← Back to the rankingKinder College International School
Bologna, Italy · est. 1967 · Private
Illustration · Bologna
Kinder College International School is a private international school in Bologna that calls itself the city's first international school. It was founded in 1967 by educator Dolores Amadei Giraldi as the Kinder Haus kindergarten with German, French and English; a primary school followed in the early 1970s and Kinder College with a middle school in 1992. Today the school has two sites: Kinder Haus for children from 18 months to 5 years and Kinder College for preschool, the paritaria primary school and the private middle school; more than 200 children from many countries attend. The primary school is authorised for the IB PYP and the middle school is an MYP candidate. Teaching is bilingual: in primary and middle school about half of subjects are taught in English by native-speaker teachers, in preschool about 80%, and the Italian state curriculum is kept. All classes study Chinese; the school is recognised by the Chinese Ministry of Education as a Confucius Classroom and since 2014 has been a Chinese exam centre; French, German and Spanish are also available. The school runs full days with a wide choice of activities, exchanges and a summer camp.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP · National programme
Admits from
18 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
Chinese, French, German, Spanish
Admissions Admission is year-round: families contact the school, meet it in person or by video call if abroad, visit on any day (open day every day) and submit an application. The website does not describe entrance exams. The school takes children from many countries and draws up individual programmes for children from abroad, including for a single year, after assessing their level; there are dedicated classes for families who want their child to learn Italian. Graduates of the paritaria primary school do not need entrance exams for state schools.
Stages and year groups Grades nido, sezione primavera, scuola dell'infanzia, preschool, primaria 1-5, secondaria di primo grado 1-3. Kinder Haus: asilo nido and sezione primavera from 18 months to 3 years (about half of activities in English), scuola dell'infanzia from 3 to 5 (English and Chinese with native speakers, optional French, Spanish or German). Kinder College: preschool for ages 5-6 (about 80% in English); scuola primaria paritaria for ages 6-11 following the Italian curriculum, with about half of lessons (science, geography, music, computing, PE) taught in English, plus Chinese, computing and chess; IB PYP programme; a private scuola secondaria di primo grado following the Italian curriculum, about half of subjects in English, plus an optional language (French, German, Spanish, Chinese) and Philosophy for children; a candidate for the IB MYP. The school also says that since 2022 middle school graduates can continue in a four-year international lyceum.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Primary Years Programme. For the Middle Years Programme the school is a candidate.
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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: PYP (ages 3-12). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams 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 pool
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Clubs and activities: Art · Computer Lab · Dance · Science Labs · Filmmaking Workshop · Music · Programming · Robotica (robotics) · Chess · Creative Writing and Public Speaking · Sport · Theatre
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
From June to July Kinder Summer Camp runs at Kinder College from 8:30 to 17:30 with native English-speaking teachers: team games, horse riding, swimming and tennis at outside venues, ceramics, painting, reading and an English show for parents every Friday. The school also offers a residential summer camp in the USA (Michigan), a programme at a British college, an exchange with China and a winter week in Austria.
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
The staff page introduces by first name the leadership (principal, vice principal, IB head of school, school manager) and teachers of many subjects: PYP teachers, teachers of English, Chinese, German, French, music (piano, drums, singing), computing, design and technology, chess, basketball, dance, and a librarian. English is taught by native speakers. The school does not publish qualifications or the total number of 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 room
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Among the nursery and kindergarten services the school lists paramedical staff. At Kinder College children stay under teacher supervision after lessons until 17:30. The website does not publish a separate child protection 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 data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 Value for money (6%) scored at the median78 "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