• representation from the international community and Italian families who respect the philosophy of the school;
• previous school experience and performance;
• the ability to work in the English language or to benefit from our instruction;
• ESL support programme;
• the likelihood of being able to profit from courses offered at the RIS. 

Placement in a particular grade is dependent on:

• the age of pupil;
• reports from the previous school;
• consultation with parents;
• an interview with the pupil and tests, if appropriate.

Our primary criterion for placement is the age of the child, although there is some flexibility for individual needs, and hence an overlap of ages may occur in any class, especially with admission in the later grades of Elementary School. Please note that children at RIS are placed into a class depending on their age on 1st September, since the school admission year runs from September to August and not from January to December. Individual cases could be discussed if the child’s birthday fell close to the September deadline, although our experience suggests that children ultimately perform better when left in their own year group. This becomes increasingly evident in later years at school.