Ciao tutti

I have a 6 year old son and shall be moving to Lucca hopefully in August for the new school year in September. We were living in northern Italy for the past 3 years (the best 3 years of our lives) but moved overseas in November 2007 for work baah.Any way we are so unhappy and miss our life we are trying to move back.We chose Lucca because we visited many a weekend and fell in love with it. My son speaks english and Italian and I am looking for an Italian primary school, state or private. I am struggling to find a list, and local knowledge is always far better than any list.

If any one is looking to move to the north of Italy and needs information on schools, restaurants, the lakes, places to ski or anything else then please don't hesitate to ask.

A hopeful parent.

Ciao Olivia,

i have distant family that live just outside of Lucca and would be happy to reach out to them if you need a hand. Let me know if you need a hand.

p

Do you know where you are going to be living in Lucca? Most children go to a school near their home.
My children went to the elementary school in S.Maria del Giudice (off road between Pisa and Lucca) and I was extremely happy with it. It is a full-time school (M-F 8:30-4:30). There are some Dutch families that live in the area so the teachers were used to foreign kids.
I have friends with children in elementary school so if you have an idea of where you plan on living I can probably give you more information.

A big thank you to Vicky and Acerbo I can't tell you how grateful I am of your offers of help and I may indeed need to take Acerbo up on your kind offer.

At the moment I am looking inside 'Centro Storico' for rented accomodation with a view to buy once we are all settled. i am scouring the internet for furnished rented accomodation with the view to putting ours in storage until we find somewhere to buy.

Any other ideas would be greatly received as time seems to be ticking away and I haven't yet found a solution.

Sure, just let me know...

He lives in Tassignano and was an elementary school teacher for a long time before retiring.

cheers
p

Hi all,

Greetings from Oz! I would love to hear any thoughts on how realistic it is for 12 and 10 year old aussi kids, with no italian (at the moment) to spend a term at a local school in Italy from September 08. Our plan is to base ourselves in a small village near a larger centre - we are currently thinking of outside Lucca or Montepulciano. The idea is to immerse the kids and ourselves in italy - language, culture and all. The istituto italiano di cultura at the Consulate in Sydney have been wonderful in their support. It has to work for the kids - that's the main driver for us. Vicky, your experience at the school in S Maria del Guidice sounds like what we are looking for - is there someone there you could recommend I speak to (in english!). thanks.

Hello Grant e tutti,

I am very interested in hearing people's experiences with putting their English-speaking kids into Italian schools, as I am hoping to live in Italy for the 2009-2010 school year with my kids (American, not Italian speaking, though I speak it some). I was thinking I would have to put them into an international school, which would be very expensive and limit my living options to big cities. But if they could do OK in an Italian public school it would be great. I just don't want it to be really difficult and stressful for them. If you get any more information on this, please post it!

Hi Kate - we fly out of sydney in one month - so very hectic at the moment. We have rented an apartment in Lucca (through destinationlucca - they've been great!) and the kids are going to local schools. I've been over and met with the Principals - very welcoming. Our kids speak no italian - so we'll see what happens. Happy to keep you posted. Grant

Hello, I have a high-school-aged daughter and I want to move to Lucca for a year (2009-2010). I've read all of your posts and it seems you have children in primary school. Does anyone have information about the high schools in the area and if they would accomodate/accept a student with limited italian?

Any comments/help will be appreciated!!

Hi, from our experience you should have no problem. Lucca is a wonderful place and everyone is very welcoming. Our kids have a tutor after school. You could also consider someone to join them in class for a while and translate. Although you might find an english speaking child in the same class. There are several schools in centro. Do you plan to stay in the old town? we've certainly enjoyed it. There are also some specialist high schools - arts etc.

I'm pretty sure that if your kid is struggling, the state school is obligated to provide a "maestra di sostegno" - which is a teacher that shadows your kid in school.

Thank you so much for your response! I have an apartment in mind that I found on sabbaticalHomes.com (there seem to be few in Lucca that are affordable), which is just outide of the walls on Viale Castracani. I would prefer my child go to school in centro. Do you find it much different once outside the walls? I understand one can cycle most anywhere inside town. Thanks again.

