The Convitto Nazionale "P. Galluppi" in Catanzaro is a state boarding institution with annexed schools at every stage: scuola dell'infanzia, scuola primaria, scuola secondaria di primo grado and liceo classico. There are 790 students in 75 classes. In 1883 it was already listed among the 30 national boarding schools in operation in Italy. Boarding is for boys only, who live at the school from Monday to Saturday; half-board with lunch and educator-led study is open to all. Since the 2016-2017 school year the liceo classico has been a Cambridge International school and offers several tracks: traditional, legal-economic, international Cambridge, biomedical and European. In the international track (sections A and F) English is reinforced, Latin, history and philosophy are partly taught in English with a native speaker, and at the end of the third year students take three Cambridge IGCSE exams. Teaching is in Italian, with some lessons in English in the Cambridge track.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Class size
on average 10 students per class
About the fees Tuition at the state school is free. For the international Cambridge track of the liceo the school states an annual contribution of about 300 euros payable in instalments (in the 2024-2025 brochure). Boarding and half-board fees are not on the site; the school runs a competition for free half-board places.
Admissions Admission follows the state Iscrizioni online procedure. The international Cambridge track of the liceo classico expects students with clear motivation for English, shown by their previous school's assessment. The school states directly that it admits children from migrant backgrounds: under its admission protocol foreign minors have the right to education on the same terms as Italians regardless of residence status, may enrol at any time of the school year, and children without complete documents are enrolled conditionally. Newcomers receive an induction, Italian as a second language and, if needed, an individual plan. Boarding admits only boys who live far from school or in areas poorly served by transport.
Stages and year groups Italian curriculum at every stage, with the liceo ending in the esame di Stato (maturità classica). Liceo classico tracks: traditional, Giuridico-Economico, Internazionale Cambridge, Biomedico, Europeo. Cambridge: in the Internazionale Cambridge track (sections A and F), in classes 1-3 of the liceo English has 5 hours instead of 3 (2 hours of English as a Second Language with a native speaker), Latin 2 of 5 hours in English (IGCSE Latin), geostoria and philosophy 1 of 2 hours in English (IGCSE Global Perspectives); at the end of the third year three IGCSE exams are taken at the school in May-June. In middle school a second EU language is studied alongside English; the school does not name it.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. In the classical liceo's Cambridge international track, Latin, Global Perspectives and English in years 1-3 lead to three IGCSE exams; pupils finish with the maturità.
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: IGCSE (ages 14-16). 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
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 hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
✓Boarding
Also on site: Playground
Clubs and activities: Gutenberg Project (reading and author meetings) · Young Tour Guides · Le Galluppiadi (school cultural and sports games) · Convittiadi (national boarding school games) · School Sports Championships · Philosophy Championships · Mathematics Olympiad · CLL - Latin Language Certification · Ciak: A Mock Trial · Opera at School · Technical Drawing Championship
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 sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: Cambridge subjects are taught by school teachers together with native English speakers.
The school reports 75 classes for 790 students, on average 10 per class. Educators, kitchen, wardrobe and porter staff work shifts every day in boarding and half-board.
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 room
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The boarding house has an infirmary and round-the-clock supervision by educators. The service charter promises psychological support and health promotion; the site has a section of documents on bullying and cyberbullying, protocols for admitting foreign students and early entrants, and a wellbeing project with the Centro Calabrese di Solidarietà. Boarding rules treat any violence or bullying as especially serious.
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 data75 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 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
Catanzaro, Italy · State