Italy · Rome
This is a four-year high school at the foot of the Aventine, not a through-school with a kindergarten. Day and boarding share the same classroom. The official site is sssrome.it. Tuition for 2026/27 is printed in euros for both lives.
Curriculum as published:American college-preparatory curriculum · US High School Diploma · IB Diploma Programme
Languages of instruction:English, Italian as host-country and IB language
St. Stephen’s School is a non-profit, non-denominational, co-educational American international day and boarding IB World School at Via Aventina 3, 00153 Rome. The switchboard is +39 06 575 0605. The general inbox is ststephens@sssrome.it. Admissions is admissions@sssrome.it. Use sssrome.it. If a result puts you on a directory or a different St Stephen’s, you are in the wrong city.
It has been in the historic centre since 1964. The homepage places it at the foot of the Aventine, a stone’s throw from the imperial sites — Circus Maximus, the Forum, the kind of walk that looks romantic in October and like a logistics problem when you are late for an 8:30 class. This is a high school only: Grades 9–12. There is no Junior School to absorb a nine-year-old. If you need a through-campus, this is not that conversation.
The academic story the school tells is two models at once: an American independent college-preparatory curriculum, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma. In 1975 it became the first school in Italy to offer the IB Diploma. The teaching page says that in recent years six students have scored a perfect 45. That is the school’s own history, not a forecast.
Homepage counters for total students rendered as zeros in the fetch we used. We are not inventing a whole-school headcount from a broken graphic. What the school did print in August 2026 is this: it welcomed back over 60 boarding students for 2026–2027. The boarding page says sixty boarders live in three locations around campus. Treat “about sixty boarders” as the official snapshot. Ask admissions for the current day-student count if you need one.
Maria Nunes is the new Head of School, announced in July after an international search. Confirm the live leadership page if a name on the door matters to you.
The useful questions are narrower than “Rome.” Can this fourteen-year-old already work in academic English? Do you want a day place in the centro storico, or a boarding bed in a small community of sixty? If the child is coming from a five-year Italian liceo, do you understand the extra year? And can you pay the deposit that is due when the offer arrives, not when September feels real?
St. Stephen’s is for English-speaking students who want a four-year American/IB high school in the middle of Rome, and for families who can either live within a daily commute of the Aventine or accept boarding.
It admits “qualified students of any race, colour, ethnic origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” Completing an application does not guarantee enrolment. An Admissions Committee reads the whole file.
It is also for a particular kind of visitor. The Year Abroad programme takes boarders from independent and international schools in the United States, Europe, Central and South America, Russia, and Asia for a semester or a year in sophomore, junior, or senior year. If you are shopping a Roman year rather than a diploma, say so in the first email. The timetable and the friendship pattern are not the same as a four-year place.
Italian nationals must follow a study plan approved by the Italian Ministry of Education. A successfully completed MIM-approved IB Diploma is legalised with an apostille and fully recognised in Italy. That sentence is doing a lot of work. Ask the IB office to walk it with this child’s subjects.
Most Italian high schools are still five years. A student transferring from a standard five-year liceo must complete a total of five years of secondary education. St. Stephen’s will not magically turn four American grades into five Italian ones. If you are leaving a liceo after the third year, do the arithmetic before you pay the €200.
Via Aventina is not a suburban playing-field campus. It is a city-centre high school at the foot of a hill, with a cortile, a dining hall that emphasises Italian cooking, a library, sports and music rooms, a snack bar and a lounge with TV and DVD. Boarding rooms have Wi-Fi and communal facilities. Dorms are separated from the rest of the building by an access control system.
Sixty boarders in three locations around one historic site is a village, not a campus of a thousand. Day students go home; boarders stay inside that access-controlled world and then walk out into Rome. The boarding letter is honest that boarding is “not suitable for some.” Read that as permission to say no.
