← Back to the rankingCollegio Arcivescovile Castelli
Saronno, Italy · est. 1896 · Private
Illustration · Saronno
Collegio Arcivescovile Castelli is a Catholic paritaria school in Saronno that opened its first school year in 1896; the college's boarding house operated until the 1970s. One building houses the primary school, the scuola media and several upper secondary schools: the liceo scientifico (traditional and applied sciences), from the 2027-2028 school year also a liceo delle scienze umane, an economic and social sciences liceo and a Made in Italy liceo under the name College Castelli, and a four-year istituto alberghiero for food service and hospitality. Since 2017 the primary school has been bilingual: 9 or 16 hours of English a week, with some lessons co-taught by native-level teachers, and Cambridge Global Perspectives sessions on the 16-hour track. The scuola media offers 9 or 5-plus hours of English and Spanish as a second foreign language. In the liceo some science subjects are taught in English following the Cambridge IGCSE syllabus; from the 2027-2028 school year Cambridge becomes a separate pathway of two extra hours a week. The school has been an official Cambridge English exam centre since 2014.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $6 665 a year
590 EUR a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
Spanish, Latin
About the fees For the istituto alberghiero the school publishes new fees from the 2026-2027 school year: an enrolment fee of 700 EUR and a retta of up to nine monthly payments of 590 EUR from September; the fee includes an iPad, digital learning materials, professional uniforms and short professional courses. For families with an ISEE up to 40000 EUR part of the payments is covered by the regional Dote Scuola grant (up to 2000 EUR), and the fee qualifies for a tax deduction of 190 EUR a year. The retta for primary, scuola media and liceo is not published on the website; the liceo brochure mentions only regional grants and deductions of up to 40% of the retta.
Admissions As a paritaria school it registers students in the national system itself, so families enrol not through the state UNICA platform but through the online form on the school's website; the office then contacts the family about documents. Before enrolment opens families can register their interest and attend an open day. The 16-hour English track in primary admits, after an interview with the head or coordinator, children who have already studied in English. For the liceo and the alberghiero families can request an interview with the coordinator; the alberghiero also accepts transfers into years 2-5 of the five-year course. The site gives no specific conditions for foreign students.
Stages and year groups The Italian state curriculum, ending with the esame di Stato (maturità). Liceo: liceo scientifico, traditional and applied sciences; from the 2027-2028 school year the College Castelli model with five tracks - scientifico, scienze applicate, scienze umane, economico sociale, Made in Italy - and two-hour pathways (sport, music, Cambridge). Cambridge International: in the liceo, under the current timetable, subjects marked as taught in English with IGCSE certification - currently Geography, Biology and Chemistry; the 2026-2027 brochure names IGCSE Global Perspectives and optional Combined Science; from the 2027-2028 school year a Cambridge pathway in liceo years 1-3 with subjects in English (Science Combined or Global Perspectives) and IGCSE preparation. In primary, the 16-hour English track has two hours a week of Cambridge Global Perspectives. Optional in the liceo: a dual Italian-American diploma with online courses. The istituto alberghiero is a four-year vocational course in food service and hospitality leading to the maturità. Cambridge English exams (KET, PET, First, Advanced) are separate.
Address Piazza Santuario 10, 21047 Saronno (VA)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge IGCSE. At the liceo geography, biology and chemistry are taught in English for IGCSE; the primary 16-hour English track includes 2 hours of Cambridge Global Perspectives.
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), IGCSE (ages 14-16). 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. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
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
Exam results According to the school, year 3 scuola media students scored above the Lombardy, North-West and national averages in the INVALSI state tests. The school does not publish IGCSE or esame di Stato results.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Clubs and activities: Music · Theatre · Dance · Multisport · Coding and Robotics · DELE Spanish Course · Latin Course · Acting Course · Sports Club · Debate · Business English Course · Model United Nations
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
For primary, a summer centre (centro estivo) for all years and a summer holiday week for years 4-5; for the scuola media, a summer week at the seaside and a study trip to England. In June 2026 the istituto alberghiero ran a summer school for its students and open sessions for local scuola media students in years 2-3. Camp prices and dates are not given on the site.
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The liceo runs the BenEssere programme with study-skills activities and a counselling service for students and parents; every liceo student has a teacher tutor. In the scuola media the BenEssere project supports children with special educational needs, and in primary reading and writing skills are monitored in years 2-3 together with the C.O.S.P.E.S. centre.
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 data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data60 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 data78 "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