← Back to the rankingScuole Malpighi Cento - Polo Educativo Cambridge
Cento, Italy · Private
Illustration · Cento
Scuole Malpighi in Cento is a private Catholic school complex from kindergarten to the end of lower secondary (scuola dell'infanzia, scuola primaria and scuola media) for children aged 3 to 14. These are the former Elisabetta Renzi schools, which in 2016 came under the management of the Fondazione Ritiro San Pellegrino, which runs the Scuole Malpighi in Bologna; in 2022 the schools moved into a renovated building on Via Matteotti and became a single complex with a teaching garden. The school calls itself a Cambridge International School: its English+ programme is accredited by Cambridge International. In the kindergarten a native English speaker works with the children one hour a day, two hours with the five-year-olds; in primary 7 hours a week, about 23% of lessons, are in English - English itself, Global Perspectives on the Cambridge syllabus, music and PE; in lower secondary, accredited by Cambridge in 2024, more than 30% of hours are in English - English with a native speaker, Global Perspectives, music, art and design, computing. Other subjects are taught in Italian under the national curriculum; there is no second foreign language in the lower secondary timetable. It is a five-day week.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · National programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
About the fees The school does not publish its tuition fee (retta) on its website: the complex, kindergarten, primary, lower secondary, enrolment and discount pages were reviewed.
Admissions To enrol in the kindergarten, primary or lower secondary school for the 2026-2027 school year an interview with the heads Chiara Tinti and Gloria Succi is required; the office arranges it by email. Primary and lower secondary families with lower incomes can apply for a sibling discount and the solidarity fund with an ISEE declaration.
Stages and year groups Italian national curriculum: scuola dell'infanzia (3 groups), scuola primaria (30 hours a week, lessons 8:00-13:00 and two afternoons until 16:30), scuola media (30 hours, 8:00-13:45), ending with the esame di Stato del primo ciclo. Cambridge: the English+ programme, «accredited by Cambridge International»; in primary - Cambridge Global Perspectives 1 hour a week (a Cambridge International syllabus course), English 3 hours, music and PE in English, 7 hours in English in total; in lower secondary - English 4 hours (2 of them with a native speaker), Global Perspectives 1 hour, Art and Design 2 hours, Music 2 hours, Technology and Computing 2 hours in English, 11 hours in total. The school does not mention Cambridge Primary or Lower Secondary Checkpoint exams; it prepares pupils for Cambridge English exams: Starters and Movers in grades 4-5, levels B1 and B2 in lower secondary. Lower secondary has a single assessment period per school year.
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. Under the English+ programme every class has a weekly hour of Cambridge Global Perspectives, with music and PE in English, and in middle school art and computing too.
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 hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Clubs and activities: Mathematical Afternoons · Book Club · Puzzle of the Week · The Big Challenge · 100LAB Courses
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
Every summer lower secondary pupils go with their English teachers on a two-week language trip to the UK (morning lessons at British Council accredited ELAC campuses); in early July after exams there is a week in the mountains with teachers. Summer intensive courses on study skills and preparation for the grade 3 exam are run by the Scuole Malpighi learning centre.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
In the kindergarten teachers are supported by specialists and every morning by a native English speaker; in primary each class has a main teacher, while English, PE, computing and music are taught by specialist teachers; in lower secondary two hours of English a week are co-taught with a native speaker. Every year foreign student volunteers of the EduChange programme join for six weeks. The head of the kindergarten and primary is Chiara Tinti, of lower secondary Gloria Succi. The school does not publish staff numbers or class sizes.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
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 data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data73 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