← Back to the rankingScuola Internazionale Europea Statale "Altiero Spinelli"
Turin, Italy · est. 1996 · State
Illustration · Turin
Scuola Internazionale Europea Statale «Altiero Spinelli» is a state international European school in Turin, opened in the 1996-1997 school year under an agreement between the Turin education office and the City of Turin. Since 2000-2001 it has been a single all-through school (istituto onnicomprensivo): primary school, scuola media and liceo in three buildings; last school year it had 1333 students in 61 classes. The language project is the core of the school: in each class up to 40% of places are reserved for native speakers of English, French or German, while the others learn these languages as foreign languages; state teachers work alongside external native-speaker teachers of English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese. Some subjects are taught in foreign languages: at the liceo, art history, geography, mathematics, music, science, PE and history are taught in English, French and German. The liceo offers the liceo scientifico (scienze applicate option with Chinese or German, EsaBac, and from 2026-2027 a German international option) and the liceo linguistico (German international option, EsaBac with an international relations strand, a Cambridge International strand, and a strand with Chinese). The school is a Cambridge International centre: IGCSE courses run at the liceo, and the Cambridge strand requires at least six IGCSE exams. EsaBac gives a double Italian and French diploma, the German international option gives access to universities in Germany and Austria without a language test, and the school prepares students for the German DSD II language diploma.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English, French, German
Languages taught
Spanish, Chinese, Latin
Class size
On average 22 students per class; in middle school languages are taught in small groups.
About the fees Tuition is free: it is a state school. Families are asked for a voluntary contribution (contributo volontario) for the language project with external native speakers, insurance, laboratories and technology: the language project page gives 610 euros per student for the 2024-2025 school year, and the 2025 scuola media presentation gives 590 euros (50 euros for insurance and office costs, 540 euros for the language project, technology, projects and buildings). Families pay for the before and after school service in primary, supervised lunch in the scuola media, trips and certificate exams.
Admissions Enrolment follows the state online procedure on the ministry website; the school asks families to list it as their first choice. There is no catchment area. If applications exceed places, the primary school applies this order: up to 40% of places for children with English, French or German as a native or second native language (with equal requirements, children arriving from abroad who do not speak Italian at home come first), then children of staff of EU institutions and international organisations in Turin, graduates of the municipal European nursery school on Via Lodovica, siblings of current students, and the rest by lottery. A child counts as a native speaker if they hold a passport of an English, French or German speaking country, have such a parent and use the language at home, or have studied for the last three years in such a country or at an international school with that language of instruction. By statute the school admits up to 40% of students with foreign citizenship; foreign students get Italian as a second language courses. The EsaBac track requires French at level B1. The liceo admission procedure with priority criteria is published in the orientation section every year from October; prospective students are offered open days, webinars and trial workshops.
Stages and year groups Grades scuola primaria 1-5, scuola media 1-3, liceo 1-5. The Italian state curriculum at all three stages, with the esame di Stato del primo ciclo and the maturità. Primary school: English, French and German as first and second foreign languages or as mother tongue in separate groups, with some CLIL lessons with native speakers. Scuola media: English and a choice of French or German, 4 lessons a week each, half of them with a native speaker, groups for native and bilingual speakers, KET, PET, FCE, DELF and Zertifikat certificates. Liceo: liceo scientifico opzione scienze applicate (course A with Chinese and course D with German), liceo scientifico EsaBac (course E), from 2026-2027 a liceo scientifico with the German international option (course Bs); liceo linguistico with the German international option and Spanish (course Bl), EsaBac with an international relations strand (course C), the Cambridge International strand (course F, English, French, German) and a strand with Chinese (course G). EsaBac is a double esame di Stato and baccalauréat diploma; the German international option teaches history, geography and music in German, with an integrated exam and the Sprachbescheinigung language document; preparation for DSD I and DSD II. Cambridge International: course F requires preparation for at least six IGCSE exams - Mathematics, Combined Science, Geography, Global Perspectives, English as a Second Language and, from year 3, one chosen from Art & Design, Environmental Management, Business Studies, Travel & Tourism; course C prepares IGCSE Mathematics and Global Perspectives; in scienze applicate, science and physics with English modules in years 1-2 lead to IGCSE Combined Science, with optional IGCSE courses in years 3-5. The school describes itself as a centre for AS & A Level preparation too, but names no running AS & A Level courses.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. Course F of the liceo linguistico requires at least 6 IGCSEs (Mathematics, Combined Science, Geography, Global Perspectives, English and an option); other liceo courses offer selected IGCSEs.
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 hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Makerspace
Campus: Three buildings in Turin: the primary school on Via San Sebastiano Po, the scuola media on Corso Tortona, and the liceo and head office on Via Figlie dei Militari. According to the PTOF the school has laboratories for physics, computing (three), languages, multimedia, music and science, three traditional libraries and one digital library, an auditorium and a screening room, four gyms and an outdoor basketball and volleyball court, and a canteen; more than 160 computers and tablets in the labs and a 3D printer; STEM laboratories were built with PNRR funds. The scuola media has 16 classrooms, all with digital boards, a mobile class set of 25 Chromebooks, a music room and a library with books in foreign languages too. Since 2015 the liceo has hosted an Aula Confucio, a Confucius Institute classroom. The primary school has a paid before and after school service (from 7:30 and until 17:30-18:00), and the scuola media has supervised lunch run by a cooperative at the families' expense. It is a day school.
Clubs and activities: Orchestra · Choir and Orchestra · Theatre Group · Debate · Service Learning · Far East Cinema · Chinese Performing Arts · Arabic Language and Culture · Student Sports Games · Mathematics, Physics and Informatics Olympiads · DemocraticaMente (civic education course)
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
The school does not run its own summer camp; the Chinese agency Hanban has given the school's Aula Confucio 20 scholarships for strong students in liceo years 3-5 to attend a summer camp at East China Normal University in Shanghai. During the school year classes go on language weeks in France, Germany and the UK.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
✓Number of teachers76
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: CLIL training, certificates for teaching Italian as a second language, training for gifted education; language lessons are co-taught with native speakers.
According to the PTOF 2025-2028 the school has 76 teachers and 34 administrative and technical staff; most teachers have been on permanent contracts for more than five years. State teachers work alongside external native-speaker teachers of English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese, plus about fifteen inclusion specialists. Many teachers hold certificates for teaching Italian as a second language and CLIL training, so IGCSE courses are taught by the school's own staff.
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
A counselling service is available for students and staff of all three stages as part of the wellbeing project. The school has adopted a protocol for preventing and tackling bullying and cyberbullying. Students with special educational needs and learning difficulties get individual plans and advice from the external association Area.
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 data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 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