← Back to the rankingPolo Statale di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore Piersanti Mattarella
Castellammare del Golfo, Italy · est. 2012 · State
Illustration · Castellammare del Golfo
Polo Statale di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore Piersanti Mattarella is a state upper secondary school (scuola statale) on the Gulf of Castellammare in western Sicily, in the province of Trapani. The present institution was formed on 1 September 2012 by merging the Piersanti Mattarella institute in Castellammare del Golfo and the Danilo Dolci institute in Alcamo, but its oldest part is a ginnasio opened in Castellammare in 1902. It combines a liceo classico with a Cambridge International course, technical tracks (tourism with the dual Italian-French EsaBac Techno diploma, transport and logistics with ship operation, chemistry and biotechnology) and vocational tracks (agriculture, electrical maintenance, hospitality and catering), plus evening courses for adults. In the liceo classico Cambridge some subjects are taught in English to British syllabuses with preparation for IGCSE exams, and other lessons are in Italian. The school's site gives 660 students in 37 classes.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, Latin
About the fees The school is state-run and tuition is free.
Admissions A state school: enrolment in the first year follows the national Iscrizioni online procedure on the Unica platform (until 21 February in 2026), and the office helps families enrol; access is via SPID, CIE or the European eIDAS digital identity. The school names no selection or test for the liceo classico Cambridge International. Foreign students attend: the PTOF says most foreign students come from families well integrated into local life, while recently arrived students need individual study plans.
Stages and year groups 37 classes. Five-year programmes ending with the esame di Stato: liceo classico with a Cambridge International course (maturità classica; law and economics added from year one, 2 hours a week); istituto tecnico - tourism (since the 2015-2016 school year an EsaBac Techno line with French 4 hours a week and history in French in years 3-5, dual esame di Stato and baccalauréat diploma), transport and logistics CAIM, chemistry, materials and biotechnology (environmental and health); istituto professionale - agriculture and rural development, technical maintenance (electrical and electronic), hospitality and catering. Second-level evening courses for adults in agriculture and electrical engineering. Cambridge: in the liceo classico some subjects are taught in English to British syllabuses with British textbooks; the course aims at IGCSE exams in mathematics, Latin and English; the PTOF names enhanced English oriented to IGCSE and A Level. In the 2026-2027 school year a native English speaker works alongside the teacher 2 hours a week in years 3-4 of the liceo classico Cambridge.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. Only the liceo classico has a Cambridge International track, teaching some subjects in English towards IGCSE Mathematics, Latin and English.
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
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field
Clubs and activities: School Web Radio/TV · Theatre Workshops · Music and Photography · Gioco Sport: Football · Erasmus+ · Garden of the Righteous
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers84
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
According to the PTOF 2025-2028 the school has 84 teachers and 38 technical and administrative staff. On the Cambridge course in the liceo classico the English teacher is assisted by a native speaker with experience teaching English as a second language and Cambridge courses.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The Sportello Ascolto C.I.C. counselling and psychological support service operates with teachers in charge at the Castellammare del Golfo and Alcamo sites, by appointment. The PTOF names anti-bullying and mutual respect programmes, a psycho-pedagogical service and meetings of psychologists with parents.
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 data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data76 "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