← Back to the rankingIstituto Suor Orsola Benincasa
Naples, Italy · est. 1895 · Private
Illustration · Naples
The Istituto Suor Orsola Benincasa is a non-state school in Napoli covering the full cycle: scuola dell'infanzia, scuola primaria, scuola media and licei, all in the historic monastic citadel on Via Suor Orsola next to the university of the same name. The institution traces its history to schools opened here in the 19th century for girls from poor families and to the Magistero founded in 1895, from which the university grew. Today it runs a liceo linguistico with ESABAC (the Italian-French double diploma, since 2025 with reinforced law and economics), a liceo artistico with haute couture design, interior design and multimedia tracks, and a liceo scientifico with courses in digital marketing, management and generative AI. Since December 2018 the liceo linguistico has been a Cambridge International School: the school describes two Cambridge IGCSE/A Level courses within school hours. The licei have one section per track and small classes; liceo students attend lectures and placements at the university. Teaching is in Italian.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian
Languages taught
English, French, Spanish
Admissions The school accepts pre-registrations and enrolments during the year after an interview with the deputy head of the relevant level. Admission to the licei requires an orientation test. Interviews can be booked through the form on the licei website, by phone or by email. Students include children of foreign origin, mainly Chinese, and bilingual children; the PTOF lists Italian as a second language courses among the school's aims.
Stages and year groups Italian curriculum: scuola dell'infanzia, scuola primaria (6 classes according to the PTOF, full-time 40 hours a week), scuola secondaria di primo grado (2 classes), licei with the esame di Stato: liceo linguistico ESABAC with reinforced law and economics (three foreign languages, history in French, double esame di Stato and baccalauréat diploma), liceo artistico (haute couture design, interior design, audiovisual and multimedia), liceo scientifico for management and communication. Cambridge: on its Cambridge page the school describes two Cambridge IGCSE/A Level courses within school hours for all classes of the liceo linguistico - English as a Second Language (an extra hour with a native speaker in years 1-5) and World Literature (one hour a week in years 3-5 together with the Italian, English, French and Spanish literature teachers); IGCSE/A Level certificates are obtained independently of the esame di Stato. The PTOF 2025-2028 mentions two Cambridge IGCSE/A Level subjects since 2018 and Global Perspectives topics, while the current liceo page refers to preparation for Cambridge English language exams at levels A2 to C2.
Address Via Suor Orsola 10, 80135 Napoli
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 liceo linguistico all classes get an extra hour of English as a Second Language with a native speaker and a World Literature course in years 3-5 on Cambridge syllabuses.
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 hall
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Clubs and activities: Journalism School · Apprentice Guides · Restoration Workshop · Haute Couture Workshop · Cambridge Certification Preparation · DELE (Spanish exam preparation) · Pilates Project · Afternoon Tutoring
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers32
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
According to the PTOF the licei have 32 teachers and 8 support staff; all teachers are qualified in their subject, many hold language certificates for CLIL and ESABAC. English conversation is taught by a native speaker who is a certified Cambridge examiner; there are three support teachers for children with special needs.
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 policy
The Sportello d'Ascolto psychological support service is run by psychologists of the Suor Orsola Benincasa university under the protocol between the ministry and the national council of psychologists. The school works under the laws on students with learning difficulties and disabilities and the law against cyberbullying; all buildings have panic doors, ramps and lifts.
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 data65 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 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