LulliputLu

Does anyone know how I can get a list of all Private Schools in Italy, The international ones as well as the Italian Private Schools.
We want to immigrate but want to base our location around finding a school first. I have googled, but noting comes up, especially the Italian Speaking schools. My kids are small, age 4 and 5, and starting school so there is no need to go to an international english speaking school, an Italian one will do.
But we would like private. We prefer Southern Italy, Naples and Puglia...
Thanks, any info would gratefully be appreciated.

clint

There is an international school in Brindisi , Puglia

http://www.qsi.org/brd_home/brd_home.htm

Patty

well almost every single town has private schools of some sort - some more religious than others and some alot more expensive than others.
Best thing to do is look at this website http://www.comuni-italiani.it/ and choose the region or comune that could be of interest to you and then type in lista scuole. It will come up with a list of all private and public schools. In fact this website can tell you alot about the comune that you may move to. Good luck

Lorna at Vicenza

Children in Italy do not start elementary school until they are 6 so depending on when you want to emigrate, you might not need a school right from the beginning.

From age 3 to 6 children go to a kind of pre-school called Scuola Dell'Infanzia (more commonly called Scuola Materna) and there are both council runs ones and private ones. This is optional but most people's kids do go.

LulliputLu

Thanks for the info! One other question, you may or may not know. If they start school at 6, does the school year start in Sept, like the UK, if so, do they start at 6, turning 7 in that school year, or 5 turning 6 that school year?

37100

School admissions are by calender year. A child born in 2006 will start school this September.

LivingHere

It took me sometime to get my head around this. My daughter who was born in November is the youngest in her class. My other daughter who was born in January started school two years later than if she had been in the UK.

aledeniz

Yes, but most Italian parents with a child born in January will send them to a private school, the so-called "primina", at the end of which, passing a specific examination, the child will be admitted to the 2nd year of any state school.

I'd daresay for children born in January, in the city where I grow up probably 99% of parents were choosing this route.

I had 2 sisters and 1 brother, the sisters born in February, the brother born the 1st of May, and they were all sent to "primina", and had to pass a state examination in June, so when they were 6 y.o., to be admitted in the 2nd year. It is called something like "Esame di idoneità per l'iscrizione alla II elementare" or similar.

I have heard that recently, the Itailan government juggled a bit the rules, trying to prevent the primina phenomenon, so they theoretically only accept applicants born before and until the 30th April, so perhaps nowadays my brother wouldn't have been able to follow that route.

LulliputLu

@aledeniz

Not sure I understand what you mean?
Why would going to an Italian Private school be determined by the child's age?
I was under the impression a traditional 'private school' is a smaller school, normally wearing school uniforms, more nurturing, better teachers and standard of education and of course having to pay fees. Why would age play a role?
I was after a private school from kindergarten right through to High School, not have to change over to state school from Grade 2 or at anytime.
Not sure we are talking about the same thing?

Lorna at Vicenza

Forget about that post.

The general rule of thumb for Italian schools is:

Scuola dell'infanzia (scuola materna) from age 3 to 6
Primary school for the next five years
Middle school for 3 years
and then onto high school or a college type institute.

Most kids start primary school at age 6 but there is something called "anticipated entrance" for kids who are born within February or March .. I can't remember exactly when.

International schools work differently as in the fact that kids don't have to leave after the elementary part, and some private run Italian schools have primary and middle school in the same building. A lot of privately run Italian schools are Catholic nun schools but with proper teachers, ie, not all the teachers are nuns.

LulliputLu

Thanks for your comment. Yes, that is clear and does make sense on the age grouping.
I was after the privately run Italian schools, even if they are Catholic, the ones that charge fees opposed to being free. Reason for this is, my children are English, born and bred and cannot speak a word of Italian. If they are thrown straight into a Italian state school, I fear they may not get the 'extra care and nuturing' needed to get them up to speed in the beginning years. I was willing to pay for Private Education to get this little bit extra for them. I have had a look at a lot of the International Schools and their fees are CRAZY @ €6000-€9000 per term per child. This is not an option for us, so I was hoping to find something halfway. Where would I find a LIST of Privately run Italian Elementary schools, is there a website that lists this?

Lorna at Vicenza

Language wise, it makes no difference if you pay the Catholic sisters or send your kids to your nearest council run state school. It will be the same for them unless you happen to chance upon a school with a teacher that speaks some decent English - unlikely.

Many people here have sent their childdren to the pre-infant school and found that the kids picked up Italian very quickly, made friends and were quite up to speed and ready to move along to primary school at the same level as their Italian counterparts.

Pre-school is more like a play group as no "proper"teaching of reading and writing is done at all. It's all about painting and songs and poems and play and gym and colouring in and class projects.

I don't think there is a list of Italian private schools. What you need to do is think about which comune you might be living in and look up the list of schools on that comune website or in that province.

Lorna at Vicenza

Type "scuola privata primaria" into Google followed by Puglia or Naples or Milan or whatever and you'll get the private schools.

LulliputLu

Ok, so it does NOT work the same as the UK then? Here schools are divided into free schools, and private schools. Quality of Education is very different between the two. Ok, not sure which commune we will be living, because we won't be chosing our area based on work, as we can work on our own online business anywhere, we are purely basing our destination on the best school around. SO, then my question changes to where are the better elementary schools? When we move both my children will be out of pre-school and just starting elementary school level. How do I find out about schools and what they are like. In the UK they have something called an OFSTED report, where you can read all about the schools standards based on a report by school inspectors. Its very easy to search each schools OFSTED report to find out if thats the right school. Is there something like that in Italy?

HADENOUGHPIZZA

No it is definately nothing like the UK . There are no OFSTED reports. Sending your child to a private school does not automatically mean you are buying them a better education in the way it might in the UK