SHAPE International School, NATO base - help please!!

[Rosita]

My husband has been posted to SHAPE (NATO base) near Casteau and we move there from the UK in May. We will be provided with housing but in terms of schools, most of the British people send their children to the British section of the SHAPE International School. It's meant to be lovely, small classes and has an Outstanding Ofsted. I'm in two minds though. The SHAPE School also has an International section which follows the Belgian curriculum and is taught in French. I'm not sure where to start about finding out what the school is really like. Are Belgian schools regulated and inspected in a similar way to Ofsted?
Has anyone got any experience of SHAPE? I guess all the local schools are a possibility too but have NO idea where to start with that!
My husband thinks that the children will naturally go to the Brit school but I am keen for them to be really proficient in another language. He says though that my older son (Year 2) will be completely stumped and at a massive disadvantage academically if we throw him in at the deep end. My little one (will start reception in Sept) would just adapt I guess. We will be there for about 2.5 years I think, possibly more.
Any advice would be much appreciated!

There is no equivalent of OFSTED reports in Belgium in the French community. There are schools inspectors but their remit is a not thea same as an OFSTED inspector.

The nearest regular Belgian French school is probably this one in Casteau, but it goes up to only 2e primaire (7-8 years) and assume that the children transfer to another of the listed schools
www.soignies.be/fr/news_full.html?id=204

The Shape website says that there is a French speaking maternelle on Shape campus (2-6 years) there, a possibility for the younger one? I assume the Belgian curriculum Shape primaire goes from 6-12 and teaches Dutch from 8 year old like a regular Belgian French school.There is no way of knowing what the school is like without visiting it. If you wanted to know there academic standards, a rough guide is to ask what the average mark their 6e primaire children scored in the CEB certificate (taken by all children at Belgian French children in the last year of primary) in the last few years (national average something like 73%) and the average pass rate (something like 90%). It's really only a rough guide, the only way I can think of to compare academic standards at this level. To give to an idea of a Belgian school with a good academic standard, our children's school got for CEB 100% pass rate and average 83% mark across all tests making up the CEB certificate in Summer 2010.

It's hard to predict the "damage" from sending a child into a different education system for 2 or 3 years, that's a very personal choice. Perhaps it depends of whether you have the possibility of staying several more years.

PS if your son is sporty, he might be interested in playing rugby with one of Belgium's top clubs, just near SHAPE. Rugby Club Soignies. They have a rugby school from aged 6, wouldn't surprise me if it contained quite a few British children playing there. Soignies teams play in Brussels regularly against our son's club here. It's a good way to integrate into local life, you don't need to speak French to enjoy the beer / rugby. You'll also get to see plenty of Belgium with away matches, our boys play all over, Antwerp, Liege, Soignies of course, Waterloo, Gent.
www.rugbyclubsoignies.be/Site/

Thanks natation - that's all really helpful. That's very interesting about the rugby. I'm hoping we can integrate into local life as much as possible so that sounds like a good possibility. My eldest son is not very sporty but he can have a go!
On another point, do you know if it is feasible to travel to Brussels for work? I've heard the traffic can be pretty bad. I'm hoping to look for a job once we are settled in.

It depends on where you want to commute to, a car into the centre of Brussels, especially arriving from the south side, is really not very sensible. From Soignies or Mons is 35 or 55 minutes respectively to gare centrale in the centre of Brussels, it would be impossible to drive it that quickly. Most employeurs will be a huge cost of train travel but not car travel so car travel can be quite uneconomic. My friend lives not far away from SHAPE at Ghislenghien, she nearly always goes by train, she has completely free travel, so it just isn't worth driving, plus she does her classroom prep on the train and she cannot do that in the car.

My knowledge of SHAPE isnt recnet but we were posted there as children and im sure since then the schools have changed! I generally loved shape. very very amerocan, hash house harriers, brunch breckies, PX supermarket.. oh the days.. however my memories of the school are not good! hence im sure it has changed now! I have a friend who went to the belgium school and ended speaking the most amazing french/ flemish.. and still does. we went to the british school, but after this posting we were shipped off to boarding school as the education had put us way behind.
But an amazing posting !

