English Primary School is a private bilingual primary school in Modena with paritaria status, meaning its Italian certificate is recognised by the state. The school grew out of the Peter Pan bilingual nursery opened in 1997, the first in Modena; the primary school has operated since 2005. The programme combines the Italian national standards (Indicazioni Nazionali) with the British English National Curriculum: about half of teaching time, 11 hours a week, is in English with native-speaker teachers (English, science in STEAM format, geography, art, coding and robotics, Global Perspectives, personal and social education), the rest in Italian. Since 2021 the school has been a Cambridge International School: the programme includes the Cambridge Primary courses English as a Second Language and Global Perspectives. Every year from the second grade children take Cambridge English exams: Starters, Movers, Flyers, and A2 Key in the fifth grade. It is a full-day school - 40 hours a week, 8:00 to 16:30. The Peter Pan Preschool for ages 3-6 is nearby on Via Manfredo Fanti. The school does not name any foreign language other than English taught as a subject, either on the website or in the PTOF.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Admissions Enrolment starts with a form on the website; the school then contacts the family, explains the conditions and invites them to a tour or open day. Prior knowledge of English is not required, and the school does not describe entrance tests. The school says it wishes to welcome all families whose needs match its programme; about 80% of pupils are local, while 21 nationalities from foreign and mixed families living in Modena are represented. Children with special educational needs are accepted, with individual plans drawn up with specialists and the in-house pedagogist.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5, 5 classes. Italian scuola primaria paritaria, grades 1-5, one class per grade, full day 40 hours a week. Italian curriculum under the Indicazioni Nazionali and English curriculum under the English National Curriculum (about 50% of time in English, 11 hours a week); Letters and Sounds phonics in grades 1-2. Cambridge Primary: English as a Second Language and Global Perspectives - the website names Global Perspectives in grades 4-5, the PTOF in grades 3-5 from September 2024. Cambridge English exams (Starters in grade 2, Movers in 3, Flyers in 4, A2 Key in 5) are certificates, not a programme. The Peter Pan Preschool (ages 3-6) is a separate scuola dell'infanzia at another address.
Address Via Arturo Anderlini 5, 41122 Modena
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary. About half the week is in English; Cambridge Primary covers English as a Second Language and Global Perspectives in the upper primary years.
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). 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.
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 Every year children take Cambridge English exams: Starters (grade 2), Movers (3), Flyers (4), A2 Key (5). The PTOF notes that results in the national INVALSI English test are well above average; in 2023 the graduates of the third grade of the middle school the school opened in 2020 took the Cambridge Lower Secondary final exams in English and Global Perspectives.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio · Playground
Campus: A single-storey building near the historic centre of Modena and the ring-road exit, barrier-free (ramp and stair lift). Five spacious classrooms with modular furniture, an interactive whiteboard in every class and about twenty tablets for coding and research, an art studio, two English rooms, a library with Italian and English books. A large courtyard and two gardens, one with old trees; since the 2024-2025 school year a greenhouse for science and a wooden amphitheatre for outdoor lessons. There is no gym: children are taken by private bus for physical education. There is a canteen, pre-school care from 7:30 and after school clubs until 18:30.
Clubs and activities: Theatre in English · After School Clubs
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
The school does not describe a summer camp, but every summer holiday it organises an optional two-week trip to England for grades 4-5.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
✓Number of teachers10
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: Italian teachers are graduates in Scienze della Formazione Primaria qualified to teach primary school; English teachers are native speakers with degrees and primary teaching qualifications.
Ten teachers: five Italian class teachers, three English teachers, a support teacher (also responsible for reading difficulty screening), an English assistant in the library; music and physical education are taught by external specialists. An in-house pedagogist works with the teachers. The team is young, mostly under 35.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The building holds all required safety certificates. A social and emotional learning workshop supports wellbeing; the school screens for reading and arithmetic difficulties in grades 1-2 and draws up individual plans for children with special needs. The improvement plan lists the fight against bullying, including cyberbullying, among its aims.
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 data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data64 Value for money (6%) scored at the median95 "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 7 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
Modena, Italy · est. 2005 · Private