British Schools in Rome: A 2026 Guide for Expat Families

For British families relocating to Rome — and for international families who prefer the English system because it travels well — Rome offers a genuinely strong choice of British international schools. Several have been operating for half a century and are deeply familiar with mid-year arrivals, mixed-nationality cohorts and the practicalities of moving children between countries. This guide profiles the main British-curriculum schools and explains how to choose between them.

What "British" Means in Rome

A British international school in Rome follows the English National Curriculum, leading to IGCSE examinations at around age 16 and then either A-Levels or the IB Diploma in the sixth form. Teaching is in English, with Italian taught as an additional language. The structure mirrors a UK independent school closely enough that a child moving from Britain should find the transition academically smooth.

The key decision in the senior school is A-Levels versus the IB. A-Levels allow deep specialisation in three or four subjects and are the traditional route to UK universities. The IB Diploma keeps a broader spread of six subjects plus core elements and is favoured by families who value breadth or are heading towards US or European universities. Our GCSEs and A-Levels in Rome and IB schools in Rome guides go deeper on each.

The Main British Schools

St. George's British International School is the largest and best-known British school in Rome, serving ages 3–18 across two campuses. It follows the English National Curriculum to IGCSE and offers the IB Diploma, with A-Levels reintroduced from the 2025/26 academic year. Its 2025 IB cohort averaged around 36 points with a 100 per cent pass rate, and IGCSE results were strong, with a high proportion of top grades. From September 2026 it also plans a UAL-accredited Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design — one of only a handful of centres outside the UK to offer it.

The New School Rome, founded in 1972, is a smaller, community-focused British school for ages 3–18 close to the historic centre. It follows the English National Curriculum through IGCSE and is notable as a long-standing provider of A-Levels in Italy, with a strong record of leavers progressing to top UK universities including Oxbridge, Imperial and LSE, as well as US and Italian institutions.

Southlands English School is a long-established day school for ages 3–18 drawing pupils from many nationalities. It teaches the IGCSE and IB curricula and offers the Italian programma ministeriale as an option — useful for families who want their children to retain access to the Italian state system.

Core International School (founded 1983) serves ages 3–11, teaching a blend of the English National Curriculum and Italian, with Italian lessons introduced from around age five. Greenwood Garden School (founded 1974) is an English-medium nursery and pre-school for ages 2–6 based on the EYFS framework — a popular first step for younger children before a larger primary school.

Comparing the Options

What "Following the English National Curriculum" Means Abroad

A British school overseas is not a UK state school transplanted. It follows the English curriculum as its framework and takes UK examinations, but it is an independent institution operating under Italian law, and it adapts the framework to its setting — most obviously by teaching Italian, often by broadening the humanities, and sometimes by using different examination boards from the ones a family knew at home.

That is a strength rather than a weakness, but it means the phrase does not tell you as much as families assume. On a school visit, ask where the school follows the English curriculum closely and where it deliberately departs from it, which examination boards it uses and why, and how it would handle a child arriving mid-key-stage from a UK school.

Inspection, Accreditation and How to Verify Quality

Schools abroad are not covered by the inspection regime a British parent is used to reading, and reputation travels faster than evidence. Rather than relying on word of mouth, ask each school directly:

• Which inspection or accreditation bodies is the school subject to, and is membership current rather than historic?
• When was the last visit, is the report available to parents in full, and what did it identify as areas for improvement?
• What has actually changed since, and who is accountable for it?
• How long have the head and the head of secondary been in post, and how many senior staff have arrived or left in the last two years?
• May we visit on an ordinary teaching day rather than an open day?

The last two questions are the ones that resist presentation. Leadership churn shapes a school faster than any policy document, and a Tuesday in November shows you the school your child would attend rather than the version assembled for visitors.

Continuity: Where Does This School End?

Rome's British provision includes schools that run the whole way from nursery to eighteen and schools that cover a narrower band. Both models work, but they call for different planning.

If you choose a school that stops at eleven, or a nursery that ends at six, plan the handover at the point of joining rather than the year before it happens. Ask where the school's leavers typically go, whether it has any formal relationship or priority arrangement with a senior school, and how it supports families through that second application. A well-run smaller school will have a clear answer and a track record; if it does not, you are effectively signing up for a second admissions process with no help.

