Hello, Please can anyone help me.. does anyone have any information about this school
(apart from what I can see on the web page)

is it predominantly American kids,

are there Italian kids

and most important can anyone give me some ideas on the fees
Thankyou

The International school of Modena is made up of mostly kids of Tetra Pack employees. They actualy founded the school for Tetra Pack, which is a Swedish company. Therefore most kids are Swedish. If I remember correctly the school only goes up to about 4-5th grade and caters to the Swedish community. We lived in Italy for 5 years with 3 kids. As they entered high school we came back to the US for public schooling. There are not many choices for schooling international kids in NOrtheren Italy. I wouldn't try Italian public schools. They are too different.

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I wouldn't try Italian public schools. They are too different.

I disagree! It depends on age but my son goes to a scuola materna in Italy but is currently in British pre-school as I am in the UK for a while. No problem at all. The activities they do are very similar.

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I wouldn't try Italian public schools

. If you have never tried them how can you make a fully infomed judgement. Whilst I do not hold with many things not all is negative.
There is good and bad everywhere. Its a good idea to visit your local schools and find out about the teachers, school philosophy-if they have one etc even give it a try before making broad sweeping statements.

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Originally posted by mumoflots:
Hello, Please can anyone help me.. does anyone have any information about this school
(apart from what I can see on the web page)

is it predominantly American kids,

are there Italian kids

and most important can anyone give me some ideas on the fees
Thankyou

I looked at few schools in a directory my local library in the UK had. It was something original like "The International Schools Directory", but I remember reading about the TetraPak school in there. Might be worth a look.

Hi everyone!

I have 3 kids in the International School of Modena (ISM) and I am thinking of removing at least one of them from the school.

The school is no longer Tetra Pak dominated as it is now being managed by the IS of Milan. There are Ferrari, Bosch, Volvo, Lamborghini, Okaïdi etc families now.

There are about 60 families in there, currently 1 American, a number of Swedish, English, French, Italian, Indian, Malaysian, 1 Australian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Chinese etc families.

The children are happy in there - because the school is new, there are few pupils in each grade, there is almost never any homework, no tests, no exams. They follow the PYP philosophy which personally I find great but in reality at least for now, my kids do not look as if they are doing or learning much in school. The school is not IB certified yet so I guess things are taking time to be put into place.

This is stressing many parents out and "poisoning" some of our lives. These kids may have difficulty transfering to another school later on.

Kids enter the school at the age of 3. 2 years of Pre-school, 6 years of Primary School and then 3 years of Middle school which in reality is = 3 years of Pre-School, 5 years of Primary School and 3 years of Middle School. Your kid officially enters the Primary School at Grade 1 which makes you pay higher fees for 6 years instead of 5. We are talking of nearly 10000 euros per child per annum.

The cut-off date is 1st September after which your child goes to the class below. That is my biggest problem now as my daughter who was born in early-Dec and who normally would go to Primary 1 next September (when the cut-off date is 31st Dec) is now allocated to the last year of Pre-School in the ISM! Imaagine her doing 4 years of Pre-school instead of 3? Because of the ISM's autistic refusal to consider her past schooling experience? I am boiling mad.

And nobody told us before that Grade 1 is not really Grade 1 in this school.

Honestly for the price, it is not worth going to this school if you are going to stay a while in Italy. The Mother Tongue Programme is not really in place and the constant extra fundraising can be a little weird for those not used to it. I am now hunting for a good Italian school to send my girl to. May be a little late for the coming September, but I may take her out for the one after - unless they work her harder and help her catch up. I was told by many that there is a good teacher in Grade 1 who is really capable of making a child reach his/her potential, so there is still hope and I will cling to it.

Anybody know of any good Italian schools near Formigine, Montale, please?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Lotus,