← Back to the rankingIstituto d'Istruzione Superiore "Nicola Pizi"
Palmi, Italy · State
Illustration · Palmi
Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore «Nicola Pizi» is a state upper secondary school in Palmi, in the province of Reggio Calabria, named after Lieutenant Nicola Pizi, a native of the town killed in 1915 on the First World War front. It includes the liceo classico «Nicola Pizi», the liceo scientifico «Marconi» with applied sciences, sports and four-year tracks, and the liceo artistico with design departments for metals, goldsmithing and coral, ceramics and textiles. Since April 2017 the school has been linked to Cambridge, and the science liceo has two Cambridge IGCSE sections: four subjects follow British syllabuses with native-speaker teachers, and students sit Cambridge IGCSE exams in Geography, Mathematics, English as a Second Language and Physical Education. About 1200 teenagers aged 14-19 from Palmi and the towns of the Piana plain attend; the main language of instruction is Italian.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
Spanish, Chinese
About the fees The school is a state school and tuition is free. The Cambridge course runs in timetabled hours; each IGCSE exam is paid separately, according to the course description with no year given - no more than 100 EUR, with the amount announced each time.
Admissions Admission to first-year classes is through the national Iscrizioni online procedure in January; first-year groups are assigned to sections by a draw in the presence of the head and the president of the institute council. The Cambridge IGCSE section requires an English certificate at level A2 or above: from year 1 students use English textbooks identical to those of their British peers; the school recommends it to students strongly motivated in the sciences. Students without Italian citizenship attend, though there are few of them; the school describes no special conditions for them.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5 liceo (classico, scientifico, artistico); 1-4 liceo scientifico quadriennale. Italian state upper secondary curriculum, five years ending with the esame di Stato (maturità): liceo classico; liceo scientifico (ordinamento, opzione scienze applicate, sezione ad indirizzo sportivo, four-year quadriennale, sections with a STEAM option and Cambridge IGCSE); liceo artistico with design departments for metalli, oreficeria e corallo, ceramica, tessuto, plus an evening fashion design course. Liceo Scientifico Potenziamento Cambridge IGCSE section (two sections, since April 2017): four subjects follow Cambridge syllabuses in timetabled hours from year 1 with a native-speaker teacher - IGCSE Geography, Mathematics, English as a Second Language, Physical Education (an older course description lists Biology, Geography, Maths, Physics, English as a Second Language); a single exam can also be taken. Exams are held at the school in May-June and October-November. The section can be combined with an economics and law, music, Spanish or Chinese option. Students also prepare for the Cambridge FCE, CAE and CPE language exams; in year 2 there may be a spring trip to an English-speaking country to revise geography and biology.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. Two Cambridge sections of the science liceo teach IGCSE Geography, Mathematics, ESL and Physical Education with a native speaker during school hours from year 1.
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 hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Clubs and activities: Theatre · Instrument and Orchestra · Modern Singing and Choir · Sport and Fitness · Mathematics Olympiad · Physics Olympiad · National Debate Olympiad · Repubblica@Scuola · Babel Project (school magazine)
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers121
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
According to the PTOF 2022-2025 the school has 121 teachers and 37 administrative and technical staff. Teachers of the Cambridge section have completed Cambridge training and are qualified to teach with its methods; native English-speaking teachers work alongside them in class.
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 policy
The PTOF sets goals of preventing dropout, all forms of discrimination and bullying, including online; the website has a safety section, and a subject help desk supports students who fall behind.
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 data60 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 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