# Enrolling teenagers in Italian schools



## 66ponygyrl

I am planning to marry an Italian and move to Italy, but have two children ages 13 and 14. I have seen the prices for the American schools and the price is exorbitant-especially to enroll two kids. Isn't there a better way, a more inexpensive way? I looked at military schools (and no guarantee they would be enrolled) and the nearest one is 2 hours away. My kids and I do not speak Italian and my 13-year-old has an IEP for Asperger's. I read other posts that state enrolling them past the age of 10 in an Italian-speaking school is a bad idea. We would move to the Liguria region. Is there any good advice for this situation or is it as hopeless as it sounds?


----------



## free.forty

66ponygyrl said:


> I am planning to marry an Italian and move to Italy, but have two children ages 13 and 14. I have seen the prices for the American schools and the price is exorbitant-especially to enroll two kids. Isn't there a better way, a more inexpensive way? I looked at military schools (and no guarantee they would be enrolled) and the nearest one is 2 hours away. My kids and I do not speak Italian and my 13-year-old has an IEP for Asperger's. I read other posts that state enrolling them past the age of 10 in an Italian-speaking school is a bad idea. We would move to the Liguria region. Is there any good advice for this situation or is it as hopeless as it sounds?


Hi 66ponygyrl,
I have some questions:
> Are you still planning or already planned to move to Italy?
> How long you want to stay in Italy?
> Are you planning to learn italian?
> Are you planning that your kids will learn italian?
> Have you consulted a specialist about how to give the extra care for your Asperger kid in a foreign country?
I think you need to think more how to reduce the stress for your kids to integrate themselves in a different country. May be not an immediate stress but it can grow in time (years)


----------



## Joppa

66ponygyrl said:


> I am planning to marry an Italian and move to Italy, but have two children ages 13 and 14. I have seen the prices for the American schools and the price is exorbitant-especially to enroll two kids. Isn't there a better way, a more inexpensive way? I looked at military schools (and no guarantee they would be enrolled) and the nearest one is 2 hours away. My kids and I do not speak Italian and my 13-year-old has an IEP for Asperger's. I read other posts that state enrolling them past the age of 10 in an Italian-speaking school is a bad idea. We would move to the Liguria region. Is there any good advice for this situation or is it as hopeless as it sounds?


This isn't specifically about Italy, but moving teenagers with zero local language skills to a local school is a very bad idea. They won't be able to follow any lessons, except English, and will be thoroughly stressed out and miserable. Not all schools have facilities for non-speakers, such as separate language classes and bilingual teachers/teaching assistants. If the children are still young, say below 8 years, in most cases they will pick up the language quickly and with a bit of outside help will be able to access the curriculum and get fully integrated into school life, but this is too much to ask for teens, who will be doing advanced studies in many specialist subjects. In many countries, and I'm sure including Italy, there are schools that are geared to accepting and supporting pupils with poor local language skills, but availability is very much hit-and-miss and depends more on luck than anything. And from what I know of Italian secondary (high) schools, they are very traditional, with high academic expectation and struggling pupils are ruthlessly made to repeat the year, sometimes more than once, until they make the grade. Also teachers are very much a law unto themselves (they are government employees with job for life) and there is little parental involvement in pupil's education as it's the norm in US, and will resent what they regard as parental interference.

Going to an international school avoids most if not all those problems, and importanly, your children are likely to be happy, make friends and get fully involved. There are also British-curriculum schools which may not be as expensive as US schools.

Or home schooling may be an option if you are capable and is legally allowed in Italy (I don't know).


----------



## 66ponygyrl

In the intervening time he found an International school that seems affordable. But yes, we plan on learning the language. The whole point is to integrate, but make it easy on the kids. I plan on flying over Christmas break to check out the schools, including the school that seems to be affordable, and will ask them if they do IEPs. My son's accommodations are extra time testing and classroom redirection when necessary (not big issues). They will finish out the school year in the States and the move will be made over the summer, and he was told the kids could do enrollment testing in the summer. I am very surprised at the wide cost gap between two of the schools.


----------



## Guest

66ponygyrl said:


> In the intervening time he found an International school that seems affordable. But yes, we plan on learning the language. The whole point is to integrate, but make it easy on the kids. I plan on flying over Christmas break to check out the schools, including the school that seems to be affordable, and will ask them if they do IEPs. My son's accommodations are extra time testing and classroom redirection when necessary (not big issues). They will finish out the school year in the States and the move will be made over the summer, and he was told the kids could do enrollment testing in the summer. I am very surprised at the wide cost gap between two of the schools.


I attended an international school which followed the French Bac curriculum. I can highly recommend them and personally met many friends who came to my school from France or Belgium and could only speak French, but after 1-2 years had learnt the local language as well and felt that this type of school was ideal in allowing them to transition to a new environment and culture over time piece by piece, rather than experiencing everything alltogether at once, which I think indeed is always very hard for someone in their teen years.


----------



## Joppa

DonPomodoro said:


> I attended an international school which followed the French Bac curriculum. I can highly recommend them and personally met many friends who came to my school from France or Belgium and could only speak French, but after 1-2 years had learnt the local language as well and felt that this type of school was ideal in allowing them to transition to a new environment and culture over time piece by piece, rather than experiencing everything alltogether at once, which I think indeed is always very hard for someone in their teen years.


I agree, from another product of international schools!


----------

