← Back to the rankingInternational School Palermo - Gonzaga Campus
Palermo, Italy · est. 2008 · Private
Illustration · Palermo
International School Palermo (ISP) is an English-language international school on the Jesuit Gonzaga campus in Palermo, founded by the Society of Jesus in 2008 within Istituto Gonzaga (1919). The school describes itself as the first and only IB school in southern Italy and takes children aged 2 to 18: preschool groups from age 2, primary on the IB PYP (grades 1-6), middle and early high school on the IB MYP (M1-M5) and the two-year IB Diploma Programme. All subjects are taught in English by native-speaker teachers; Italian is a compulsory subject (8 hours a week in primary, 5-6 hours in middle school), and Spanish is added from M1. In middle school students may optionally take the Italian terza media exam. The school says that, as a foreign school, it awards a final qualification valid in Italy under Law 738/1986, and that the IB Diploma is equivalent to a liceo scientifico or scienze umane diploma. The Italian Gonzaga school from nursery to liceo runs on the same campus; more than 1200 children attend the whole campus, and ISP has students of more than 30 nationalities.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP, DP
Admits from
2 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Italian, Spanish
Class size
The school says preschool classes are small but gives no figures.
Admissions The school is open to students of all nationalities and cultures. Admission follows the Italian enrolment calendar and continues until places are filled: enquiry and visit, application with previous school records and recommendations, decision by the admissions committee. In primary, children are placed by year of birth, with exceptions for early entrants after classroom observation and assessment by teachers and the school psychologist; from grade 3 an English assessment at application is used to plan language support. Students can move into middle and high school from Italian schools, but they need enough English to study in it; the school runs English courses for prospective students. High school admits students after Italian middle school for all four years, or after year 3 of an Italian liceo for the two-year Diploma Programme only; progression from ISP middle school to high school depends on M3 results, not on Italian exams.
Stages and year groups IB programmes: PYP from preschool to grade 6 (PYP Exhibition in grade 6), MYP over five years - M1-M3 in middle school and M4-M5 in the first two years of high school - then the Diploma Programme (DP1-DP2: six subjects, three at Higher Level and three at Standard Level, Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay, CAS; the school mentions a bilingual diploma option). On the MYP, the middle school page says the school has been accredited for the PYP since 2012 and has formally applied for MYP candidacy, while the ISP main page lists the complete PYP, MYP, DP continuum. The Italian terza media exam is optional, alongside M3. The leaving qualification is the IB Diploma, which the school says is equivalent to a liceo scientifico or scienze umane diploma.
Address Via Piersanti Mattarella 38/42, 90141 Palermo
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, MYP, DP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma programmes.
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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: PYP (ages 3-12), MYP (ages 11-16), DP (ages 16-19). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end. MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible. DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Clubs and activities: Lego · Creativity · Homework club · Tennis · Football · Basketball · Volleyball · Artistic Gymnastics · Artistic Roller Skating · Ju-Jitsu · Kickboxing · Modern Dance · Classical Ballet
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
Core subjects are taught by native English-speaking teachers, and Italian, music, PE and science by specialist teachers; in preschool a native-speaker teacher works with a bilingual assistant, and bilingual assistants also support newcomers in primary and middle school. Middle and high school teachers, the school says, are internationally trained. The whole Gonzaga campus, including the Italian school, has 142 teachers and specialists.
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 training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The campus follows the Scuola Sicura child protection protocol of the FIDAE federation of Catholic schools: prevention, staff training, procedures and ongoing monitoring; each ISP and Italian school level has its own safeguarding lead, there is an anti-bullying lead, an email address for reporting risks and a staff code of conduct. A school psychology service for different age groups works on campus.
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%)95 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 data75 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 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