← Back to the rankingIstituto Pontificio Sant'Apollinare
Rome, Italy · est. 1824 · Private
Illustration · Rome
Istituto Pontificio Sant'Apollinare is a Catholic paritaria school of the Diocese of Rome in an extraterritorial building of the Holy See next to the Vatican, funded since 1974 solely by parents' fees. The school traces its history to the Roman Seminary schools opened in 1824 in the Sant'Apollinare palace near Piazza Navona; it was reopened in 1920, the ginnasio-liceo gained state recognition in 1929, and in the early 1970s the school moved to Viale Vaticano. Today it has a middle school (scuola media), where besides Italian students learn Cambridge English, French, Spanish and Latin, and three licei: a liceo classico with traditional, Cambridge, legal-international and cultural heritage strands; a liceo scientifico with traditional, Cambridge and scienze applicate options; and a liceo linguistico with the ESABAC programme, which leads to both the Italian diploma and the French baccalauréat. In the Cambridge liceo classico, since 2018, English has been strengthened with native speaker lessons, Global Perspectives and Business Studies have been added, and after the second year students can take Cambridge IGCSE examinations; in the Cambridge liceo scientifico (since 2019) one hour a week each of Mathematics and Physics is co-taught in English. According to the school, it has 461 students and 47 teachers.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 462–5 649 a year
3 950–5 000 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, German, Latin
About the fees Fees for the 2026-2027 school year, total annual fee (retta complessiva): middle school 3950 EUR (920 EUR on enrolment and three instalments of 1010 EUR in September, November and February), licei 5000 EUR (1010 EUR on enrolment and three instalments of 1330 EUR); in liceo year 5 the enrolment payment is 1110 EUR including exam costs. A single payment by 30 November is possible. Discounts of up to 30% by family income and for siblings cannot be combined. Families with ISEE up to 30000 EUR may receive a state paritaria voucher of up to 1500 EUR in middle school and the first two liceo years.
Admissions The school admits students to the middle school and the three licei; enrolment is by the school's own form (separate forms for new and continuing students), and families are invited to open days with prior booking (for 2026-2027: 24 October, 28 November, 12 December 2026 and 23 January 2027; 10:00 middle school, 11:00 licei). The school does not describe entrance exams. The A Level programme in years 3-4 of the liceo classico opens only on request if a group of 12-15 students is formed. Discounts: 30% and 15% by family income (ISEE up to 19999 EUR and from 20000 to 30000 EUR), 10-20% for siblings, 10% for students from its own or another Catholic middle school entering the liceo, and 10% for families of staff of the Vatican, the Vicariate of Rome, Bambino Gesù hospital and several other institutions.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-3 secondaria di primo grado, 1-5 liceo. Scuola secondaria di primo grado (paritaria since 2001): Italian curriculum and esame di Stato del primo ciclo, Cambridge English (about B1 by the end of year 3), French and Spanish (about A2), Latin one hour a week; 32 hours a week. Licei (paritari) with the esame di Stato: liceo classico - traditional, Cambridge (since 2018; English 3 hours plus 1 hour with a native speaker in years 1-2 and 2 plus 1 in years 3-5, Art History from year 1, Business Studies; according to the school's older page, Global Perspectives 2 hours a week in years 1-2, optional Cambridge IGCSE examinations at the end of year 2, and A Level in years 3-4 on request of a group), legal-international (law, English, French, public speaking) and cultural heritage (German, Art History); liceo scientifico - traditional, Cambridge (since 2019; English with a native speaker, a second language of French or Spanish, one hour each of Maths and Physics co-taught with Mathematics and Physics, a STEM and robotics laboratory) and opzione scienze applicate (computing, Computer Science, law and economics); liceo linguistico ESABAC - English, French and Spanish or German, History under the ESABAC programme, double diploma: Italian and French baccalauréat.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. In the Cambridge liceo classico pupils study ESL plus Global Perspectives or Business Studies, with optional IGCSE exams after year 2; the Cambridge liceo scientifico adds an hour each of Maths and Physics in 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 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
Campus: The school occupies an extraterritorial building of the Holy See by the walls of the Vatican, on Viale Vaticano. There are classrooms, computer and science rooms, a gym opened in the presence of the education minister, football and volleyball pitches, and its own canteen for students and teachers: middle school students eat there on Tuesdays and Thursdays when they have afternoon lessons, others by booking the same morning (lunch 7 EUR). The middle school has a paid supervised homework group one to three days a week. The school is a Cambridge examination centre.
Clubs and activities: Five-a-Side Football · Volleyball · English, French and Spanish Certification Courses · STEM and Robotics Lab · ApolliNews
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
In summer the school offers language courses on site under the High School Campus project and language trips abroad, including study and work trips.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers47
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
On its teachers page the school names 47 teachers with their subjects and email; in the Cambridge strands native English speaking language assistants work alongside the teachers.
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
An inclusion team works with a psychologist, an educator, a support teacher, class coordinators and a guidance teacher; there is a school psychological service (sportello psicologico) for students and families and a two-year health education programme.
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 data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 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