A SCHOOL in Italy with a Co Armagh headmaster and 25 Irish teachers has scored top marks in international baccalaureate exam rankings.
St Louis School in the heart of Milan, which currently caters for 1,000 pupils of 33 different nationalities, has its foundations firmly in Ireland.
Gerry Rafferty, a former physics teacher at St Malachy’s College in Belfast and GAA player with Armagh Harps, is the school’s principal while around a quarter of the teaching workforce are also from Ireland.
Mr Rafferty said the school recently registered the highest average score in the 'IB' exam out of 22 colleges across Italy, and the best in Europe.
With fees of €20,000 a year, it takes pupils from nursery age through to 18.
The principal said: "In relation to discipline, we are a private school and that helps, but the children of Italy are still brought up well. They sit with their parents each night to eat a meal together, that doesn’t happen at home."
Mr Rafferty is a firm advocate of replacing GCSEs and A-levels with new IGCSEs and international baccaleaurate qualifications, which he claims better prepare pupils for the global workplace.
Two schools in Dublin are the only ones in Ireland to offer the IB system.
Students taking the exams study a broad range of six subjects, three in depth, and carry out voluntary work and do sport.
Mr Rafferty said: "GCSEs are too easy and the A-levels are a bit too narrow. Whenever I speak to people back home all I hear is people getting nine As. Here at the age of 18 you can have an engineer who speaks Chinese and French."
Many teachers in Ireland are "demotivated" and are seeking a move, the principal added.
One recent arrival is Belfast man Gavin Williams, a biology teacher and Commonwealth fencer.
He said: "I taught A-levels and IB has been a higher level. I won’t be rushing home any time soon."
