We're moving to Italy (L'Aquilia, Abruzzo) in October from Australia with our 6 year old and now 10 week old. Initially we will stay for 9 months with the possibility of staying more permanently. I am looking for info on primary schools for my son and was hoping to get some advice from anyone on here. I don't think there is an international school nearby, so our only option would be to send him to a state school or home school. For those of you who've sent your children to state schools with them not knowing a word of Italian, how did they cope and how long did it take them to integrate and understand? When does the school year start? My son is currently in 1st grade in Aus and our school year goes from Feb-Dec. Do you need to have residency to enrol your child? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

I think you are supposed to have residency for the state schools, plus all vaccination and school records translated into Italian and stamped by the Embassy in your country of origin. Also for enrollment in this school year you will be extremely lucky to find a place anyway. Enrollment was Jan - March and the places go fast. What it means is that the school you get into may have reasons behind why there are free places!

The option I took was private Italian school. These are generally catholic and run by Nuns but if you are not Catholic, don't let this put you off. I looked at a lot of them in Florence and with one exception liked what I saw. My daughter will be attending one in September. You may be lucky to find a place but you will have to approach each school individually and it may well be after Christmas before your child will be allowed to start anyway - they prefer you to start at the beginning of a new term. The cost is about €120/month plus a yearly inscription which is about €175. It will vary. HTH

I enrolled my children in the Italian public school system at age six, second grade. We did not have residency at the time, but got it shortly after. I did have a visa for work and PdS, and all of the documents Alyson mentioned (school records translated etc.). However, this was a long time ago and things may have changed.
My children are twins so they were in the same class. The first three months were tough, but afterwards they were fine and had no problems with the language, this may have gone faster had there not been two of them. In terms of fitting in, it took a little less, they were well-accepted as soon as they could barely communicate and were invited to other kids' homes, birthdays, etc.

Basic education (up to the age of 15) in Italy is mandatory and also a right. This means that any child living in Italy, legally or not, has the right to enter public schools any moment of the year and on a very short notice. Primary schools are usually not state but local administration-owned and directed (Scuola Elementare Comunale). On your arrival check with the local P.I. (Pubblica Istruzione) office at the comune and ask to enroll your kid in a public school, he will be enrolled and will be starting to frequent as soon as possible. Since classes are not fixed in the number of students (apart for stating a minimum and a maximum, which are not usually reached unless in really particular cases aznd very small villages), he will be assigned to a school and the school will put him in a class with other kids. The January-March pre-enrollment, in public schools, is not binding in the least and is done mainly to for the school assess the gross number of kids that will study there, but sometimes the same kid gets pre-enrolled in a couple of different schools.

Unless you find someone really awkward, your jabs records will be accepted.

Schools on the whole are short of kids so normally a place is not a problem

Schools on the whole are good. Main draw back is the number of teachers without posts so you get the annual lottery of new teachers whose appointments are not (at all) decided on merit but points.

A six year old will learn the language very quickly (3 months?). Our four have done great and the older two, this is second time round. You will have a bigger problem maintaining the level of his English.

I agree though about the Catholic schools, usually very good.

Thanks everyone for your responses, they've all been very helpful! Just a few more questions...
are there any fees for state school education? Do they have school uniforms at state schools? Are text books supplied by the school at a fee or free? Is it necessary to start the enrollment process before we arrive or when we get there? Is there a national education website or somewhere that lists all the state schools in each town?

The website for your commune will normally list all the schools in your area. I would wait until you get here and can get to look at the schools first. I think you are okay for text books at junior school - you provide more the older they get. The only requirement for uniform is the apron for the younger age groups which you get here, either from a shop or some schools will sell you one if your children are young enough to need them.

State school is free. liketheroman - it really depends on where you are in Italy as regards place availability. Here in Florence if you didn't get into the centro schools in the enrollment period you are left with the dregs in the barrel which here can be very indifferent. Or you end up going further out of the city which is what I have done.

The apron is not mandatory: it's just useful to keep the youngest kids from getting all messy while painting etc. After the first few years, I would bring mine in the "cartella" and wear it if I needed it.

I am hoping to move my family to Florence so I can attend culinary school. If possibly we are planning to move fall of 09. How do I find State primary schools in Florence. I have 3 children. Also I heard it is hard to receive a work visa. Any experience with this? We will have to look for work after arriving. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You.

I suggest that you spend a day or two reading the forums and post here on Expats. You will find out that: you need Italian citizenship, tons of paperwork, plenty of money and a lot of luck getting a job. How about getting a job with a US company that will send you to Italy. This way they do most of the paperwork. If you attend school they will also help with the paperwork and your school will answer some of your questions about work. I think that full time students are only allowed to work 20 hours per week.

After reading the various areas on Epats regarding work. Let us know a lot more about you as the question(s) you posed are real hard to answer.

Kelly's response in new thread she titled: Moving to Florence.

Gil,
Thank you for your response. I doubt I would be able to find a US company that would send me to Florence to go to cooking school. I would like to move to Italy in order to attend Culinary school. I would only want to work part-time to pay for rent and food. I am more concerned about finding a school for my children.

Answers should go in same thread as questions!

Kelly,

You if you are a full time student you will only be allowed to work 20 hours per week. You really should start reading on here for a few days and you will find out what you want to do is nearly impossible to do legally.

Please post what I asked for in my first response, in this thread not a new thread, and people might be able to give you more advice.

quote:

State school is free.

Depends, sometimes there is no fee, sometimes the enrollment fee is around 10 euros. My son's public school enrollment was 480 euros, but I knew this in advance. The reason is because the State does not pay for the mother tongue language teachers and some other extras, so we have to pay.