You would definitely NOT want to be commuting to Brussels in the morning by car. A work colleague of mine lives near Mons and he leaves at 7.30 in the morning, just to make it to work (central Brussels) by 9am. Traffic on the motorway is a nightmare in rush hours and Belgian driving takes a bit of getting used to :)

By train would be feasible though - probably into gare centrale. You can have a look at train times and frequencies on the SNCB website (also in English): www.sncb.be

Just looked at how much a 12 month train pass would cost 337 euro between Masnuy-St-Pierre (station near to SHAPE)and Bruxelles, if you have a regular Belgian employer. My friend works as a teacher and so as effectively a government employee, a perk is a completely free ticket, pity her salary is so low.

Thanks everyone for your advice. Very interesting to hear what SHAPE used to be like!

Someone dh works with did from the main gate of NATO to the main gate of SHAPE in 25 minutes the other morning. We are now waiting to hear that he has lost his licence!

Travel allowances are very common in Belgium - one of the perks that help make up for the extortionate tax rate. My employer pays 100% of the cost of public transport.

And I 2nd what labelle said. The motorways are a nightmare in the rush hour - queues at the same places day in day out. I could probably correctly predict tomorrow's 8am traffic bulletin - just throw in a random accident or 2.

Rosita, when you get there keep an eye on the notices from SHAPE that your dh will get, and those from the Delegation, UK Rep and Embassy in Brussels - several jobs come up. There does tend to be stuff at SHAPE though, so you may not have to go to Brussels to work, lots of jobs seem to be in the UK medical centre, and admin jobs come up regularly as well.

Hi may I piggyback and ask is the schooling free in Brussels for HM Forces? I join NATO HQ in Jul and pondering whether to live near SHAPE and send the children to the Brit school in SHAPE or live near Brussels and have the schooling there. Btw we were in SHAPE 2001-2004 and neigbours said the school was great in particular the french classes for the youngsters

NATO staff get I think category 2 entry into European schools. I don't know much about European schools other than they are hard to get into even as category 1 (EU commission) in the English and French sections - you are theoretically only allowed to apply for a section where you speak the language at home. ES might be an option if your children are young especially, but they only start at 4 years old there, if older, some studies must be in a second language, so may not be so suitable for a 12 year old for example, the level of the 2nd language is very high.

I know there are students funded by NATO at the British School of Brussels, their funding is somewhere around 75% mark and you pay the rest, so at least some the international schools in the area must be funded by NATO. It would depend I think on your posting conditions, you may get full funding for an international school in Brussels. There is a big choice on international schools in the greater Brussels area for under 12s, not so many for over 12s.

Depending on age of your children and where you might live next or whether posting to NATO would have a cance of being extended, local schooling may be an idea. It's a very personal choice. Local schools around NATO are full of children of all nationalities, our youngers children's school for example has around 30 nationalities, in some ways more international that the international schools!

I have no idea what it's really like to live around SHAPE, imagine quite quiet compared to Brussels which itself is not particularly lively. As I intensely dislike driving, I'd never consider settling the children into school around SHAPE then getting on the autoroute to NATO for work. We have 2 families in our street who could have gone to school for free at SHAPE and in fact one of them could have gone to the Amercian military school in Brussels (Sterrebeek) but they chose to live here in Brussels, their dads cycle to work to NATO and the children walk 5 minutes to school. They visit SHAPE for OUR supply of Ben and Jerrys ice cream once every few months and I guess stock up on all the other American products that cost 2 or 3 times the price if bought in Brussels, it's a nice perk but not enough obviously to make them want to live around SHAPE and work at NATO HQ.

If you are HM Forces joining IMS, UK Rep, EUMS or UK Joint Del to NATO (as opposed to IS) then the fees are picked up in full. There is a choice really of British School of Brussels, (UK Curriculum from reception to 18), St Johns at Waterloo which is a US curriculum from smalls to 18 again, and ISB which is supposed to be good, but I don't know much about.

BSB seems to be the default for the Forces kids out here. You'll get an SSFA on a bus route as they pick up the bus costs as well.

If you like to use the message poster option to the right of my name, I can give you more details re the schooling arrangements and how everything is paid as we have been here with HM Forces for 4 years, so what I don't know, I can find out for you.