Ask to see a standard classroom, a boarding room and the street at 22:00 on a school night, not only the view toward the Circus Maximus. Aventine quiet and Testaccio Saturday night are both Rome.
Grades 9 and 10 are the American preparatory years: a liberal-arts foundation that the school says feeds the Diploma. Grades 11 and 12 are the IB Diploma, taught over two years. Participation for the full two years is mandatory. There are no supplementary exams if you arrive late and hope to sit a one-year rescue.
The Diploma is six subjects, one from each group, plus Theory of Knowledge, CAS (here named Creativity-Action-Service), and the Extended Essay. The groups the teaching page names:
Final examinations sit at the end of Year 12. Some students “anticipate” one or two exams in Year 11.
Signature teaching pages the school bothers to film include Classics, Maths, Art and Design, Art History, Science and Environmental Systems and Societies, Arabic, Service and CAS, and History. Course material on the official asset host describes Italian from absolute beginner through native-speaker literature, plus specialised classes that use the city — Rome studies, Greek, Arabic, Art History. Field trips into historical Rome are part of beginner Italian, not an optional Saturday.
Student life is run as a programme, not a leftover: a Director of Student Life, student government, community service, and a Director of School Culture and Student Engagement who is meant to hold wellness and daily campus culture in one job. Counseling is described as personalised. Ask who the child would actually see in week three, by name.
Instruction is in English. The application pages call the community English-speaking. If a child cannot yet write an academic essay in English, this is the wrong four-year building.
Italian is not a club. Beginner Italian 1 starts from vocabulary and graded conversation and walks the city. Italian 2 adds film, field trips, and twentieth-century history. There are courses for native or bilingual speakers, an IB Language track, and Italian A for native-level literature. French can be a first language in the Diploma. Arabic appears both as a filmed subject and as a Year Abroad flavour of the city.
Ask how a Grade 9 with zero Italian is grouped, and whether a native Italian speaker is in Italian A or a bilingual holding pattern. Ask what “English as a first language is required” means if the child’s strongest written language is Italian. The Diploma sentence is stricter than a kind admissions tour.
Boarding is a second family the school is not shy about selling, and a small one. Sixty students, three houses, access control between dorm and school, meals in the dining hall, free time in the library, sports, music, or the cortile.
Boarding applicants interview with Boarding Faculty, not only with Admissions. Enrolment for boarders also needs a completed student health form and a medical insurance attestation.
A €100 damage deposit is due at registration and comes back at the end of the year minus damage to the room. That is a room-key number, not the real bill.
The Year Abroad stream is boarding-shaped. A semester visitor and a four-year diploma candidate share a dining hall and do not share a plan. Ask which cohort your child would actually enter.
Three stages, as the school prints them.
Stage 1 — Apply. Complete the online form. Pay €200, non-refundable, by card after submit or by bank transfer (euro, US-dollar, or ACH instructions sit on the same page). Submit every document on the checklist by 19 January 2026.
Stage 2 — Open House. In-person or online. Dated on the page we fetched:
The year is not reprinted on every line. Confirm you are looking at the cycle that matches your entry year.
Stage 3 — Test and interview. The test measures cognitive potential, not crammed content; the school says no preparation is required. In-person testing for day applicants:
A third in-person testing opportunity is mentioned without a date on that page. Applicants outside Italy sit an alternate date at their current school. After the test, Admissions schedules an interview. Boarders also meet Boarding Faculty.
Decision timing “can vary based on the grade level and the volume of applications.” We are not inventing a notification week.
An offer is not a place until the school has: the non-refundable deposit; the final transcript showing the current year completed; the health form; medical insurance attestation for boarders; and the original enrolment contract.
