Liceo James Joyce is a state liceo in Ariccia, in the Castelli Romani south-east of Rome. It opened in 2000 with language and education tracks and now runs a liceo linguistico (with Spanish or German as the third language), a liceo linguistico EsaBac with a double Italian and French diploma, and a liceo delle scienze umane; 1166 students attend in 58 classes in two buildings. The school describes itself as secular, pluralist and intercultural. Teaching is in Italian. Since 2017 the liceo has been a Cambridge school: in optional sections geography, biology, chemistry, Global Perspectives and sociology are taught in English to Cambridge IGCSE syllabuses by school teachers and native speakers. The school has long-standing exchanges with schools in Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium, Erasmus+ and study trips abroad.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, German, Latin
Class size
20 students per class on average
About the fees It is a state school and tuition is free. The voluntary family contribution (contributo volontario) is 80 EUR a year per student, 40 EUR for families with an ISEE below 10000 EUR; it covers insurance, technology and extra activities and is tax-deductible. Cambridge sections are paid: about 240 EUR a year for 2 extra hours a week plus exam fees, usually every two years; in years 1-2 of the Bioscienze option 180 EUR a year, and the sociology course in years 3-4 of the liceo delle scienze umane is free. Three school scholarships cover the next year's Cambridge fee for students with an average mark above 8.
Admissions Enrolment in year 1 is through the national online procedure on the Unica platform; for the 2026-2027 school year from 13 January to 21 February 2026. Cambridge sections are optional: a class opens if at least 20 students apply, and English at A2 level or above is preferred; a meeting for parents on the programme is held at the end of September. The school stresses that the aim of the section is to study subjects in English, not only to obtain a language certificate. The liceo hosts international exchange students and sends its own abroad; the site does not mention admitting foreign students to regular classes.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5 scuola secondaria di secondo grado. Five-year liceo following the Italian curriculum with the esame di Stato. Tracks: liceo linguistico (English and French, with Spanish or German as the third language), liceo linguistico opzione EsaBac (since the 2015-2016 school year, double diploma: esame di Stato and the French baccalauréat) and liceo delle scienze umane. Optional Cambridge IGCSE sections, 2 extra hours a week, subjects taught in English from year 1 by school teachers and native speakers: in the liceo linguistico (options with German or Spanish and the Bioscienze option with Spanish) Geography in years 1-2, Biology, Chemistry and Global Perspectives in years 3-4, plus preparation for B1 and B2 language certificates; in the liceo delle scienze umane Geography in years 1-2, Sociology in years 3-4 (exam optional, with an extra programme) and one hour of English with a native speaker each week for all five years. IGCSE exams are usually taken at the start of the next two-year cycle, with a November exam session at the school. There is no AS and A Level course; the school mentions it only as a future prospect.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. Cambridge sections in the languages and humanities licei teach geography, biology, chemistry, Global Perspectives or sociology in English, leading to IGCSE exams.
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
Clubs and activities: Language and Cultural Exchanges · Erasmus+ · Study Trips · EnJoyce (school newspaper) · Cambridge PET, FCE Certifications · EsaBac Intensive Course · English for Work in Cambridge
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers118
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
The school has 118 teachers, including 20 special needs support teachers; almost all are permanent and assigned to the school, most with long experience. Among the language staff are 10 English teachers, 7 French, 5 Spanish, a German teacher and native-speaker conversation teachers for English, French and Spanish. Cambridge subjects are taught by school teachers and visiting native speakers.
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
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has a section on preventing bullying and cyberbullying, a regulation for trips and exchanges with rules of conduct, a protocol for individual mobility abroad, and flexible learning for students with disabilities, learning difficulties and student athletes. The school describes itself as inclusive and intercultural; according to the school, drop-out is practically non-existent.
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 "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
Ariccia, Italy · est. 2000 · State