← Back to the rankingScuola Pontificia Paolo VI
Castel Gandolfo, Italy · est. 1968 · Private
Illustration · Castel Gandolfo
Scuola Pontificia Paolo VI is a private Catholic primary and lower secondary school (scuola primaria and scuola secondaria di primo grado) in Castel Gandolfo, by Lake Albano in the Castelli Romani. Pope Paul VI gave the school building to the town in 1968, merging two earlier schools run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Maestre Pie Filippini sisters; since 2002 the school has been run by the Fondazione Scuola Pontificia Paolo VI. According to the PTOF 2025-2028 primary has 15 classes and 340 pupils, lower secondary 78 pupils. Since 2021 the school calls itself international: from grade 1 children learn English and Spanish. Since September 2022 the school has taught Cambridge Primary - English and science, with the Cambridge Primary Checkpoint at the end of primary - and in lower secondary Cambridge Lower Secondary with internal Progression Tests and the external Checkpoint; in lower secondary one hour of science a week is taught in English, and Latin is added from grade 2. Other subjects are taught in Italian under the national curriculum ending with the esame di Stato del primo ciclo. It is a five-day week with Saturdays free.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
Spanish, Latin
About the fees The school does not publish its tuition fee (retta) on its website: the about, primary and lower secondary sections, documents, forms and the PTOF were reviewed.
Admissions The school does not describe its enrolment procedure or admission requirements on its website. It only publishes rules for forming first-year classes: 15 to 26 pupils per class, balanced distribution of boys and girls, pupils with special needs and foreign pupils across classes; twins are placed in different classes unless parents ask otherwise. Children with disabilities and learning difficulties (DSA) receive an individual plan.
Stages and year groups 17 classes. Italian national first-cycle curriculum ending with the esame di Stato del primo ciclo: scuola primaria (15 classes, three per year) and an «international» scuola secondaria di primo grado (2 classes in 2025-2026 according to the PTOF). Cambridge: Cambridge Primary since September 2022 - English and science, 4 hours a week of English language and Science, Cambridge Primary Checkpoint in English and science at the end of grade 5, Primary Progression Tests along the way; in lower secondary Cambridge Lower Secondary in all three years: English 3+2 hours, science in English 1 hour, a native-speaker teacher, internal Progression Tests and the external Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint at the end of grade 3. Spanish from grade 1 of primary (1 hour) and 2+1 hours in lower secondary, Latin from grade 2 of lower secondary. Weekly hours: 33 in primary, 30 in lower secondary plus 4 hours of the international programme. The school also prepares pupils for Cambridge English exams (Movers, Flyers, KET, PET), Trinity GESE and DELE.
Address Via Ercolano 11, 00040 Castel Gandolfo (RM)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Lower Secondary. Every class follows Cambridge Primary (English and Science, Checkpoint in grade 5) and Cambridge Lower Secondary (English plus an hour of Science in English, Checkpoint in year 3 of middle school).
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), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14). 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. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end.
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 transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Campus: One building on Via Ercolano, built in 1968: 11 classrooms with internet, classrooms with interactive whiteboards, computer, science, chemistry, physics, language, drawing and music labs, a dance room, a library, a theatre, a conference hall, a gym, an outdoor basketball and volleyball court and a garden. Own kitchen and canteen, school bus. In primary there is a free early drop-off from 7:30, lessons from 8:00 to 16:30 with lunch, and sports activities after 16:30; in lower secondary lessons end at 14:00 with after-school study until 16:30 except Wednesday. School uniform is compulsory.
Clubs and activities: Theatre School · Painting, Creative Art and Photography Course · Music School · Educational Robotics and Coding · Taekwondo · Hockey Course · Inline Skating Course · Mini Basketball · Cambridge and Trinity Certifications · Spanish DELE Certification · EIPASS Junior
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers30
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
According to the PTOF 2025-2028 the school has 30 teachers and 6 administrative and technical staff; the website names the primary and lower secondary teachers. Lower secondary has a native English-speaking teacher. The school coordinator and head is Simone Desideri.
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 policynot stated on the website
The school has a committee for pupils with special educational needs (disabilities, DSA, ADHD, foreign pupils, family disadvantage) and a teacher in charge; pupils with disabilities get an individual plan (PEI), pupils with DSA a personalised plan (PDP). A school trips protocol, school rules and a medication procedure are published.
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 data90 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