Choosing a school in Brussels

[bontheka]

I'm new to Mumsnet but hoping I will get some good answers to my questions.

I'm a mother of 2 young kids and we're currently residing in Hong Kong. We will be moving to Brussels in June for a 3 year spell. Husband will be working at the NATO office.

My children will be 5 and 3 respectively at the start of the autumn school session. The office has recommended the following schools to us - BSB, BJAB, BISB.

At the moment, we do not know yet where we're going to live. Apparently, there's a house belonging to the office available in the Tervuren area but they can't tell us till June if they will let us move into it. I've looked up the schools on the internet, and I realise that BSB is in the Tervuren area, BISB is nearest to NATO, and BJAB is well...somewhere. The office will pay the full school fees for Year 1 onwards but we'll have to contribute an amount towards the kindergarten fees. We have a friend who moved to Brussels a couple of years back and enrolled her then 5 year old into BJAB, and is extremely pleased with the school. I realise that BISB is a nice, little school as well with small classes, not to mention that it will be near the NATO office while BSB has great facilities and is well-established, so I'm having a hard time trying to pick one. Actually, hubby has said that he'd like to put down an application for BSB as well as one of the smaller schools to reserve a spot, and then pick one when we get there.

If there's anyone out there with young kids in either BSB, BJAB or BISB, please give me the pros and cons of the schools. Also, what would be the nearest, affordable residential area to the NATO office?

Thanks in advance.

Bumping for you

Blimey! Lots of questions. Sorry I missed this one - we lived in Brussels for 6 years (2 NATO postings) so I might be able to help a bit.

We have lived in Sterrebeck, Tervuren, Everberg and Stockel. To be honest, the place we liked best was Stockel. It is popular, so quite expensive and sometimes hard to find a house BUT there is a wonderful market 3 times a week (I'm envious thinking about it!), it has a community based around the square and has fabulous transport links into Brussels City Centre. In our view it was by far the nicest place to be.

How old are your kids? I did some teaching at the Brussels English Primary School and at BSB. Do you intend to come back to the UK for education at any point? Are you forces, embassy or private company? If you have questions, ask away and I'll help out if I can.

Well Evere is the nearest residential area to NATO. We lived there for 2 years in an apartment. Lots of our neighbours worked at Nato. Evere isn't very exciting, but does have very good transport links to the city centre and the suburbs. We paid 1100 euros a month for a 3 bed, 2 bath apartment.

Tervuren is very nice, some wonderful houses there, and lots of outside space. I guess that, depending on traffic, NATO would be about a 20 min drive.

Agree with daisy that the area round Stockel (Woluwe St Pierre) is lovely. There are lots of shops, parks and a cinema. Houses would generally be 1200 euros upwards. The International scholl I think in Woluwe St lambert, so not that far away.

I can't comment on schools I'm afraid as dd goes to a local french speaking school in Evere. www.immoweb.be is a good site for looking for accommodation and getting an indication of prices.

More than willing to help out with any advice on Brussels......

Hello everyone. I recently gave a presentation at an event for Expat families in Brussels, entitled 'Choosing an international school in Belgium'. If you are interested, you can view it here:

davidwillows.squarespace.com/journal/2009/4/27/choosing-an-international-school-in-belgium.html

David Willows
Director of External Relations
International School of Brussels

I've only just seen the replies posted since 29 March. I sort of gave up on responses to my post after 3 weeks...

Anyway, thanks for your replies. We didn't get the office owned property in Tervuren so we're looking at all areas now. Still haven't decided on schools yet. BISB and BJAB have very limited places at the moment. We decided not to reserve a spot first at those 2 schools because both schools wanted registration fees, deposit, and a percentage of the year's fees for doing so. At the moment, it looks like we might end up having to pick one of the 3 schools without even seeing any of them first.

Thanks for suggesting Stockel. Will certainly look at the area if there's anything within our rent and space ceiling there. Husband's with the Foreign Office but will be attached to NATO.

There are some international Montessori sshools too. I find some details.

Hi bontheka - only just noticed your post. We lived in Brussels for 16 months as my husband was working in the Parliment. We moved over with a 6 month old and a 3 year old.
We lived in Woluwe Saint Lambert which is near Saint Pierre and loved the area. The metro is great and I used to go everywhere by metro and tram.
I cant comment on the schools as I sent my oldest to the local french maternelle in the mornings when she was 3. I would really recommend joining the BCT (Brussels Childbirth Trust). Its an organisation for english speaking parents in Brussels and they can probably give you info on schools or put you in touch with people who have kids at those schools. They also have some great activities for your youngest child (playgroups and clubs) and is a great way of meeting people. If you type it into google you should be able to get to there website.
I hope you enjoy living in Brussels - its a great city.

