← Back to the rankingIstituto Orsoline di San Carlo
Milan, Italy · est. 1844 · Private
Illustration · Milan
Istituto Orsoline di San Carlo is a Catholic institute of the Ursuline Sisters of Saint Charles, which has worked since 1844 in the building on Via Lanzone next to the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in central Milan. All its schools are paritarie, part of the national education system: a nursery for children from 12 to 36 months, a kindergarten for ages 3-6, a primary school, a middle school and two licei, the liceo scientifico (since 2014, with a scienze applicate track) and an art liceo. Since October 2022 the primary and middle schools, and since the 2023-2024 school year the liceo scientifico, have worked with Cambridge programmes, which the school calls a vertical Cambridge curriculum from primary to liceo. In primary, English as a Second Language runs through all five years, with Art and Design added from grade 3; in middle school, English as a Second Language from grade 2 and Art and Design and Drama in English from grade 1. In the liceo, years one and two study English as a Second Language, History and Design and Technology, and years 3 and 4 Physics, Science and World Literature; students prepare for Cambridge exams at the end of years 2 and 4, leading to IGCSE. The kindergarten offers the Cambridge Early Years programme with native English speakers. The language of instruction is Italian, with the Cambridge subjects taught in English.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE · National programme
Admits from
1 year · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Admissions The primary school invites families to an open day and enrols through the office: families can request a call to discuss pre-enrolment. The middle school uses a single enrolment form; parents sign that the enrolment fee is non-refundable in any case and that the annual fee is due in full however long the child attends. Under the primary PTOF, students from other countries are enrolled in the class matching their age, but the teachers' council may place them a class higher or lower considering the school system of their country, an assessment and their previous studies; those with weak Italian may be offered the class one year below; a facilitator teacher supports them. In the middle school 5% of students come from non-Italian families and some have dual citizenship. The liceo has a five-day week with Saturday free.
Stages and year groups Grades nido, scuola dell'infanzia, primaria 1-5, secondaria di primo grado 1-3, liceo 1-5. Nursery (12-36 months), kindergarten (ages 3-6, Cambridge Early Years programme with native English speakers), scuola primaria grades 1-5 (Monday - Thursday 8:30-16:00, Friday 8:30-12:30, 28 hours a week plus two optional hours on Friday), scuola secondaria di primo grado grades 1-3 (7 classes, 133 students), liceo scientifico and liceo scientifico scienze applicate grades 1-5, liceo artistico. Cambridge course: primary - English as a Second Language 3 hours a week in grades 1-2 and 4 hours in grades 3-5, Art and Design 1 hour in grades 3-5, interim checks and an optional Cambridge exam at the end of grade 5 (first for the grade 5 class of 2027-2028); middle school - English as a Second Language from grade 2, Art and Design and Drama in English from grade 1; liceo since 2023-2024 - in years 1-2 English as a Second Language (plus one English hour), History and Design and Technology, in years 3-4 Physics (plus one physics hour), Science and World Literature (within English hours), three extra hours a week in English in total, marked in the curriculum; preparation for Cambridge exams at the end of years 2 and 4. Liceo PTOF: 'the hours shown in red are those related to the Cambridge programmes'.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Lower Secondary, Cambridge IGCSE.
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), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), IGCSE (ages 14-16). 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. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. 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
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Campus: Since 1844 the congregation's schools have occupied a building with an inner cloister next to the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio; wings along Via Carducci and Via De Amicis were added to the cloister, and the old church of San Michele sul Dosso is the heart of the institute. The primary school has 11 classrooms with projectors and internet, a mobile computer lab, a science lab, an equipped gym, a video room, a library, an inner courtyard, a garden and a sports field, play and theatre halls, a chapel and a theatre hall. According to the PTOF the middle school has a library, an assembly hall, a theatre, an outdoor basketball and volleyball court, a gym and a canteen; every student has a personal computer or tablet and every classroom has an interactive board. In the liceo, physics and science lab work is led by teachers together with two lab technicians. Supervised care runs before and after lessons. It is a day school with no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Music Workshop · Theatre Workshop · Computer Science Workshop · English Language Workshop · Orsoliniadi (school sports games) · ECDL Computer Certification · PET and FCE Preparation · Yoga
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
The primary school year adds three weeks of summer school; for grades 3-5 there is a residential summer camp in the mountains.
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 sizenot stated
In the kindergarten native English speakers work with the children all day; the middle school and the liceo have English conversation lessons with a native speaker, and in the liceo lab work is led by teachers with two lab technicians. Each school's website has a teaching staff section.
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 middle school runs a psychological counselling service (sportello di ascolto) for students, parents and teachers; the schools have an anti-bullying and cyberbullying protocol and a whistleblowing procedure, and the liceo has an anti-bullying policy.
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 data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 Value for money (6%) scored at the median68 "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