Liceo Statale G. Lombardo Radice is a state upper secondary school in Catania. It grew out of an Istituto Magistrale (teacher training school) and after the reform became a human sciences lyceum. Today it has three tracks: liceo delle scienze umane, liceo delle scienze umane with an economic and social option (LES) and liceo linguistico; from 2026-2027 classes with a neuroscience and a criminology emphasis have opened. The language lyceum offers the ESABAC Italian-French double diploma (since 2011-2012) and a Cambridge track: since 2013 the school has been registered as a Cambridge International School, the first in the province. 1471 students attend in three buildings, two in Catania and one in Gravina di Catania. Teaching is in Italian; in the Cambridge track Geography, Mathematics and French are taught in English under IGCSE syllabuses from the first year.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish
About the fees Tuition at this state school is free.
Admissions Admission to first year follows the state Iscrizioni online procedure within the period the ministry announces each year, usually from November. On its open pages the school does not write about selection for the Cambridge or ESABAC tracks or about admitting children from abroad.
Stages and year groups Italian state upper secondary curriculum ending with the esame di Stato (maturità). Tracks: liceo delle scienze umane, liceo delle scienze umane opzione economico-sociale (LES), liceo linguistico; the language lyceum has an ESABAC track (Italian-French double diploma, since 2011-2012) and a Cambridge International School track. Cambridge since 2013: Cambridge IGCSE Geography, Mathematics and French and Cambridge International A Level Spanish, taught in English from the first year using CLIL by the school's teachers and native speakers; Spanish in the Cambridge track is reinforced by 33 hours a year from the first year for the A Level exam. Exams are taken at the school. Separately, the school prepares students for Cambridge English language exams (PET, FIRST, CAE) and DELE; these are language certificates. From 2026-2027 there are classes with a neuroscience and a criminology emphasis (1FN and 1SDC).
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A Level. The Cambridge strand of the languages liceo teaches geography, maths and French in English to IGCSE from year 1, and prepares Spanish to A Level.
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), A-Level (ages 16-18). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
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 hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: Three buildings: the main one on Via Imperia in Catania with an assembly hall (Aula Magna), a branch on Via del Bosco in Catania and a section in neighbouring Gravina di Catania; the school writes that all three are easily reached by urban and suburban transport from different parts of the city and nearby municipalities.
Clubs and activities: Foreign-Language Theatre · Languages Championship · Juvenes Translatores · Certilingua · Erasmus+ (exchanges) · eTwinning
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
Cambridge track subjects are taught by the school's teachers together with native-speaker teachers.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
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%)85 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 data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data76 "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
Catania, Italy · State