Do you know if my husband is posted to SHAPE, whether we would have the option to live in Brussels? So far, no one has told us much other than everyone lives in the SFA which is just outside the base (at SHAPE). Also, would the children then be eligible to go to one of the schools mentioned in Brussels? My husband thinks that the only option we have is the SHAPE school.

natation- when you say people live in Brussels but cycle to work at NATO, do you mean NATO in Brussels or SHAPE? SHAPE would be a extremely long bike ride I think!

Beverlee-will you be based in Brussels for work?

Those posted to SHAPE live at SHAPE, and those posted to NATO HQ live in or around Brussels. I think it may be SSFA at SHAPE rather than SFA (private rentals rather than purpose built MQs) as it is in Brussels.

If your kids are primary then they go to the SHAPE primary, if secondary a bit more complicated, as they are sent to Rhinedalen to weekly board. AFAIK the school at Rhinedalen is closing, so I don't know what they'll do with the secondary kids then.

Natation means I think that NATO HQ is in one district of Brussels (Evere) and that people cycle there from where they live in Brussels. People cycle from where I live to there every day, so they may cycle from Tervuren, Zaventem, Kraainem, Overijse, which are all different places surrounding Brussels to Evere each day.

I worked at NATO for nearly 5 years and my two went to BSB. I had a friend who worked at SHAPE and lived in Brussels, but he was civ, not military (POLAD) and commuted every day. He didn't think it was too bad. There is (or was) a NATO shuttle bus out to SHAPE every day from NATO HQ.

Re the European schools, we were told not a cat in hell's chance of getting in as the English section was very very full and those at the Commission/UKREP got priority. The only Brit I knew at NATO whose kids went there went to the French section as their mother was French, and they had been educated in French.

Would love to get a job again at NATO - maybe when my contract here in Paris is up, in another 3-4 years!

Hi Rosita
I am already posted here in SHAPE at the moment. Although my DD is at the Nursery there and not school I do have a lot of friends here with children of your age who I could ask if you like or perhaps speak to the British School direct - I can get you the number. There is the Windsor School in Germany of course which is a weekly boarding school but of course that is something different again.
Secondly, you are not eligble to a quarter in Brussels if your husband is actually posted into SHAPE - most of the quarters (if not all) are private hirings as opposted to married quarters and the MOD is trying to cut the use of private hiring for the cost obviously. I can, again get you the phone number of the housing clerk.
I work in the Support Unit at SHAPE and although there are some jobs here at SHAPE they are few and far between, that said there seems to be a lot of jobs at the British School for classroom assistants, diner ladies, bus escorts etc. I think that you will find if you are a dependant you are not allowed to work in the Local Community, that is to say in a belgian shop for example. There is no one here I know of (in the last 3 years) that works out in the local community due to belgian employment law. For jobs within SHAPE you need to apply fast as the closing dates also appear rather short.
There is a good train service to Brussels from Mons, Jurbise or Sogines which takes less than a hour and max cost at peak is around ?15
If there is anything else you need to know please let me know and I am happy to help.

ooo I meant to say, not so Americanised as they as they have mostly moved to Chievers thus there is no PX anymore have to be perfectly honest, the facilities here are somewhat tired and dreary however life is what you make it isn't it?

If Rosita is British she will have no bureaucratic reasons not to work in Belgium, as an EU national.

No PX any more?

I think the working thing is because one is a dependant of a UK Crown Servant - I would advise speaking to the LALE office within the UK Support Unit.
Nope No PX and also you are no longer allowed to shop at the PX in Cheivs either!

I am a dependent of a crown servant and no restrictions, that would be against EU law, another thing if it is part of the crown servant s contract but why on earth would it be bad for the dependent to work?

No - being the dependent of a Crown Servant should not stop you from working if you are an EU national. As natation says, that would be against EU law.

Does Natex still exist, at least?!

We used to go to the USAF base near Frankfurt to indulge our cravings for American crap food such as Lucky Charms, Goobers etc!

It depends on the SOFA agreement with the host nation. For instance, I can't work for more than a certain amount of money per year or dh loses duty free fuel/booze etc.

It's Belgium, they write the laws to please themselves, and they really don't care about EU or any other law.