bilingual schools in Belgium

[fredly]

We're looking for a bilingual school for our dd (French-English) in Belgium close to the French border. Can anyone help ?

I´ve had a quick look and not found anything immediately. However, follow a few links and you may come accross something useful.

www.xpats.com

There is one in Sterrebeek with a branch in Tervuren, which is a Montessori school, which is allegedly bilingual, but appears to have almost no francophone kids. Have also not heard any good reports about it.

Whereabouts are you? There are some private schools in Wallonia which are bilingual, I think, but the ones I have heard of seem to be not far from Brussels. If you speak English at home, why not just stick your DD in a French school?

We'll be too far from Brussels though, where there are loads. We're in the UK at the moment but planning to move to nortern France next year. I want to find her a bilingual school so that she can have the (almost) same degree of literacy in English as in French.

Interestingly I was just at a teacher training day this week and speaking to an (English) woman who taught in Belgium, near the Luxemborg border. She said that her school was English immersion whereby half the day was taught in English and half in French, and that this was becoming a scheme adopted by the government (I think) with many schools converting to teaching in this way. Sorry, not much to go on but maybe worth checking out.

am a professor of immersion English in Belgium. Unfortunately, the program of immersion is completely faulted and returning to a structural grammar translation method. It is currently VERY difficult to find an adequate establishment due to numerous concerns among which can be cited: budgetary constraints, reticence on the part of the French government to take decisive measures, poor teaacher traing, (some native speakers are being replace by French speakers who have resided a single year in the States for example) , there is a definite sense of anglophobia in the French community. I am currently unaware of ant school that would satisfy your needs, as i dropped out of teaching in the public schools last year due to these various problems. This being said I have been consdioering trying to launch an English immrsion summer program eventually (still speculative at this stage due to infrastructural considerations). As for the person who, questioned the appropriatenees of an English immersion school: they were probably well intentioned but COMPLETELY erroneous. Immersion is IDEAL at the level of 3rd maternelle. The plasticity of the childs brain and limit of linguistic contraints to learning make the ages from 5 - 10 the very best years for the initiation to a second immersive language. After 10 years old while still capable of learning a second or other language the child has less flexibility having already mentally established his individual codes and structures. These rules basically, inhibit the learning of parallel structures. MANY studies have been done in the field to confirm my statements, I am currently studying a masters degree in Pedagogical Sciences and am tutored by Pr. Jean Adolphe Rondale Ph.D, who has himself written over 50 books on the subject. Should you require further assistance or information please do not hesitate to contact me. I shall include my email details, SSincerely, James P. Welch (Maitre Sreciale de Langues). [email protected]

Are you aware of the language divide in Belgium? If you are looking around Ypres etc, then it is Flemish speaking up there and I doubt you'd find a francaphone school. The main French speaking areas in Belgium are Brussels and some of the surrounding communes; and Wallonia.

You'll need to be more specific about which bit of Northern France you are looking at, so we can work out where on the language line it falls for Belgium.

That's not strictly true scaryteacher, there is a strip from say Ellezelles/Renaix (Ronse) along to the coast and down to Lille which is primarily french-speaking.

However if you want French/English then you should probably look at a more international town such as Lille.