Keynes Institute is a private, secular bilingual school in central Palermo, from nursery to lyceum. It opened in 2016 in the building where the Ancelle sisters ran an educational centre for a hundred years, and sits in a 10000 square metre green park next to Villa Trabia. Stages: nursery and kindergarten drawing on Montessori and Reggio Emilia with daily English; a primary school in two versions - a standard one and a Cambridge one, taught in English with ten subjects added to the Italian curriculum; a middle school following Cambridge Lower Secondary, with about half of subjects in English; and a five-year language lyceum with English, French, Spanish and Arabic; the school also describes an international scientific lyceum with some science subjects in English. The middle school and lyceum are paritaria. Its own subjects Life Skills and Performing Arts run through all stages. The school is open from 7:30 to 18:00, with a canteen, after-school care, sport, dance, theatre and a summer camp.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 971–6 214 a year
4 400–5 500 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, Arabic
Registration fee
≈ $339
300 EUR
About the fees Annual fees for 2026-2027, starting amounts: nursery and sezione primavera from 4700 euros, kindergarten and standard primary from 4400 euros, Cambridge primary, Cambridge middle school and the language lyceum from 5500 euros. The school does not state the fee for the scientific lyceum.
Admissions The school describes itself as having limited places and says it looks not only at marks but also at sport, theatre, music and contribution to the community. Families apply through the website form, after which the school arranges an online or in-person meeting; school visits can be booked. The school welcomes international students and helps families with document verification and recognition of previous qualifications; in the lyceum the share of students without Italian citizenship is above the provincial average. Middle school and first lyceum years have income and merit scholarships, including for Ukrainian citizens, children of migrants, non-Italians resident in Italy, orphans, students with special needs and victims of bullying.
Stages and year groups Grades nido, sezione primavera, scuola dell'infanzia, primaria 1-5, secondaria di primo grado 1-3, liceo 1-5. Asilo nido and sezione primavera, scuola dell'infanzia (drawing on Montessori and Reggio Emilia, daily English), scuola primaria in two versions: a standard Italian one and a Cambridge one - the full Italian curriculum plus ten Cambridge Primary subjects, taught in English; scuola secondaria di primo grado following the Italian curriculum with the Cambridge International Lower Secondary Curriculum - about half of subjects in English, plus English, French and Spanish; Liceo Linguistico paritario (5 years, esame di Stato) - 10 hours of English and 5 hours of conversation with native speakers a week instead of 4 and 1, French, Spanish, Arabic, CLIL in three languages, 50-minute lessons; Liceo Scientifico Internazionale with CLIL science in English. All stages include the school's own subjects Life Skills and Performing Arts. The school does not name Cambridge exams.
Address Via Marchese Ugo 6, Palermo
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Lower Secondary. The Cambridge primary stream adds ten Cambridge Primary subjects taught in English to the Italian curriculum; the middle school follows Cambridge Lower Secondary with about half the subjects 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: Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14). 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.
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 hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field
Clubs and activities: Football · Volleyball · Basketball · Padel (padel) · Gym · Dance · Theatre
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
According to the PTOF 2025-2028 the middle school has 11 teachers and 2 support staff and the lyceum 14 teachers; conversation classes in the lyceum are taught by native speakers. The school does not state the number of nursery, kindergarten and primary staff.
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 policynot stated on the website
The school has a student wellbeing service and a counselling desk. The charter of services sets out safety rules for buildings and activities. There is a dedicated scholarship for children who have experienced bullying or violence.
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 data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "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
Palermo, Italy · est. 2016 · Private