Just thought - if you post this in the living overseas section of mumsnet you will get loads of responses as there are loads of people living in brussels who use mumnet. It was an invaluable resource for me when we moved over there. I used it again when we made our move to New Zealand

May be useful

Montessori website

BCT I second bongo's recommendation....It costs about 45 euros a year.

Let me know if I can help with any info.

If I were to move to Brussels I would be looking at the French school in Uccle (I think) where they have a French-English bilingual section. It's not nearly as expensive as some other schools and the education is supposed to be very good.

I am also a fan of European Schools, having been to one myself, but realise that they are very hard to get into unless you work for the EU. Nice and cheap, though, and an interesting educational environment.

The reviews I have read of the European schools here is that they are mediocre from an education point of view, and have huge problems with drugs and alcohol! And these are the children of the people who run Europe.... BSB is supposed to be much better!

LOL Porto, the university entrance record of European School graduates to UK universities is excellent (I have the University of Cambridge International Examinations very recent evaluation right here on my desk).

A lot of people are very envious indeed of the great free education the Eurocrats' children get!

Wow, so many responses pouring in all of a sudden. Thank you for your replies.

Hubby decided this morning that I'd spent too much time trying to pick a school, had a look at the school brochures and straight away decided on BSB. I was leaning more towards the smaller schools but I know BSB is very good and has excellent facilities, so I'm quite happy with the choice. If we have made the wrong choice, then we can always look for something else for the next academic year.

I have heard and read about the BCT and it's definitely something I would consider joining.

I suppose having chosen BSB, it's probably best that we settle around Tervuren. I will however ask the estate agents to show us properties in Woluwe St Lambert, St Pierre and Stockel before we make a decision on that.

Wezembeek-Oppem borders Tervuren and is very nice too. There are very good public transport links.

Anna, could you send me a link to that info please? Or similar? I haven´t seen any such info anywhere..

There is a "golden triangle" of cobbled roads behind BSB, and another good area across the road from BSB, which are great, great places to be. There is walking to school, walking to the park and the forest, cycling to the supermarket, a Sunday-open petrol station right there (essential because on Sunday in Belgium the shops shut).

Also, inevitably, many BSB parents live there so friends for the children will be on the doorstep and playdates don't necessarily involve a drive or even any planning.

If it sounds too much like a British ghetto to you, well, yes, you're kind of right but I would just suck it up. Tervuren is Flemish and you'll need to learn Dutch anyway to read your electricity bills.

If you have a recce now then go into BSB and look at the noticeboard as well as going to estate agents. Also go to the British Shop and look at the noticeboard there.

I get the information as a former pupil of the European Schools who has, as an alumni, participated in all the studies and surveys. I don't know where or whether it is available to all and sundry. I'll have a look on the schools' websites (but so can you).

Cambridge report here. It refers to another study (Kelly & Kelly I think) which is very interesting on the UK university outcomes of EB graduates.

I have heard (warning: hearsay alert with possible major errors and generalisations) that the English-taught sections of the European School in Brussels are now very full of ESL students since the expansion a few years ago.

This may or may not be true, and it may or may not put you off, but perhaps Anna will have an insight.

I'm sure that students with no language section of their own (ie coming from small new member states) will prefer the English section to the French or German sections (their other options). But it would surprise me that the English section would be in anyway inundated with them - the British and Irish together are a large force within the EU.

When I was at the European School (many years ago) there were Icelanders in our class, and Greeks (who had no language section). It was fine - enriching, even. There have always been non MT students in the English section (and the French section, and the German section) and I never remember it being any kind of problem. All ES students receive instruction in their own mother tongue even if they have no language section of their own.

It would be judicious to remember that EU officials joining the institutions from recently joined member states tend to be right at the top of the institutional hierarchy (and hence very brainy). Unsurprisingly, their offspring tend to have inherited some of their intellect.

I remember when Greece joined the EU that the daughter of the Greek judge from the CoJ joined our class, very late in the system. She was extraordinarly intelligent and already perfectly trilingual in Greek, French and English.

Appreciated Anna -- you'll have more info on it than me. It was dinner party talk.

May I disagree with you though in inferring "very brainy" from "right at the top of the institutional hierarchy". And are they right at the top anyway? Same old same old that we send over.

Although the demographic of expats is generally, you know, professional, reasonably high achievers, I would say that you still need an excellent school with great teachers. I really would not count on that demographic to lift performance.

I'm not inferring - there really are some very clever people working in the institutions, you know!

The point about clever children was that they didn't disturb the class even if they weren't EMT. They managed fine - brilliantly, even.

I had some excellent teachers in the ES, particularly in the English section. Some of the French and German teachers were really awful, however. Recruitment of teachers varies between member states.

Also, the demographic of people working for the EU is very different from the expat business demographic (I am very well acquainted with both - all this living abroad... ho hum!).