St George's British International School
Rome, Italy · est. 1958 · PrivateSt George's British International School is the oldest British international school in Rome, founded in 1958 by Howard Scott as The English School; in 1960 it moved to La Storta and took its current name. It is a private day school for ages 3 to 18 with about 1000 pupils from more than 100 nationalities. The curriculum is based on the English National Curriculum: the Junior School (Red Dragons from age 3, Green Dragons and Years 1-6) runs on two campuses, at La Storta and in the city centre near the Vatican, while the Senior School (Years 7-13) is at La Storta only. In Years 10-11 pupils sit IGCSE and GCSE exams; in the Sixth Form they choose the IB Diploma Programme (offered since 1996) or A Levels (reintroduced in 2025-2026); graduates also receive a High School Diploma. The school has also started a one-year UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. Teaching is in English; the school does not award Italian state qualifications. It is not academically selective, but when places are short it gives priority to international families relocating to Rome from abroad.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeBSO · accreditationCambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeCOBIS · membershipNEASC · accreditationIAPS · part of the associationHMC · part of the allianceWhat stands behind each entry
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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), A-Level (ages 16-18). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →An association of British schools abroad with a quality inspection of its own. It has nine membership categories, and the word "accredited" appears in seven of them, although COBIS does its own inspection in one: in the rest it recognises an accreditation granted by somebody else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →The association has no quality inspection of its own, and somebody else's is not required: a live BSO inspection is called desirable, and which other inspectorates the committee accepts is not published. The only visit is a one-day consultancy, and the website itself notes that this is not a compliance judgement. As at HMC, the member is the head.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this network. That is not a quality inspection: a network is something a school joins, while an accreditation is something a school goes through. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →It is a head who becomes a member of this conference, not a school: membership is offered to the head, and in some categories the logo is marked as personal. A badge on a school's website means its head belongs to the conference. For full international membership there is a check - two people, two days - but no live external inspection is required.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this network. That is not a quality inspection: a network is something a school joins, while an accreditation is something a school goes through. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →A British exam board, the second after Cambridge. It issues its own versions of IGCSE and A-Level: the programme is the same in substance, what differs is who sets and marks the exams.
What this means for this school. The exams are set and marked by Pearson, and the school acts as an exam centre. Universities accept IGCSE and A-Level from Pearson on the same footing as the Cambridge ones. One caveat about checking: the Pearson centre search shows only those centres that agreed to be shown, so the absence of a school from it proves nothing.