European school Mol

[Roulitsa]

Hello everyone,

I have only been able to find one thread about this school. Does anyone have any feedback about this school or any other of the European schools in Brussels? We will be moving to Brussels in September 2018. Our children would enroll in the English section and we are category 1.

Many thanks.

I know a fair bit about the ES Schools in Brussels in general. What would you like to know?

Hi, thanks for responding.

I can see that the schools are quite large and I think the fourth school is the smallest. How large do the classes get- is it a maximum of 30 to a class? My youngest, who is 9, is extremely shy and I am not sure how she will adapt to a really big school. The two schools she has been to so far have been very small and she struggled to adapt to the latest one. As far as the second language goes most of the children will have been learning it for many years so how are new students expected to catch up? Are they given extra lessons in that language?

Of course we plan to visit some of the schools so we can see for ourselves how they are and I would also like to visit the school in Mol to see how it compares to the ones in Brussels.

In general, what would you say are the positives and negatives about the schools?

Thanks.

It s not commutable it s a 3 hour round trip there is zero gain going there from Brussels quite a potty idea

Thanks for your response.

I wasn't considering commuting from Brussels to Mol as obviously it is a huge distance but other arrangements could be made if the school is a better fit. I would just like to hear people's feedback about these schools.

Class sizes vary according to the school but in Brussels they tend to be larger than ES outside Belgium, and as you get higher up secondary they are smaller as well, a lot of the time.

English sections are all up in the air at the moment because nobody knows what Brexit really will mean. Will Ireland and Malta pick up the tab when the UK withdraws funding (which it has started to do already)? The section system means there is a school within a school so it doesn't feel so vast.

Children coming to languages late get some help catching up and normally do fine. They are all at different levels in everything as children come and go throughout the ES schooling system (which is designed specifically for this). if she has to pick a language German might be the easiest and the Anglo-Germans get the highest marks as the French sections are meaner with their assessments!

The positives are that children get a good academic education which takes into account their status as proto-bilinguals. They also get some insights into other cultures. The negatives are that the children sometimes exist in a bit of a Eurocrat bubble, can end up with an overly strong sense of entitlement (a small percentage struggle at university when they need to be more self-reliant), and the curriculum is very old-fashioned (think parochial grammar school in the 1950s). They know this and they are reforming all the schools at the moment, however.

They have a good PTA called Interparents, which is very active. Maybe you can ask some more questions of the school via this route?

Thanks Boffinmum, that is very useful information. And thanks also for the recommendation regarding the PTA. I would like to be involved with the school.

My eldest is going into year 7 and will be starting French this September so I suppose it makes sense to continue with this language. For my youngest it could be German but I presume it might be best to stick to the same languages. They both speak Greek ( Greek dad, currently living in Greece) so I am assuming that will be their third language in secondary school. Is there a numbers requirement for offering a specific language in secondary school? Or if there is not enough demand do children have to pick another language? Would it make sense to apply to the third school, which has a Greek section, in order to access that language in secondary?

As Greek is their other mother tongue I d be going Greek with English second. Then you know which eebs and get much smaller classes and all the entitlement culture

English is their dominant language though and the guidelines say to choose a section according to the dominant language. They have attended English speaking schools apart from one year in nursery in Greece for my eldest.

However you have 2 mother tongues so your children may be told greek section which would be a very good choice given your concerns.

Most children in English section do not have English as dominant language choice of section is not on parental choice

I worked at the European School in Uccle for a while. It eas my dream school becauae i grew up fantasising about rhe chalet school and its international mix.

I'd disagree with the pp and say if your children have done all their education in English it would be better to stick with the English section. It's hard to switch at year 7 unless you're used to writing in Greek. Maybe your children are. However going in the Greek section would limit you to whichever of the 4 has that language section. I can't remember now but it definitely wasn't Uccle.

I wouldn't bother going to Mol. When I went on a course thing which was based there it was a shadow of the Brussels ones because it had so few children. Could be different now.

Anyway it's a few years since I worked there but I did love it. Brussels is a really great city to live in and I hope we can move back there at some point.

Shoild add that there are of course other British or international schools around which are good (and some not so good!) but if you're category 1 you will probably want to stick with an EEB.

Greek section is ixelles which is an advantage as you d know immediately you had places in a single school in a very small section small class sizes. Ixelles is an excellent location even has a metro stop best location of the 4 for access to central Brussels the Eu quarter and nice places to lice in South East communes.

As the children are currently educated in English and Greek too as well as it being their mother tongue the transition is hardly going to be taxing. It would also mean l2 at highest level and l3 could be community majority language of French.

Thanks for your feedback.

English is the dominant language of my children because their schooling has been in Australia and now Greece in an international school following the English national curriculum. The difference between their level of English and Greek is like night and day. They speak to each other only in English and when picking up a book to read it is always in English. So they would struggle in the Greek section, especially my youngest. Not only that, the pedagogical approach to teaching in Greece is quite different with lots of learning by rote for example. According to the guidelines of the schools themselves when children have two languages the section they should attend would correspond with the language that is dominant, ie according to their previous schooling, their environment etc. I would have thought that their progress in learning Greek would have been faster but I think their environment (many years in Australia) has trumped language acquisition at home.

12 stars, I am a primary school teacher and will be looking for work at some point once the children are settled and it's interesting to hear your views. How did the school compare to teaching in other schools that you have worked at?

Roulitsa I absolutely loved it. I loved the mix of languages and nationalities and found the parents to be very supportive. Loved having colleagues from so many places. It's a challenge because things have to be done in an accessible way e.g. when we had visiting theatre company it basically had to be lile because of the range of languages of the children and I remember having to explain to the Anglophone kids in my class any when father Christmas just visited he spoke French! But I loved the environment. Ibdont know if it is the same now but when I was there you had to apply via the home govt for a job and I had my interview in London. It was a 9 yr contract. However there were some jobs available locally but on a lower salary. Staff meetings and communication were all in French.

Sorry... visiting theatre company had to be in mime not lile!

Hi there, just wanted to add that yes 30 is the max for class size. We went just over the 30 limit and the class was split in 2 so are really lucky to have class of only 18. (Brussels not Mol - English section).

Re the second language, the levels are always mixed and I think children joining later with a weak second language catch up fast. Friend of mine came to EEB uccle from the uk at 11 with no second language but never had a problem and was very happy there.

Thanks 12stars and Yika- that's good to hear how well some of the children adapt to a second language when they are older. And I imagine supply staff are recruited locally as well, which is something I will look into once the children have settled in.

Yika do you work at Uccle now?

Hi all,

We are currently considering second education of European School Mol in our daugter and I came by this thread. Is there anyone whose kids are attending 2nd education here?

In reddit I found quite harsh critisism on the ES in Brussels that drug use is pretty common and kids of beurocrats kind of see themselves untouchable. Some even mentioned the kids who got into trouble in Brussels school with drugs are sent to Mol. So we are bit concerned after reading these.