Istituto La Sala (La Sala International School) is a private bilingual school in Aversa (province of Caserta): a Montessori nursery, the scuola dell'infanzia and the scuola primaria. The first school was opened in 1960 by the five La Sala sisters; today it is run by a family company. Primary lessons follow the Italian national curriculum, teachers hold Italian teaching qualifications, and textbooks are in Italian and English. Since the 2022-2023 school year the school has been registered with Cambridge International and runs Cambridge Primary from the last year of early years (K5): 8 hours of English a week following the Cambridge programme and a new subject, Global Perspectives; at the end of primary pupils take Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exams. Each early years class has a full-time teacher and assistant together with a native English-speaking teacher. According to the school's figures for 2022-2023, it has about 500 students and 70 staff, and 60 families are US military families. The school does not name any foreign languages other than English on its stage, curriculum and course pages.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary · Montessori · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Admissions Families who wish to enrol a child arrange a meeting with the school management, where they learn about the school's ethos, curriculum, expectations and daily routine; the enrolment contract is completed online. The school is chosen by US military families: according to the 2022-2023 figures there are 60 such families. The website does not describe entrance tests.
Stages and year groups Grades nido, scuola dell'infanzia, primaria 1-5. Montessori asilo nido (English is part of the daily routine), scuola dell'infanzia (a separate English lesson using Jolly Phonics; a full-time teacher and assistant plus a native-speaker teacher), and scuola primaria following the Italian curriculum. Cambridge Primary since the 2022-2023 school year, starting from K5 and year 1: 8 hours a week of English following the Cambridge programme (target level A2+ by the end of primary) and the Global Perspectives subject together with civics; Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exams marked by Cambridge at the end of primary. After school there are Cambridge English exam preparation courses (Flyers, PET).
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary. From the final nursery year pupils follow Cambridge Primary with 8 hours of English a week and Global Perspectives, sitting Checkpoint exams at the end of primary.
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 →Montessori
The pedagogy of Maria Montessori: a child chooses the activity, works at their own pace with special materials, and mixed-age groups are arranged so that older children teach the younger ones. It is used most often in the nursery and primary stages.
What this means for this school. The name Montessori belongs to nobody: any school may call itself a Montessori school, and there is no single body that checks this. There are associations that train teachers and recognise schools, but membership of them is voluntary, and our entry means exactly that the school describes itself this way. This pedagogy has no leaving certificate, so what to look at is what the school finishes with.
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
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Campus: The school site covers 2600 sq m, 1500 sq m of which are outdoor areas: two tennis courts, an artificial grass football pitch and an equipped garden. Inside there are classrooms with interactive whiteboards, a computer and science laboratory, a music room, a gym, a sports centre and a canteen; the menu is designed by a dietitian, with a preference for organic and local food. Lessons run from 8:30 to 16:00, early care from 7:30, extended day until 17:00, and after-school activities until 18:00. The nursery is in a separate building on Via Giotto. There is no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Fencing · Piano · Guitar · Dance · Swimming · Martial Arts · Storytime · Programming the Future · Orff-Schulwerk Music Workshop · Golf
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: Teachers with Italian teaching qualifications; native English-speaking teachers.
Primary teachers hold Italian teaching qualifications and receive regular training; English is taught by native-speaker teachers. Each early years class has a full-time teacher and assistant and a native English-speaking teacher. The school has 70 staff in total according to the 2022-2023 figures.
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 policynot stated on the website
The school runs a free psychological counselling service for students, parents, teachers and staff for emotional, behavioural and learning difficulties. Regulations for teaching and non-teaching staff are published.
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 data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 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
Aversa, Italy · est. 1960 · Private