You will find that first grade is the PERFECT grade for a foreign child to begin studying in Italy. The Italian children (at least around here) are not expected to have any academic knowledge yet, not even all can write their names. The teachers start at the beginning with writing (printing first, cursive in the spring), and reading (all can read/spell just about any Italian word by around Christmas or so)and math. If your child has the basics of math and forming letters, just the Italian will be new. I'd say that within three days my son was OK in the classroom even though he didn't understand much, but by Christmas he was very comfortable, understood a lot and spoke to teacher and classmates alike.

In first grade I could help him with his homework. After that, I needed a tutor (he's going into fourth grade on Monday).

My son wears a smock (grembuile) over his clothing on most days, packs all his books into a large backpack (books are free in elementary school), and has a pencil case with colored pencils, markers, ruler, eraser, scissor, glue stick, pencils, erasable pen etc.

In my son's school, children enter at all times of the school year (though after March 1st we were told they might have to repeat the year as they will have missed so much).

I will be moving to Rome for a semester during the fall of 2009 because my husband will be studying there for his Master's degree. I have 3 children, ages 8, 7 and 1. I am working on a grant application for this experience. I need to get some more information about schools for my son and daughter who will be in 4th and 3rd grade next fall.

Is it realistic for me to put the kids in a primary school for only 4 months? Is there a way to find a possible school now so that I can put it in my grant application? We will probably be living in Trastevere.

Thanks! Terri

Terri M: I put my son in a public school in Trieste last fall for 5 months, and it didn't go well for a variety of reasons. The school was horrible, but my son's outlook on the entire experience also affected the quality since it was such a temporary situation. We contacted schools to find a place and blindly chose one, I would not recommend that to anyone else, and this is exactly what you would have to do if you want to chose one over the phone and put your children's names on the list for the grant application. Do you know anyone who lives in Trastevere that can help? If I knew last year what I knew now, AND I had had the MONEY, I would have put my son in the American school for those 5 months. With that said my son does attend public school in Torino- this is a long term move for us plus I did a lot of research and got him in a great international public school. We are super happy with this choice, but in your case I would seriously think about a private English speaking school plus there are no public international schools in Rome that I know of!

jenna - is it possible you have to pay for your school because it is regarded as international? As far as I am aware here in Florence no such school exists in the state system and other than the recognised International School there are only 1, maybe 2, other private schools that will employ mother tongue teachers specifically to help non-Italian speakers. I think Kindergarten does and possibly Sacre Cuore but that's it. My daughters private school certainly has only Italian speaking teachers and it finishes at Media. Quite honestly, I am a little envious as it would be really useful to have a point of contact at the school that speaks English!

I appreciate your insight. I intend to continue researching schools and whether to send the kids to a school or just homeschool them while we are there. (I am a 4/5 teacher here.) What I am hoping is that I can at least get the name/address of a possible school so that I can put it in the grant application. It doesn't have to be finalized, I just have to show that I have really researched this. I won't even know about the grant until the end of February anyway.

I have heard about a primary school in Rome - Palombella School. I think it is on Via Monterone. Can anyone give me more information? Address, phone number?

Thank you!

quote:

jenna - is it possible you have to pay for your school because it is regarded as international?

We do pay a higher enrollment fee (but there are no other fees to pay different from a regular public school) and this is to cover the cost of the mother tongue language teachers we have. The State will not pay for our school's extra costs unless our special status is recognized and I don't know the politics or procedures around that...
Other parents have told me that there are only two public international schools in Italy- ours in Torino and one in another city I cannot remember.

We will be moving to Trento,Italy in Feb 2009 for five months. I have 2 children 7 and 9 yrs old and have been wondering what to do about schools in Italy. This information has been very useful as it has helped me to decide whether or not they should go to school in Italy. We do not speak Italian so I think for only 4-5 months it would be very difficult for them. We are from Australia and I have just found out there is a Sydney Distance Education school for children who are travelling or overseas so I will be using this facility. It will be similar to homeschooling, but there will be a teacher in Sydney setting the work and doing the marking - this should keep us on track. The only downside is that we may feel rather isolated and the children may not have much of a chance to socialise with other children. Both the boys enjoy various sports, soccer, cricket (not much of that in Italy), taekwondo, tennis and swimming. Does anyone have any suggestions as to socialising with other children, considering they do not speak Italian (yet) and they will not be attending school. Does anyone know if there are any expat groups in Trento?

We are in Naples, and while our kids do go to an English-speaking international school, our son (9) is playing in an Italian soccer (calcio) league. They don't speak English and Brett's not great at Italian yet, but boys seem to communicate in their own way in sports so he's doing fine. He even gets yelled at by the coach now, after 2 months of getting away with stuff in practice. With soccer, it's more demonstration and practice so the language isn't as big of a deal, at least at their age.

Having homeschooled my then 12 year old (now 13 1/2) for a year when we first moved here I really wouldn't worry too much about your kids feeling isolated. 4-5 months is such a short time here! We found that it took 6 months just to settle in! Unless your two don't get on I think they will be fine without you stressing too much about outside activities. I found by the time I had finished schooling with my son for the day, had lunch/tea (depending on when we worked) had a break, went for a walk, the day was almost over. It might be useful to see if you can hire a few bikes while you are here? Also bring a stack of DVD's and favourite books. We were in a small apartment the first 3 months we were here and films, books and art materials alongside the school work were a godsend. Plan an excursion every few days or go for a ride or a walk and get to know where you are. From that you may get to hear about activities or find playgrounds/pitches, but I genuinely wouldn't sweat it for the length of time you are here! My son loved going in all the bookshops, games shops etc. too. Still does when he comes back here from school in the UK.