How long did it all take you to get the residency permit done (Vicenza)?
Do we need that in order to send our daughter to school in our area (heard that it will otherwise cost us a lot of money to put her to school if this is not done beforehand)?

Hi

We moved here last september and have only just got our residency but the children have been in the local school all the time that we have been here. I was told that the local school have to take your child.
Hope that helps.

Chantelle

Hi,

We are actively considering a move to the area south of Siena (or Lazio) from Ireland. Two children 7 and 11. Have been advised to send older child to one of the International Schools. Obviously, proximity/access to such a school would raise issues for us in terms of the areas where we would rent first with a view to buying. Also the cost! Any ideas please? Public school? Or international? All of us are learning Italian with a view to being competent within a short time and as fluent as possible thereafter. We are new to this site! Cheers. Murphys

Hi

We did alot of searching on the internet before coming here and I found that on alot of the forums people had wished that they hadn't sent their children to the international schools. They are very expensive, if you look at the web sites for these schools they will tell you what the fees are. We put our Daughter (13) and son (12) into the local public school and they are doing fine, at the moment they find some of the lessons hard because they don't quite understand whats going on (but if you are learning before you come then they shouldn't have to much problem fitting in). My 12 year old is getting very good at speaking italian after only 4 months. Also something else we did not know is that you have to buy all their school books , paper, paints for art etc. We are glad that we sent them to the public school, they both have lots of friends who help them.
I have added a link to the international school in turin and you can see their fees for the year.
http://www.acat-ist.it/index.asp?IDCAT=9868

Chantelle

Chantelle,

Thanks very much for that.

Where do you live?

Ds

Hi DS

We live on the outskirts of a little village called Masio, we are half way between Turin and Milan and not far from Asti.

Chantelle.

Apologies to Ninabena for hijacking this thread.

Chantelle, I'd like to hear about your experiences with putting your kids into a local village school. We are looking to move to a small village somewhere in the Langhe (at this stage looks like Lequio Berria, still looking for a house to buy) which is not too far from where you are in Masio.

I have a 2.5 year old daughter and a soon to be new born son who will be going to our local school and am intersted to hear what you think of the schooling system over there.

Also, how did you find yourselves in Masio...??

Thanks
Paul

PS. Apologies once again for jumping in on this thread but I'm only new and I don't have enough posts to PM anyone yet.

Depends on what you regard a lot of money. I send my daughter to a private Catholic school for €120/month plus yearly inscription of €180.

Hi Aussiejoe

We have found it quite beneficial to the children, as they are picking up italian very quickly but some of the staff at the school can be a bit off with me as I am not able to speak Italian yet, but I don't let it get to me. (We moved here very quickly as my husbands job required it, so we were unable to take lessons before coming. We are however picking it up slowly.) Not quite sure how we ended up in Masio, as soon as our house sold in the UK we came over for a few days and looked at 6 properties that we had found on the internet. The house in Masio ticked all our requirements and we really did not want to rent.

And yes we did try 2 private schools, which are considerably cheaper than the international schools but they would not take them as they were full. So I guess you could go down that route if you can find one nearby.

Chantelle

Hey - my advice is to put them in a local state school until the question of getting them onto international/British/Irish qualifications/courses arises. They'll learn Italian very quickly indeed (see my article Three Words for Everything on this site), and it should cost nothing for tuition. Later you can go for an international school if you prefer...L

Hi -- not sure what you guys mean by residency - is it the permesso di soggiorno or the certificato di residenza? If you are EU citizens simply go along to the comune's Ufficio Anagrafe. To get the certificato di residenza, you just fill in the form, show some id documents and then the police come to your home to check that you are living there. If you are an EU citizen you don't need to have a permesso di soggiorno - the comune should be able to give you a Certificato Attestante La Regolarita del Soggiorno per I cittadini dell'EU - which means this is a certificate to say you don't need the permesso di soggiorno...any help?