Most of the high schools in Lucca are located outside the walls, on or near the circonvallazione (road that goes around the walls on the outside).
There are no general high schools as we have in the States, each hs specializes in certain areas.
The ones I know of are:
Liceo artistico -(inside walls, Via Fillungo) art school
Istituto d'arte -(inside walls, piazza grande/napoleone) art school
Pertini -(on circonvallazione near train station) tourism and graphic arts - two seperate schools in one, my son graduated from there and I was happy with it.
Liceo Classico - (inside walls, don't remember the name of the street/square - near Pz. Agostino) humanities, ancient Greek, Latin, generally considered the most difficult
Ragioneria - (on circonvallazione) - bookkeeping/business
Liceo Scientifico - (outside walls in S.Anna) biggest hs in Lucca, geared to sciences, altho' my daughter graduated with the language specialization. Not a school for unmotivated students as kids are not monitored much. My son did his first year there and half the class was flunked.
Byron/Esedra - (outside walls in S.Concordio), private school with various specialisations, before you consider a private school take a look at past threads on the subject.
ITI - (outside the walls in S. Filippo) technical school
Giorgi - (inside the walls near Orto Botanico) technical school - easier than ITI
Magistrali - (inside the walls, near Porta Elisa area as I recall) school for becoming nursery school/elementary school teacher
I am sure I missed some. If you have any more questions feel free to ask. My son is in Lucca for the winter and could probably get more info.

Hi again, yes, it is quite different "fuori dalle mura" (outside the walls). We are living in centro storico, so I am probably biased, but inside the walls there is a wonderful village atmosphere; we cycle or walk everywhere. It is then easy enough to cycle out to school or shop. Contact destinationlucca.com, they might be able to help with a long stay apartment.

Thank you all for your responses. Vicky your information is enormously helpful, thank you. I will be looking into each school (although private schools are most likely cost-prohibitive). My daughter is interested in the sciences, but i'm worried that her lack of Italian may be a big obstacle for her actually understanding the material. You say your daughter went to the Liceo Scientifico and studied languages? Which languages did they offer? Also what were the minimum requirement for graduation in the other science areas? Do you think it would be safe/practical to ride a bicycle there? I realize this is asking a lot of you and you're busy with life, but any info. you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Grant, I'm glad to hear your insight about "fuori dalle mura," and the tip on rentals. This too is very helpful, as I'm hoping for a place within the city walls so we can cycle most everywhere including school. We are so excited. My daughter and I both thank you all for your help.

My daughter studied English (as a second language altho' she is bilingual - born in SF and started school there before we moved), German and French. I don't know the minimum graduation requirements. The system is completely different than the US. The name of the school is Vallisneri so you could probably find more about it on the web. They have the normal scientific program, one for IT, languages and probably many others. It is safe and practical to ride a bike there - it is on the opposite end of the center from Viale Castracani, maybe 10-15 minutes by bike going through town, and it is about 300 meters from the walls on the Sant'Anna side.
I don't think Esedra is that expensive, but I am not sure what the environment is like anymore. I worked for them for years at their Interpreter school in Pisa and know the owners well, but it is a private school and they are different than those in the US.
One thing you should look into. I went to hs in Florence but was not allowed to go to a public school as I did not have a "licenza media" (junior hi diploma) from an Italian school so I had to go to a private school. I think this has changed as I have heard of American kids attending public schools and assume other immigrant kids do the same.
Last word about inside and outside the walls...I lived in Lucca for 16 years, both inside and outside the walls. My kids would kill me for this, but I was much happier with teenagers outside the walls. Mine were prone to getting into way too much trouble and being 4km outside was a big help. And personally I started to feel like I was living in an aquarium, we lived on one of the main squares and I felt like everyone could see in the house and everyone knew exactly what I was doing and when. Again I am probably different as I speak Italian more or less like I speak English, kids speak Lucchese and I had a very long term relationship with a Lucchese whose family was from the center...your situation will probably be different and you may enjoy the charm of living in the center and not being in the middle of all the gossip, etc.
Last thing, when I went to hs in Florence I was a freshman, by December I was fairly fluent, and I had started out at an American school.
If you have other questions let me know.

Vicky, Thanks again for your information on the schools in Lucca. Can you give me your thoughts on this idea? From what I've found out so far, there are no English-taught schools in Lucca. My daughter is mainly concerned about passing Geometry and Chemistry, which will be difficult if she doesn't speak Italian. I thought of bringing the course books for each with us and hiring a private tutor to teach her from these course books. Do you think that it would be difficult to hire tutors who speak english to teach these courses? If not, then I can enroll her in one of the easier schools. Any thoughts?
Thanks.