← Back to the rankingBDC School Cologno
Cologno Monzese, Italy · est. 2014 · Private
Illustration · Cologno Monzese
BDC School Cologno is a private bilingual school (paritaria under Italian law) in Cologno Monzese, on the north-eastern edge of Milan. The campus opened in 2014 as a nursery; in 2017 an English-language kindergarten opened at Via Volta 16, a primary school followed in September 2019, then a middle school, and in 2023 the campus expanded by 1800 square metres. Teaching follows the Italian national curriculum combined with British programmes: Early Years Foundation Stage and International Early Years Curriculum in nursery and kindergarten, Cambridge Primary in primary school, and Cambridge Lower Secondary with Checkpoint exams in middle school alongside the Italian first cycle state exam. Italian and English get equal time, each with its own teacher. The campus high school is a liceo scientifico, applied sciences option, with an Artificial Intelligence & Data Science pathway and an Italian diploma; teaching there is bilingual. The school stresses project-based learning, STEM, entrepreneurship and sport.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $7 343–8 727 a year
6 500–7 725 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Registration fee
≈ $1 695
1 500 EUR
About the fees Annual fees for 2026-2027: nursery and kindergarten 6695 EUR each, primary school (Year 1-6) 7210 EUR, middle school (Year 7-9) 7725 EUR, liceo scienze applicate (Year 10-14) 6500 EUR.
Admissions Admission has two steps: the family fills in the form on the website and books an interview with the campus admissions manager. The website names no entrance exams. The high school, the website says, brings together Italian families and international students; students at the school's three campuses in Milan and Cologno Monzese come from 35 countries. With the partner charity I Care Onlus the school awards scholarships based on merit, need and disability; full high school scholarships are awarded through a pitch competition open to Italian and international students in the last year of middle school.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery, Kindergarten, Year 1-14. Nursery; kindergarten: Pre-School ages 3-4, Reception ages 4-5, Year 1 for ages 5-6 as the transition to school; scuola primaria (Year 2-6); scuola secondaria di primo grado (Year 7-9), 30 hours a week, 8:15 to 16:00; high school (Year 10-14) - liceo scientifico, applied sciences option, with an Artificial Intelligence & Data Science pathway and an Italian diploma. British programmes: Early Years Foundation Stage and International Early Years Curriculum in nursery and kindergarten; Cambridge Primary for ages 5-11; Cambridge Lower Secondary for ages 11-14, ending with the Italian first cycle exam and Cambridge Checkpoint exams. The website names no Cambridge courses in the Cologno liceo.
Address Via Alessandro Volta 16, 20093 Cologno Monzese (MI)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Lower Secondary. Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary run alongside the Italian curriculum in every primary and middle school class, ending with Checkpoint exams.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14). Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: English teachers are native speakers
The school says it teaches with highly qualified native-speaker teachers: Italian and English are taught by different teachers, and the programme relies on co-teaching. The campus is led by a principal who is also the school's head of Italian curriculum.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The PTOF includes a programme against bullying and cyberbullying with student questionnaires and teacher training, a digital safety programme and disciplinary regulations; students with learning difficulties get an individual learning plan. Food without an ingredients list may not be brought into school, and children may not stay in the building after lessons.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country