← Back to the rankingFlorence Bilingual School
Florence, Italy · est. 1973 · Private
Illustration · Florence
Florence Bilingual School (FBS) is a private paritaria bilingual school in Florence for children from 6 months to 14 years. It opened in 1973 as «Kindergarten» in the Fiesole hills, moved closer to central Florence in 1998 and added a middle school, adopted a bilingual programme in 2010 and took its current name in 2021. The Italian state curriculum is combined with the Cambridge International course: in kindergarten and grades 1-2 half of the lessons are in Italian and half in English; from grade 3 English, science and technology, art and music are taught in English (12 hours a week), and in middle school 15 hours a week including PE. In grade 5 and at the end of middle school students sit Cambridge Checkpoint exams in English and science, as well as the Italian INVALSI tests and the middle school esame di Stato. Middle school adds a third language - French or Spanish with native speakers - a 1-2 week stay at a UK college and a personal project in English with a tutor. Over 50 years more than 3000 students have attended.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $9 603–10 281 a year
8 500–9 100 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · National programme
Admits from
6 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish
Registration fee
≈ $926
820 EUR
About the fees The retta is annual, paid in ten instalments from September to June, with lunch included. For the 2026-2027 school year: nursery 8500 EUR (from age 1 to 3), 8800 EUR for infants from 3 months at the Menarini Baby site; kindergarten 9100 EUR; primary 9100 EUR in grades 1-4 and 9050 EUR in grade 5; middle school 9100 EUR (price list labelled 2025-2026). Sibling discounts: 5% on the eldest, 10% on the second, 20% from the third child. The retta includes lunch, extended hours from 7:30 to 18:00 and the shuttle between sites; clubs, trips, study tours, the UK college stay and the morning school bus are charged separately.
Admissions As a paritaria school FBS has no selective or entrance tests: when places are available, children are admitted after enrolment. The main enrolment window for all levels is January, but applications are accepted all year and there is a waiting list; open days take place in autumn and private visits can be arranged at any time. No English is required for the nursery and kindergarten. Applicants from grade 3 of primary may be assessed in spoken and written English; if the level is insufficient, the school provides language support during lessons and extra afternoon courses. The school welcomes students from all over the world; for kindergarten and grades 1-2 basic Italian and/or English is preferable, later an age-appropriate level, with paid Italian and English support available if needed. Reports from the previous period are required.
Stages and year groups Grades nursery (6 months - 3 years), kindergarten (ages 3-6), grades 1-5, middle school grades 1-3. Nido d'infanzia (6 months - 3 years, from 3 months at the Menarini Baby site), scuola dell'infanzia (ages 3-6, 50% in Italian and 50% in English), scuola primaria (grades 1-5: in grades 1-2, 17 hours of English a week including science, technology, art, music and first concepts of history and geography; from grade 3, 12 hours following the Cambridge International programme - English, Science and Technology, Art, Music; Cambridge Progression Tests in grades 3-5; the Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exam in English and science in grade 5), scuola secondaria di primo grado (grades 1-3: 15 hours in English - English, art, music, science and technology and PE following Cambridge International Lower Secondary; French or Spanish as a third language; the Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint exam in English and science and the esame di Stato in grade 3). The Cambridge course is compulsory for all students, using Cambridge International textbooks and methods.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · authorised programmeCognita · school is part of the networkThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Lower Secondary. From Grade 3 English, science and technology, art and music follow Cambridge in English, plus PE in middle school; Checkpoint exams come in Grade 5 and at the end of middle school.
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.
Cognitaschool network
A group of schools launched in 2004; the legal entity in the footer of the site is Cognita Holdings Limited. The site names 90 schools in 21 countries, 14 curricula and more than 22,000 staff, and the numbers agree on all the pages read. The section on a school joining the group speaks of working with the owners of schools and of integrating the school, but does not say outright whether the school passes into ownership; the word "franchise" does not appear on the site. The majority owner of Cognita itself is named as Jacobs Holding AG.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.
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
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field
Clubs and activities: Robocode · Little Scientists · Young Reporters · Debate Club - Model United Nations · Art Club · Drama Club · Music Club · Fashion · Psychomotor Activities · Dance · Tennis · Football · Swimming
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The school selects teachers carefully; staff include Italian and international teachers, the latter mostly from the UK and the US, native English speakers or fully bilingual. French and Spanish in middle school are taught by native speakers. Teachers share practice with colleagues in other schools of the group. Over 50 years more than 500 teachers have worked at the school.
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 school publishes a set of regularly reviewed policies: anti-bullying, behaviour, educational visits, first aid, attendance, complaints, a code of conduct for staff and volunteers, health and safety, safeguarding and child protection, supervision and missing child procedures, drugs and alcohol, IT, transport, food, risk assessment, and pupil health and wellbeing. A team of teachers and specialists draws up individual plans for children with special needs; middle school runs a social-emotional learning programme in English, and a digital citizenship course starts in grade 3. There is a whistleblowing channel.
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 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