We are pleased to announce RIS Grade 9 students success in the Licenza Media examinations. All of our students passed and the average score was a very creditable 7.5, with four students achieving a grade 0f 9 and five achieving a grade of 8. We congratulate our brilliant Grade 9 class!

Rome International School is proud to announce the students of the year for the academic year that is behind us, 2010-2011. For the Middle School, the title went to Elias Olivera Graversen of Grade 8. In the High School there were two students who were both considered to be such strong candidates that in the end teachers could not choose between them! Therefore Eyerusalem Abebe and Nicoletta Pellegrini of Grade 12 are both elected High School student of the year.

Being student of the year means that these students have not only proven to be academically outstanding, but that they have also shown exemplary behavior in class, taken a leading role in activities in the RIS community and shown consistently high standards of all-round excellence.

Congratulations to all three of you!

Our Middle and High School Drama teacher, Mrs Chapman, was ‘a little stressed’ on Wednesday afternoon, just before the start of the Middle School drama production The Dracula Rock Show. Understandable, because directing nearly sixty novice actors is no small feat on its own, but when half of the cast are of the undead kind, yes, that can be very unnerving!

At 15.00, in a Teatro Euclide filled with families, friends, and RIS staff members, an incredible story started to unfold. In the town of Dewberry, legendary detective Shirley Holmes (a great performance by Isabella Falcigno) and her trusty sidekick (Lorenzo Failla/Carlo Di Cìo) is once again facing her arch enemy, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty (Lukas Zapolskas/Cesare Papa Malatesta). Moriarty is planning to assemble the greatest gang of criminals ever, and has developed a ‘Jeckyll and Hyde’ potion to completely change the personalities of Holmes and Watson, turning them into supervillains.

As if this weren’t enough, Holmes and Watson also stumble upon the fact that a growing number of people in the town of Dewberry are starting to show ‘the alarming tendency to try to hang upside down’. What’s going on there? Elementary, of course: there’s a vampire on the loose. And not just any vampire, either: Count Dracula himself (Elias Olivera Graversen/Vittorio Randaccio) has awakened after a hundred years of sleep and is leading his community of vampires and zombies, no longer content with a life underground, to the world above ground. And so that his undead followers don’t stand out to much, what’s the only crowd zombies in decaying clothing and eccentrically dressed vampires can blend into easily? Rock fans! So the Count starts his own rock band…

This is the premises for a long adventure, filled with a number of familiar sounding rock tunes (played by a great band), from an adaptation of the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive to Queens We Will Rock You turned into the villain anthem We Will Rob You. Some of the students put up really convincing acting, or some pretty impressive singing: Leonardo Cecconato as Jagged Mick, Dracula’s lead singer, showed he had at least at much stage presence as Mick Jagger, the backing band the Blood Sisters (Eva Formica, Agnese Diana, Margherita Story, Margherita Violante and Lucrezia Makonnen Haile Selassie) made an impression, and Vincett Jarett stood out as the rock-crazy lead vampire.

Even though all of the lead roles were performed by Grade 8 students, The Dracula Rock Show promises great things next year: the Grade 7 students, singing and dancing as a choir and filling the supporting roles (with opportunities for Sara Sorbini to show her gymnastics skills and Tommaso Farsetti to do his juggling act), did great as well and seem more than eager to step into the spotlights properly next year.

The number of students involved in the show meant that the theatre was impressively full which added to the stress factor of the director. But all went well! But congratulations are in order: The Dracula Rock Show was a great success, which thoroughly entertained an appreciative audience. On behalf of Rome International School, to all the actors, the stage managers and the make-up crew, the band and the people behind the scenes: thank you and very well done!

For more photos, please click here!

This Monday, our High School students participated in a relaxing but enjoyable sporting event at Roma Bowl. Future stars emerged on the lanes: Iacopo from Grade 11 and Alessio from Grade 10 were the clear winners with the boys, Sherida Jarrett from Grade 10 won the girls tournament against the teachers.

Some more photos of this morning can be found here.

We are glad to inform you that the final result of the fund raising campaign for the Fondazione Francesca Rava realised through the Gala Dinner for Haiti on 8^th June 2011, has been even better than we told you before.

An additional 1.000 euros was registered to our bank account after the Gala Dinner. As a result, the gross amount raised by selling seats at the tables reached the amount of 18.585 euro (n.b.: including 300 euro paid directly to the Fondazione by the donors).

This means that the total amount, including the money raised with the raffle and the auction, which will go to the Fondazione Francesca Rava NPH to support the Project ‘Scuole di Strada’ is € 30.352,60 (out of a total of 46.635 gross), instead of € 29.352,60 (as previously calculated). It’s wonderful, don’t you agree?

