← Back to the rankingLiceo Scientifico e Linguistico Statale Principe Umberto di Savoia
Catania, Italy · est. 1923 · State
Illustration · Catania
Liceo Principe Umberto di Savoia is a state liceo in Catania founded by royal decree in 1923; the school calls itself the oldest scientific liceo in the province and in eastern Sicily. Today it has two tracks: the liceo scientifico (traditional, with a biomedical course, the Liceo Matematico and a Cambridge course) and the liceo linguistico (standard, ESABAC with a dual Italian-French diploma, and the international Cambridge section). Teaching is in Italian on the state curriculum with the esame di Stato; in the Cambridge sections individual subjects are taught in English on Cambridge syllabuses with IGCSE exams, and the language Cambridge section also studies Chinese. According to the school, it has 1622 students in 70 classes, 23 per class on average, and 119 teachers.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, German, Latin, Chinese
Class size
23 students per class on average
About the fees The school is a state school and tuition is free. For the Cambridge course of the liceo linguistico the school charges a compulsory annual contribution of about 200 EUR on average: it covers the Chinese course and IGCSE exams but not B1 and B2 language certificates. For the Cambridge course of the liceo scientifico the school mentions a course charge without stating an amount.
Admissions Enrolment in grade 1 follows the state online procedure on the Ministry of Education's Unica platform with school code CTPS06000E; in 2026 enrolment ran from 13 January to 14 February. Students are admitted after the first-cycle diploma (completion of scuola media), with no entrance test for the standard tracks. The Cambridge section of the liceo linguistico must be selected explicitly on the application, and the school warns that an entrance test may be held; in 2025 year 1 classes were formed by public lottery. Children without Italian citizenship and without a tax code can also be enrolled online with a temporary code, and parents without a tax code can enrol in person at the school with their identity documents. According to the school plan, foreign students are supported by a tutor.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5 scuola secondaria di secondo grado. Five-year liceo on the Italian curriculum with the esame di Stato: 27 hours a week in grades 1-2 and 30 hours in grades 3-5. Liceo scientifico: traditional, with options (biomedical course, economics and law course, robotics, Liceo Matematico) and the Liceo Scientifico Internazionale Cambridge since 2025-2026 - IGCSE exams in Biology, English as a Second Language and Mathematics. Liceo linguistico: three foreign languages (English plus a pair from Spanish, French and German); ESABAC - history taught in French from grade 3, dual esame di Stato and Baccalauréat diploma; Liceo Linguistico Internazionale Cambridge since 2016-2017 in two sections - according to the school plan, in grades 2-4 four subjects on Cambridge syllabuses with IGCSE exams (French or German and Spanish in grade 2, English as a Second Language in grade 3, History in grade 4), plus one extra hour of English and one of Chinese a week. Cambridge exams are marked and graded by Cambridge itself on a scale from A to G.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. The Cambridge languages liceo takes IGCSE French or German, Spanish, English and History in years 2-4; the newer Cambridge science liceo takes IGCSE Biology, Mathematics and 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: 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
Clubs and activities: Italian Championships · Latin Championships and Competitions · Physics Championships · Astronomy Championships · Etniade di Matematica (mathematics competition) · Coding and Robotics Course · Chinese Language · International Francophone Theatre Project · Certilingua
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers119
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
According to the school plan there are 119 teachers, almost all permanent staff, which the school sees as a guarantee of continuity; more than half hold language or computing certificates. In the French course some lessons are co-taught with a native speaker. There are coordinators for the Cambridge course, CLIL and Certilingua.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has a section against bullying and cyberbullying, and its curriculum includes lessons on countering violence and bullying. Students with special educational needs are supported by support teachers and assistants, with personal learning plans. Foreign students are supported by a tutor.
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 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