Italian materna and is fluent. She has just started primary school at an international school. She is with children who have not attended an Italian school although they were born here and have no Italian at all. At the other end of the age spectrum there are children leaving the school who were born here and have extremely limited Italian.

Lorna at Vicenza

I understood that they have TWO boys ... currently aged 5 and 7.

TestaRossa

I was going to say this too. In fact the reason many transient expats use the Int. Schools is because they don't want their kids to learn Italian. Unless you mean in situations outside of the school? Only if they are pushed. My experience with my son when he was here for a year at age 11 was that he would participate in Italian activities but he didn't have to speak Italian, he found ways around it and there is always someone that speaks passable English - the same will be true in Rome. My daughter started Materna Sept. 2007 by the time she finished last June her Italian was perfect or near as dammit. In fact, to my embarrassment, we went to an all Italian birthday party with clowns yesterday. My daughter was the one teaching the clowns Happy Birthday in Italian!!!!! And none of the other kids contradicted her so she must have been right.

Lorna at Vicenza

Up to what age do kids go to International schools?

The poster did say "looking into a permanent move" so I presume their kids will have to attend Italian school at some point or another.

International schools don't go up to grammar school level do they?

TestaRossa

All the way to 18 if that's what you want. Most are more geared up for Meida and Liceo ages in fact! Mainly because that's the age most parents don't want to risk kids exams etc. by confusing them in another language. They are mainly for transient expats rather than permanent residents although the Italians use the one in Florence too and it has a parallel Italian curriculum for them.

Lorna at Vicenza

never knew that

chris120

yes you are right - 2 boys, i missed read it, in that case divide the cost down. Where my kids went they go right to 18 and then directly to uni, thats the main advantage, an almost guaranteed uni place. My kids went to 2 different international schools and more than half the kids were Italian, thats how they learned the language. Playground talk rules have eased up in recent years and speaking Italian seems to be the norm. 10 years ago this wasn't the case.