Read more about the Gala Dinner here, or see the photo gallery here.

A new issue of RIS Report is out! This month's magazine, the last one for this academic year, contains reports on the May Fair and the graduation ceremony of our first ever Grade 13, articles on the residential trips of Grades 3, 4 and 5, all about recent sports days, and more!
The latest issue is available in our main hall, or you can find the PDF version here.

Over 230 of Rome International School’s students, families, friends and staff members put on their most elegant outfits on Wednesday 8th June for the school’s annual Gala Dinner. The aim of the evening was to raise as much money as possible for the school reconstruction project in Haiti of the Fondazione Francesca Rava. And thanks to the generous contributions of the guests, at the end of the evening we were able to transfer quite a handsome sum!

The Gala Dinner tradition started last year, sparked by the terrible earthquake that struck Haiti just outside its capital Port-au-Prince in January 2010. It is estimated that over 300,000 people lost their life in that event, another 300,000 got injured, and a million people were left homeless. The Rava foundation is trying to help through education: by setting up ‘street schools’ they mean to get the Haitian community back on its feet. And Rome International School, being an institute of education itself, was more than happy to support their cause.

This year, in the beautiful location of the Casa di Macchia Madama with a stunning view over Rome, we tried to match last year’s success. The evening started with mouth-watering aperitivo in the garden of the villa, and a delicious dinner after that. After dinner, there were presentations of the two guests of honour: Mariavittoria Rava, president of the Fondazione Francesca Rava, spoke about the work her foundation undertakes in the Caribbean country, and Director of Medical Services NPH International Father Richard Frechette, or Padre Rick for short, moved the crowd when he quoted his father’s words that helped him decide to go to Haiti: “If not you, then who? And if not now, then when?” The message was clear: anyone can help make the world a better place, and there’s no better time to start than right now.

Inspiring words to start the main event of the evening, an auction of a number of donated items by the special guest of the evening: famous Italian comedian Rosario Fiorello. The comedian made a whirling show of it with a very humorous presentation, during which he had one of our Grade 12 students model the jewellery on sale, and persuaded Head of School Ivano Boragine to walk around the dinner room with an art work to get the bidding going. Fiorello even joined in the bidding himself, he had the guests laughing frequently and bidding generously. Many of the items changed owner for a price far above the market value.

The proceeds of the auction, the cover charges for the dinner, and the money made from selling raffle tickets amounted to a grand total of 29,000 euro for the Rava Foundation: 10,000 euro more than last year and therefore it’s safe to say the evening was a great success!

A photo album of the evening can be viewed here...

Associazione Rome International School’s Middle and High School Photography Club would like to invite you to our Year-End Exhibition!

We would be pleased if you could join us in B5 at 16.00 on Wednesday, June 15th, where you’ll find a display of some of the best work from members of the Photography Club. If you have any questions please contact Mr McDonald at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to find out more!

On the 22nd of June, we are having our Middle School drama production. Tickets will be on sale next week. And you should buy those, because it promises to be a spectacular play. If you still need any convincing, the article below by our Grade 8 student Elias Graverson, performing one of the lead roles in the play, should do the trick!

Rock and fangs; a paradox or a play?

As a final product of our drama lessons this year, Grades 7 and 8 are going to perform ‘The Dracula Rock Show’ on the 22nd June in Teatro Euclide. To prepare you for the play, I will now tell you what is ‘behind the scenes’.

The plot takes place in a town called Dewberry. It is guarded by Shirley Holmes and her police squad who once again must confront their worst enemy, most evil genius of all time, Professor Moriarty! Now take this rather classical story and mix it up with foul rock n’ roll loving vampires and zombies. With them comes another classical evil character: Count Dracula himself. He rises from his grave into the 21st century, where he’s about to find his place amongst the humans… or is he? Will Shirley Holmes and her trustworthy companion Watson stop him and his subjects from trespassing the boundaries of their underground world? And What about Moriarty and his group of vicious and grotesque villains? All the answers will be waiting for you in the theatre.

We (as in Grade 8) have been rehearsing for a while and are getting in to the mood of the play. some people are having to deal with a bit of embarrassment because they have solo songs to sing, but the rest is turning out well. I’m sure that I can promise an entertaining and amusing piece because we are all looking forward to impress you all. It requires very hard work to establish a production like this and Mrs. Chapman has been working her head off with us all which enhances our progress. Behind all the music we also have another teacher, Mr. Powell, who has been working hard with us in order to get whatever musicality we’ve got on to the stage.

Now that we have a theatre, actors, organizers and also getting props and costumes, we only need one more thing: an audience, meaning you! Please come to see us and have a time of your life.

Yours Faithfully,
Count Dracula