Montessori school in Brussels

[SusanLouise]

Hello, we moved to Brussels about 8 months ago and my daughter has been attending a local maternalle. We are not that happy, and nor is she so are considering a move. Does anyone have kids at the montessori house near Montgomery and/or experience with BEPS? Would love to hear! Thanks

Trying a klaxon or PM to Natation. She is the expert on these things. Also if you are on FB we have a private group which you could join. PM me for details.

SusanLouise

i am looking for a maternalle / montessori school for my 3.5 for september when we move to Brussels. We are trying to rent a house in Uccle as my other children will be going to school at the european school there.

Grateful if you could make any suggestions based on your own experiences.
Regards

With so many schools to choose from in Uccle at around 30, I'd actually take map and work out the area you with to live in. I'd look east to Ixelles and Watermael-Boitsfort too - several of the schools there are in fact nearer to EEB1 that several schools in Uccle are. I think Uccle is just too big an area to be looking for schools. Given you're 6 months late in starting a school search, you have a quite slim chance of finding places in the highly regarded schools in the commune.

Once you've narrowed down the search area to live in, then look up ALL the schools in that area. Hopefully you'll have 20 or less schools to phone. You might need to phone the schools 2 or more times, if possible I'd get a French mother tongue speaker to phone and claim it's there child looking for a place and if it's a waiting list, then put your name on it and ask for the number on that waiting list. Only at this point of categorizing schools as a) place b) waiting list and c) school refuses waiting list would I then start asking for DIRECT EXPERIENCE of a maternelle, resist attempt at listening at hearsay from parents not at a school who you think might not be accurate with passing on other's experience and resist opinions from parents of children who have never attended a school. Even listening to experiences, you have to remember it's their experiences, you may not have their experiences. It's of course better than no opinions at all on a school.

If you are looking at a Montessori school, well full time if you can afford 10k, if you are choosing the school for its educational method (which you might find elements of in local maternelles and other international non Montessori schools), then that's fine, if choosing the school in the hope of mother tongue fluency in French and you're an anglophone, well think very very carefully, ask to meet as many of the children at that Montessori who have been there a year or 2 and speak no French at home, listen to their level of French.