Moving to Italy with kids: the school checklist by age, from enrolling a 6-year-old in the primaria to placing a 13-year-old before the terza media, for a family coming from India

Moving to Italy with kids means arriving in a country where the state school is free, warm and full of homework, the enrolment window closed in February, and the exam that decides the next five years happens at 13 in Italian. This is the checklist we give Indian families before they land, age by age, with the documents, the decisions and the first-month surprises, ending with the one thing that matters most and is most often started late.

Before you land: three decisions

1. Italian school, bilingual paritaria, or international school. Free and Italian, €3,000 to €12,000 for the bilingual middle, or €11,000 to €28,000 for international. The decision turns on length of stay and the child's age, and it is worked through in international school vs Italian school. The fees for Milan and Rome are in international school fees in Milan 2026-27 and international school fees in Rome 2026-27.
2. Where to live. Italian state schools take children from their catchment first, and the popular ones in Milan and Rome fill in the January round, so choose the neighbourhood for the school. Where Indian families settle in Milan, and which districts serve which schools, is in Milan for Indian families.
3. Which class. Italian schools place by the calendar year of birth: classe 1 for the child who turns 6 that year, so classe equals Indian class, roughly, and the three years of scuola media are Class 6 to 8. The full picture is in the Italian school system explained.

The checklist by age

Age 3 to 5: the scuola dell'infanzia

• Optional, almost universal, and mostly free at the state and comune schools, with a lunch charge by income band. Places are allocated by the comune in the spring; a family arriving later takes what has space.
• A child who does two years here arrives in classe 1 with Italian; the most valuable thing a 4-year-old can be given in Italy.

Age 6 to 10: the scuola primaria

• Enrol online in the January window for the September start; if you arrive after it, go to the school or the comune's schools office the week you land. The school must take a child of compulsory age.
• Choose between tempo pieno, 40 hours a week to 16:30 with lunch, and tempo normale, mornings with one or two afternoons. State a preference; the school allocates what it has. Tempo pieno is common in the northern cities and scarce elsewhere.
• Ask what the school does for a child without Italian: hours of Italian-as-a-second-language support, a personalised plan for newcomers (the schools call these children NAI), and whether the class teacher has taught newcomers before.
• If the school proposes a class below the child's age, ask whether the reason is Italian or content, and show the Indian maths record; the maths is the argument for placing at age.
• Expect homework from the first week and a report with words instead of marks; both are explained in reading an Italian pagella.

Age 11 to 13: the scuola media

• The three years that decide the next five. Enrol in the January window for prima media; a child arriving mid-cycle goes straight into the class for their age.
• Subject teachers, oral interrogazioni, marks out of 10, a behaviour mark that can fail a year, and two hours of homework a day.
• The consiglio orientativo in December of terza media and the esame in June: how they work, and why the recommendation is largely formed in seconda media, is in the esame di terza media and the consiglio orientativo.
• A child arriving at 12 or 13 without Italian has three years or less to an exam in Italian; for a stay under five years, the international school avoids that, and the Italian schools will say so at the intake.

Age 14: the superiore

• The choice of liceo, istituto tecnico or professionale, made in the January of terza media, with the school's recommendation in hand. An Indian family usually wants the liceo scientifico, and the state licei with Cambridge IGCSE sections are the route that gives both.

Documents to bring from India

• Passports and the permesso di soggiorno or its receipt; the codice fiscale for each child, which the school needs and which the tax office issues on arrival.
• The vaccination record; Italy requires the standard childhood vaccinations for school and the local health service (ASL) will compare and complete it.
• The birth certificate, with a translation if the comune asks.
• The last two school reports and the transfer certificate from the Indian school; a plain translation into Italian helps at the intake and an official one is not required for the primaria and the media.
• The child's recent maths work with the working shown, and a short note on what they can do, because the intake rarely tests maths and the school's placement decision is made on paper.

The first-term surprises

• Homework from classe 1, oral interrogazioni from prima media, and the three-month summer with its workbook; what to do about all three is in compiti and the three-month summer.
• A report with words, buono and discreto, and a maths mark lower than the maths deserves, because the problemi are in Italian and the layout is graded; the class-by-class comparison with CBSE is in Italian school maths against CBSE.
• The registro elettronico, where every mark, homework and absence lives, and which most newly arrived families do not open for a term.
• Almost no English and almost no science in the primaria timetable; both are what an Indian family adds at home.
• The school calendar: mid-September to early June, with regional dates, a Christmas break to Epiphany and an Easter break, and the summer from early June.

The one thing to start in the first month

Keep the maths and the English at the Indian standard from the first month, in the Italian order, with the Italian words alongside. The Italian will take a year to become usable and the school's marks will describe the child's Italian for that year, not their maths; a child whose maths has been kept alive arrives in seconda media ahead, and the consiglio orientativo, the liceo and the return to India all become easier. A child whose maths waited for the Italian arrives at 7 out of 10, and 7 is where the recommendation for a tecnico is written from.

What we do

We teach the children of Indian families across Italy in English, Hindi or Punjabi, one child per class, in the order and with the terms of the child's actual school, from the first week in the country, with the summer plan built in. Bring the Indian report and the school's placement letter to the free demo and we will tell you what the first term will ask of the child and what to keep alive at home.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →