On Monday 31 August 2026 the International School of Brindisi officially opened the academic year, while most Italian students were still on holiday. The early start is not simply a matter of getting ahead of the regional calendar: it is a structural choice, tied to the needs of our families and to a different way of organising the school day.
A practical answer for working parents. The long summer gap is one of the difficulties families tell us about most often. Opening on the last Monday of August is partly a service to them — but it is also what makes the rest of the year possible. Starting earlier lets us spread the teaching load more evenly, which in turn leaves room for the things that are usually treated as extras and that here are part of the programme.
A day built in two halves. Mornings are four fifty-minute periods: Italian, mathematics, literacy and science, taught by specialists. Afternoons are two seventy-minute blocks — long enough for a laboratory session, an Advanced Placement course or a project to be introduced, worked through and finished without the bell interrupting. The day ends at 15:35, and clubs and sports run until 16:50.
Movement every day. Physical education is timetabled as a subject, and every afternoon closes with clubs and sports that students choose themselves: football, tennis, athletics, robotics, debate. The reasoning is straightforward — children who move learn better, and a school day that ends with something a child has chosen is a school day they come back to.
Learning outdoors. Alongside sport, the school has opened a space dedicated to growing things. Students follow the seasons, the sowing and the harvest directly rather than only in a textbook: it is where science, sustainability and patience are taught at the same time.
Teachers from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom joined the faculty this year. The point is not only language: exposing students to different teaching traditions — the Anglo-Saxon emphasis on practice and problem-solving alongside the Italian grounding in theory — is what an international school is for.
ISB is accredited by Cognia and AAA, registered with the NCAA, and recognised by the Italian Ministry of Education. It follows the American Common Core pathway aligned with California state standards, and is the only accredited international school south of Naples.
Read the full article on News Istruzione: Brindisi, scuola riapre il 31 agosto con sport e orto didattico — by Vincenzo Schirripa, 3 September 2026.