← Back to the rankingIstituto di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore «Paciolo-D'Annunzio»
Fidenza, Italy · est. 2000 · State
Illustration · Fidenza
The Istituto di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore "Paciolo-D'Annunzio" in Fidenza (province of Parma) is a state upper secondary school created on 1 September 2000 by merging the technical institute "Luca Paciolo" (since 1962) with the liceo "Gabriele D'Annunzio", which traces its history to the Regio Ginnasio of 1935. Today it has a liceo classico, a liceo scientifico (including an "Ambiente & Sostenibilità" track), a reinforced liceo linguistico and an istituto tecnico economico with AFM (and a Management sportivo option), SIA and RIM tracks. There are 990 students in 44 classes. Since 2015 the school has been a Cambridge International School and exam centre, the first in the province of Parma to run IGCSE courses: there was a Cambridge section of the liceo scientifico with mathematics, biology and English, a Cambridge option in the classical and language licei with Global Perspectives, and A Level courses in mathematics and English; from 2025-2026 the courses were merged, and from 2026-2027 first-year students of all tracks are offered a voluntary afternoon English as a Second Language course. The main language of instruction is Italian. About 14% of students are foreign, and a permanent Italian as a second language lab supports them.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, German, Spanish, Latin, Chinese
Class size
on average 22 students per class
About the fees Tuition at the state school is free. Cambridge courses are optional and require a compulsory annual fee to cover native-speaker teachers and Cambridge support; the school lists the course fee without an amount.
Admissions Admission to grade 1 follows the state procedure through the Unica platform within the period of the annual circular; for the Cambridge course families choose the Cambridge International option when enrolling. Cambridge courses run when enough students sign up and require a compulsory annual fee. The school holds open days, open nights and mini-placements for prospective students and publishes selection criteria if a track is oversubscribed. Foreign students attend the school: 25.1% in the technical institute and 14.29% overall; for newly arrived students the school runs Italian as a second language courses, tutoring and subject language support.
Stages and year groups 44 classes. Five-year programmes ending with the esame di Stato: liceo classico, liceo scientifico (and the Ambiente & Sostenibilità track with an A&S-LAB from grade 3), liceo linguistico potenziato (English, French, German or Spanish; CLIL from grade 3), and istituto tecnico economico: AFM, AFM Management sportivo, SIA, RIM (three foreign languages). Cambridge: since 2016-2017 a Cambridge section of the liceo scientifico with IGCSE Mathematics, Biology and English as a Second Language, 3 hours a week on top of the Italian curriculum, with exams at the end of grade 2 or the start of grade 3; in the liceo classico and linguistico, IGCSE Global Perspectives (2 hours) and English as a Second Language (1 hour) on Saturdays; in the technical institute since 2019-2020, IGCSE English as a Second Language and Business Studies after school; since 2018-2019, AS & A Level Mathematics (scientifico) and A Level English Language (all licei) in grades 3-4. From 2025-2026 the courses were merged into a single Saturday course (Business Studies 2 hours and English as a Second Language 1 hour); from 2026-2027 grade 1 has a voluntary English as a Second Language course once a week for 2 hours after school, while from grade 2 the IGCSE and AS & A Level Mathematics courses already started continue. Courses are taught by native speakers.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A Level. Optional fee-paying courses: IGCSE Business Studies, ESL, Mathematics and Biology, plus AS and A Level Mathematics in the upper years; from 2026-2027 year 1 students get only a voluntary after-school ESL course.
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), A-Level (ages 16-18). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
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: Makerspace
Campus: The school operates in two buildings in Fidenza: on Via Manzoni and on Via Alfieri. According to the PTOF all classrooms have digital boards and computers, with fibre internet and Wi-Fi, a TEAL room and two Future Classrooms, twelve specialist labs (physics, science, languages and others), two libraries and 114 computers and tablets in the labs; in 2025-2026 an IT and Data Science lab and an Economics and Digital Marketing lab opened on Via Manzoni. Only one building has a gym: the licei building on Via Alfieri has none, so PE lessons take place in outside sports facilities. It is a day school.
Clubs and activities: Theatre Workshop · Chess · The Writing Workshop · Fitness at School · Introduction to Padel · First Steps in Chinese · Maths for Future · Business Simulation · Erasmus+ · National Night of the Liceo Classico
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 sizein the key facts above
According to the PTOF the school has 108 teachers and 29 technical and administrative staff. The school reports 44 classes for 990 students, on average 22 students per class. Cambridge courses are taught by specialised native English speakers.
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 policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school has a psychological counselling service, which the PTOF plans to strengthen, and a social-emotional learning programme; risk assessment documents are kept up to date, and a safety organisation chart and emergency procedures for both buildings are published. The PTOF includes the prevention of bullying and cyberbullying.
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%)85 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 data75 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