The Istituto Domus Mariae in Pescara is a private Catholic paritaria school for children aged 3 to 11: scuola dell'infanzia and scuola primaria. It is run by the not-for-profit Fondazione Santa Caterina, founded by parents; the present institute was created on 1 September 2008 by merging the Santa Caterina school, which started in 1997 as a kindergarten, with the Domus Mariae school of the Sisters of Charity. Since the 2018-2019 school year the school has been in the building on Via Pizzoferrato. About 290 children attend: 4 kindergarten groups and 11 primary classes. Since September 2022 the school has been a Cambridge International centre: in primary, English is taught 5 hours a week as a second language under Cambridge Primary, including Art & Design in English, by native-speaker and bilingual teachers; from the last year of kindergarten there are also 5 hours of English. All other lessons are taught in Italian under the national curriculum. The school calls itself the first Cambridge primary school in Pescara and Abruzzo.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $2 259 a year
2 000 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary · National programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
About the fees The annual fee (retta) for the 2025-2026 school year is 2000 EUR; in 2024-2025 it was 1900 EUR. The school does not specify whether the fee is the same for kindergarten and primary. Morning and evening care, the after-school programme, study support, clubs, lunches and the summer English camp are charged separately.
Admissions Enrolment for the 2026-2027 school year is open; families are invited to book a guided visit. The kindergarten admits children from age 3, and the PTOF also mentions early entrants (anticipatari). Almost all kindergarten children continue into the institute's own primary school. The school says demand exceeds places and the building is at full capacity. The site does not describe any selection, test or interview. On foreign pupils the PTOF says children of foreign origin attend, and for children without Italian the school arranges individual extracurricular Italian lessons; the school notes that the Cambridge programme makes it easier for children from other countries to continue schooling begun abroad.
Stages and year groups 15 classes. Italian national curriculum: scuola dell'infanzia (3 sections split into 4 mixed-age groups, 40 hours a week, 8:15 to 16:15) and scuola primaria (11 classes, 27 hours a week, lessons 8:15 to 13:40). Cambridge: since the 2022-2023 school year, Cambridge Primary English as a Second Language and Art & Design in English for all primary classes, 5 hours of English a week in total with CLIL; from June 2028 grade 5 will sit Cambridge Primary Checkpoint. Cambridge English Starters (grade 3), Movers (grade 4) and Flyers (grade 5) language exams are optional. The last kindergarten year also has 5 hours of English, including Art & Design.
Address Via Pizzoferrato 17, 65124 Pescara
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary. Every primary class follows Cambridge Primary ESL plus Art and Design taught in English, 5 hours a week at no extra cost; year 5 Checkpoint starts in 2028.
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). 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.
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
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Playground
Campus: The school occupies one building on Via Pizzoferrato in Pescara, where it moved in the 2018-2019 school year: it houses the scuola dell'infanzia and the scuola primaria. According to the PTOF the school has a library, a theatre room, a gym, a canteen, 12 interactive displays and 25 computers and tablets; it has its own garden, and outdoor lessons also take place in the nearby parco dei Gesuiti. On request there is morning care from 7:45 and evening care until 18:00, an after-school study programme for primary from 14:30 to 16:15 and individual study support. It is a day school with no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Domus in Musica (piano, guitar, violin, cello, drums and singing lessons) · Karate · Dance · Fencing · Theatre
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: all lead teachers hold a teaching qualification, many have a second degree; English is taught by native-speaker and bilingual teachers
According to the PTOF the school has 28 teachers and 10 technical and administrative staff; according to the social report 24 teachers are on permanent contracts. Teachers are selected by the management on qualifications and experience, and new staff are guided by a mentor. Each class and group has a lead teacher, with separate teachers for English, religion, PE, music and learning support; kindergarten teachers work with assistants. Some teachers hold international certificates in English and IT.
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 policy
The school has an anti-bullying protocol and an inclusion plan and protocol; teachers have been trained to work with gifted children and children with learning difficulties. A free counselling service with a psychotherapist is available to parents and teachers, up to 3 sessions per family. The 2026-2027 regulations set out rules for entry, exit and collection of children by authorised persons.
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 data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data73 "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
Pescara, Italy · est. 2008 · Private