The Pontificio Collegio Gallio is a Catholic paritaria school run by the Somascan Fathers in central Como, with a history going back to 1583. Today it is a single school from nursery to liceo: an asilo nido from 6 months, a Sezione Primavera, scuola dell'infanzia, scuola primaria, scuola media and upper-school tracks - Liceo Scientifico Scienze Applicate, the Liceo Scientifico Quadriennale Internazionale (four years, up to half the lessons in English), and the revived Liceo Classico della Comunicazione and the AFM technical course with a sports focus. English with native speakers starts in the Sezione Primavera; since 2024 primary has followed the Cambridge Primary programme with 10 hours of English a week in Grades 1-2 and 8 hours in Grades 3-5. In the licei students can also earn an American diploma with Mater Academy. The college is open from 7:30 to 18:30 and employs an in-house pedagogist.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary · National programme
Admits from
6 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
Spanish, German, Latin
Admissions Families book the permanent open day: a meeting with the coordinator of the relevant stage in person or online; the licei also offer trial school days. Places are allocated first to siblings of current pupils and children of alumni who apply on time, then in order of application; when places are full a waiting list is kept by application date. Transfers from state or paritaria schools are possible after a check of the curriculum and approval by the class council. Lombardy residents can use the regional Dote Scuola support. The website says nothing about conditions for foreign pupils.
Stages and year groups Italian curriculum, all stages paritaria: the scuola media ends with the esame di Stato del primo ciclo, the licei with the esame di Stato. Upper school: Liceo Scientifico Scienze Applicate, Liceo Scientifico Quadriennale Internazionale (4 years, up to 50% of lessons in English via CLIL - history, science, mathematics, physics, preparation for C1/C2), Liceo Classico della Comunicazione e AI, an AFM course with a sports focus; optionally an American diploma alongside the Italian one with Mater Academy. Cambridge: Cambridge Primary in primary since 2024 - native speakers teach Lingua inglese (5 hours a week), Tecnologia e informatica, Global Perspectives (Grades 1-2, 2 hours) and Humanities (Grades 3-5, 2 hours) in English, for all pupils; the school names no Checkpoint exams. In middle school three subjects are taught in English via CLIL (music, geography and in rotation history, science, art); Cambridge Lower Secondary is not named; Spanish is the second language. Cambridge English language exams (YLE, KET, PET, up to C1-C2) - the school is an exam centre.
Address Via Tolomeo Gallio 1, 22100 Como
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary. Since 2024 every primary pupil follows Cambridge Primary, with English, technology, Global Perspectives and humanities taught in English by native speakers.
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). 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.
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
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Clubs and activities: Theatre Workshop · Choir · Lego Robotics · Chess · Judo · Football · Basketball · Volleyball · Swimming · Artistic Gymnastics · Tag rugby · Photography · Drawing and 3D Printing · Science in the Kitchen · Film Club · Piano · Guitar · German Language
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: English teachers are native speakers with Cambridge English qualifications; Sezione Primavera educators have trained in the Reggio Emilia Approach.
The staff include a pedagogist who observes lessons and supports pupils with special educational needs, and a psychologist-psychotherapist for the early years; the leadership are a rector and vice-rector from the Somascan order.
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 policy
For the middle school the school publishes a bullying and cyberbullying prevention document, school rules and the Organo di Garanzia rules; the PTOF has sections on inclusion and adopted children. The pedagogist and psychologist work with pupils, families and teachers.
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 data70 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 median95 "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
Como, Italy · est. 1583 · Private