Question about French / Dutch areas in Brussels near BSB

[ruthyroo]

Hi all

We are contemplating a move to Brussels next year. We are currently in France and DS1 has already got nearly three year in French maternelle under his belt. It's important to us to keep the bilingualism up - it's one of the reasons we made the move to France in the first place.

From what I have read each 'arrondissment' or suburb in Brussels is either French or Dutch? We'd need to be in easy commuting distance of the BSB as DH would be teaching there. Can anyone give me the names of some local areas that are close to there, nice to live in, not too expensive as we'll be on one modest salary for at least a year, and French? We would plan for both boys to be in local primary to begin with, long enough to get their French properly established.

Cheers
RR

Wherever you read about "arrondissements" (which don't exist here) and parts of Brussels being French or Dutch, sorry but Brussels region is officially bilingual French AND Dutch. However, in the Belgian population, only 7% of inhabitants out of 1.1 million speak Dutch as 1st language, 93% of Belgians put down on their registrations that French is 1st language (for many of those it could in effect be a 2nd language, Arabic, Turkish etc first). There are 19 municipalities in Brussels region, the ones with most number of Dutch speakers are in the north-west eg Berchem-St-Agathe and Ganshoren.

All Flanders is officially Dutch speaking, Tervuren being a municipality in Vlaams Brabant, one of 5 provinces which make up Flanders. Tervuren has only about 70% Dutch speakers, there are so many English speakers there and French too. west of Tervuren is Wezembeek-Oppem, also in Vlaams Brabant but with "facilités" for the in reality 80% of French speakers! Wezembeek-Oppem on the border is actually less than 1km from the gates of BSB - Rue de la Limite! Then you have also in Vlaams Brabant the municipality of Kraainem with "facilités" for the 80% French speakers. Then you have in Brussels region Woluwe-St-Pierre which has a Belgian population of 92% French and 8% Dutch, but in fact the international population is close on 35% now.

For Wezembeek-Oppem and Kraainem French schools (4 of them), you must live in one of these municipalities. For Brussels region French schools, you can live anywhere.

Maternelle is 4 years here, in September 2013 it is children born 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008. Primaire is 6 years here, in September 2013 it is children born 2006 to 2002. Most schools have maternelle and primaire together, but a few are separated into 2 schools and not always right next to each other. You are rather late to be looking for French school places. You will need to phone all the schools, maybe several times too. You will need yo be ready with their year of birth and school year you are looking for.

A BSB full time teaching salary, with no housing allowance, should allow you enough income to afford a 3house costing 1.5k per month, you could get a 2 bed for less or a 3 bed apartment. You can get a 3 bed house for that price. There are no cheap French majority areas near to BSB. The nearest cheaper areas are in Vlaams Brabant, such as Leefdaal, Dutch speaking, you'll end up spending much time in the car, which added to the cost of rent might end up the same as living in an area with majority French speakers. You can easily live without a car in Wezembeek-Oppem, Kraainem and Woluwe-St-Pierre (WSP), the 44 tram and 315/317/410 buses go to BSB from these areas, very cheap and BSB will give you a tiny public transport allowance which will cover some of the cost of public transport.

So what job at BSB has your husband got? There are a few mumsnetters connected with the school.

Look at the following school maps. The Brabant school map includes the 4 French schools in Kraainem and Wezembeek-Oppem.

batchgeo.com/map/1f1bf2b3b6e4ad41fe67c1a57d56a826

batchgeo.com/map/cede6049273e541514fd4c1c5dc4af9b

Just looking at distances, order of proximity of French schools to BSB, 3km to 5km
Ecole communale la Fermette - Wezembeek-Oppem
Ecole Notre-Dame de la Trinité - Wezembeek-Oppem
Institut St Georges - Wezembeek-Oppem
Ecole communale de Stockel -WSP
Ecole communale de Joli-Bois (separate maternelle + primaire) - WSP
Athénée Royal Crommelynck - WSP
Ecole du Sacré-Coeur de Stockel - WSP
Ecole Mater Dei (separate mat+primaire but at least next to each other) - WSP
College Don Bosco - WSL

These are the 9 nearest French schools to BSB. 5 are Catholic, 3 are communal and 1 is directly French Community controlled. In reality, the religious aspect is very very small and insignificant in maternelle. All are public schools, no fees at Catholic schools like in France, only fees are garderie, school trips, books!

Would you not get the fees paid for the BSB as your husband is going to be working there? They now have a bilingual section - natation could also provide information about this. In case you hadn't realised, she is our schools expert!

I do get that! Thanks for all the info. I had wrongly thought that the individual municipalities were either French or Dutch in terms of the schools.

Dh is in the process of applying - I'm just trying to gather information at this point. The reason we were thinking local school rather than BSB was that since we are all English at home, it would be harder for the boys to be truly fluent in French without the immersion in the language they'd get at a French school. I'm not sure how they work the bilingual programme at BSB - another thing to research!

Cheers all - it's great to get so much info so fast!