Where you choose an all-through school, the useful question is the reverse: is progression from one phase to the next automatic, or must a child re-apply and be re-assessed? Families are sometimes surprised to find that a place in the primary school does not guarantee one in the senior school.

The Italian Dimension

Every British school in Rome teaches Italian, but the depth varies considerably, and one school in the city also offers the Italian programma ministeriale as an option. That matters more than it first appears.

A child taught Italian as a subject will generally end up able to live comfortably in Italy. A child following the Italian ministerial programme alongside the English curriculum is doing something more demanding, and gains something specific: continued access to the Italian state system, and a more straightforward route into an Italian university. The trade-off is workload and, in some cases, less room for other subjects.

Which is right depends on how long the family expects to stay and where the child is likely to study afterwards. If an Italian university is a real possibility, establish the requirements early rather than in the final year — our university admissions guide for Rome sets out how qualifications gained at an international school are treated.

Size, Cohort and What Each Buys You

The largest school in the city and the smallest offer genuinely different experiences, and neither is better in the abstract.

A larger school can generally staff a wider range of sixth-form subjects, run more sports and activities, and offer more specialist facilities. A smaller school tends to know every child, absorbs new arrivals more gently, and gives a shy student less room to disappear. Where families go wrong is choosing on prestige rather than on which environment their particular child does well in.

If your child is confident and academically directed, subject breadth may matter most. If they are arriving with no Italian, or are anxious about the move, the school that will notice them in the first fortnight may matter more.

Rome Gives You a Real Sixth-Form Choice

Something in the school profiles above is easy to read past. Rome offers both post-16 routes as live options: The New School has provided A-Levels in Italy for many years, St. George's reintroduced them from the 2025/26 academic year alongside its IB Diploma, and Southlands teaches the IB. Whichever way a family leans, there is a school in the city that goes that way.

That is less common than it sounds. In several of the European capitals covered elsewhere on this site, the sixth-form question has effectively been settled by geography before a family arrives, because only one route is locally available and the practical choice is to take it or to arrange something outside the school. Rome is not in that position.

The consequence is that the decision genuinely belongs to the family, and it has to be made rather than absorbed. A student heading for a specialist degree with clear subject strengths is well served by three or four A-Levels and the depth they allow. A student who is strong across the board, or applying from a country not yet decided, is usually better served by the Diploma's breadth and its single global standard. Our GCSEs and A-Levels in Rome and IB schools in Rome guides set out each in detail.

It also changes when the decision has to be taken. Where a city offers one route, a family can choose a school at seven and discover the sixth form at sixteen. In Rome, choosing a school that offers only one route is choosing that route — years in advance, for a child whose academic shape is not yet visible. If you are undecided, weight the schools that keep both options open, and ask each one how many students actually take each pathway rather than which pathways appear in the prospectus.

For the cost picture, see our guide to international school fees in Rome, and for the mechanics of applying, how to apply to international schools in Rome.

How to Choose

Weigh four things. Age and stage: a 4-year-old and a 15-year-old have very different needs, and some schools cover the full range while others specialise. Sixth-form pathway: if you are committed to A-Levels, that narrows the field; if you want the option of the IB, that points elsewhere. Location: school position drives where you will sensibly live — see best areas in Rome near schools. Continuity: if you may move on again, the English-curriculum schools offer the easiest onward transitions.

For the application mechanics, including documents and timelines, see how to apply to international schools in Rome.

How Global Investments Can Help

Choosing a school is rarely an isolated decision — it shapes where you buy or rent, how you structure your time in Italy, and how you plan for university costs. Global Investments has guided internationally mobile families for over thirty years, joining up the property, residency and wealth-planning sides of a move so nothing falls between the cracks. Talk to our advisers, or browse our other relocation guides.

This guide is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, immigration or financial advice. School curricula, results, fees and admissions rules change; details are indicative as of 2026. Investments can fall as well as rise. Always seek qualified professional advice for your circumstances.