Day tuition is €34,599. Boarding — tuition plus the boarding fee — is €57,141. The boarding fee line is €22,542. A 2% surcharge applies to credit-card payments.
| Fee | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Tuition (day academic programme) | €34,599 |
| Boarding fee | €22,542 |
| Combined boarding (tuition + boarding) | €57,141 |
| Capital assessment, new students | €2,500 |
| Capital assessment, returning students | €800 |
| Enrolment deposit, day (non-refundable) | €7,500 |
| Enrolment deposit, boarding (non-refundable) | €10,000 |
| Re-enrolment deposit, all students (non-refundable) | €2,500 |
| Application (non-refundable) | €200 |
Additional fees on the same page
The school may require prepayment of tuition, boarding, and incidentals by 1 July before the next academic year, or at enrolment, in exceptional cases, at its sole discretion, and it will not enter into correspondence on the point. Read that twice if cash-flow is seasonal.
Financial aid exists as a model the school names; the public page we fetched does not print a typical award. Write financial.aid@sssrome.it if that is part of your plan, and do not subtract a hope from the table.
A first-year day Grade 9 is not “about €35,000.” It is application + capital + day deposit + tuition — €44,799 before the IB years add their €1,000 administration line, before the senior year €500, before the 2% if you pay by card. A first-year boarder on the same arithmetic is application + capital + boarding deposit + €57,141 — €69,841, plus the €100 damage deposit. Confirm the live affording page the week you accept.
Student support is described as structured guidance for academic and personal challenges, with personalised counseling and a culture role that is meant to keep the campus inclusive. Disability is named in the non-discrimination line. We did not fetch a specialist SEN tariff or a published limit. Bring the current reports and ask, in the room, what the school can staff for a four-year high school that already requires academic English.
Ask where a new Grade 9 sits at lunch on day three — day students and boarders do not have the same afternoon. Ask how Italian is set, and whether a native speaker is actually in Italian A. Ask how many of this year’s Grade 11s are on the full Diploma. Ask what the MIM-approved plan requires if the child holds an Italian passport. Ask how a liceo transfer is counted toward the five-year rule. Ask who is on duty in the boarding houses after 22:00, and how exeats work. Ask whether a Year Abroad semester would sit in the same classes as diploma candidates. Ask what “we will not enter into correspondence” on prepayment would mean for your invoice. Ask to see a boarding room and a day-student locker, not only the Aventine light.
We are not ranking St. Stephen’s among Roman international schools. We are not inventing a total enrolment from a zeroed counter. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not treating six perfect 45s as a pattern you can book. We are not inventing a 2027/28 fee.
Read the current application page and the tuition page before you give notice at a liceo or book a year-abroad flight. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday — and, if you board, the right Sunday evening.
Official pages and documents we read. If a figure matters to your budget or your application, open the link and confirm it is still current.
Friendly orientation, not an application. Dates, fees, and programme details move. Confirm everything with the school.
A not-for-profit American day campus on Via Cassia since 1947. The 2026–27 table prints a family capital fee and annual bands through Grade 12. Time the Cassia, not the Forum.
RomeA French AEFE through-school on three Roman sites, not an English-medium international. The 2026–27 decision prints the same tuition for every nationality. Time Villa Borghese and Porta Pia, not the Forum.
RomeA not-for-profit British day school, two sites, lunch inside the annual fee. The 2026–27 table prints parent and employer columns. Time the Via Cassia before you fall in love with a junior hall near the Vatican.
Noverasco di Opera, south of MilanTuition amounts are in a download the fees page offers. The handbook is clear about day-only life. That is the honest starting point.
Rome is not one international campus. It is a boarding high school on the Aventine, a British through-school on La Storta, an American AP-and-IB house on Via Cassia, and a French AEFE week on three sites. Ask which paper, and which gate.
14 minThe word American on the gate is a leaving certificate and a school year, not a promise that the yard will sound like Chicago. Read the diploma page before you budget the posting.
13 minSome children bloom down a corridor of trunks and cocoa. Some need their own bedroom and the dog. Both are allowed. The commute is also a kind of boarding.
15 minThe letters on the leaver’s certificate matter. They are not the whole child. Here is how to tell them apart without a headache, and without pretending every door stays open.