Brussels secondary schools in WSP and WSL

[MildredandGeorge]

I’d be very grateful if any Brussels mumsnetters can help with my query please, particularly a contributor who used to be called “Natation” because she was a fountain of knowledge and very helpful.

Can anybody provide up to date information on the following secondary schools:

L’institut des Dames de Marie
Centre Scolaire Sacré-Coeur de Lindthout
Collége Don Bosco
Collége Jean XXIII

For anyone’s information, I live in the WSP area not far from these schools (some nearer than others). I’d like to know if they’re still highly regarded academic schools. For example, is Sacré-Coeur still regarded as the crème de la crème like St Michel or Mater Dei?

I am aware of an incident which took place at Collége Don Bosco last February 2019. Does anyone have any more information about this? Has it hurt the school’s reputation?

Basically, if you could choose a school from the above, which one would it be and why?

Thank you very much.

You need to know the indice for each school. Unless the indice is 4+, you're not going to get a place.

You need to ensure your child is at the nearest 1/2/3 Catholic/Athenee Royal/Communal/non religious aligned primaire.

If this is the case, then you should ONLY apply to oversubscribed secondaires which are nearest 1/2/3 Catholic/Athenee Royal/Communal/non religious aligned.

Cross off ALLoversubscribed secondaires which are not within those parameters, basically these will be secondaires where your maximum indice will be less than 4 which mean your child will not get a place.

That will leave you with a list of secondaires where you know your indice is 4+ and preferably as close to the maximum 5.94 and then and only then do you make research as to which secondaire you prefer.

If you don't follow this advice and blindly apply to secondaires where your indice is less than 4 and which are oversubscribed (all those above are oversubscribed), then your child will be the one waiting for a secondaire place in August and the most likely placement for your child will be Athenee Royal Crommelynck.

I sent you a PM

Hi Nlds,

Thank you very much for explaining the procedure for applying for a place at secondary school in Brussels. Please do not worry too much about this for now. It’s difficult to explain my situation without outing myself so all I am really asking for, at the moment, are your, and anyone else’s, opinions about those four schools I listed above.

Thanking you in advance.

Hi TheresWaldo,

I've sent you a reply by PM. Thanks again for your info!

This is really not the right way to choose a secondaire.

All those schools are fine.

However you need to know which secondaires are viable.

Entry to S1 is either from French primaire in which case your indice is likely to have to be at least 4+

ACTION - find out your child's indice for each secondaire and find out the minimum indice needed last year for entry into S1 in order to gauge whether your child's indice is viable for placing that secondaire on the applications list.

or

Outside French primaire, such as from a private school or Flemish school, with an average indice.

ACTION - find out how many 1st choice applications each secondaire had last year, how many places are available for S1, ask what the allocated "average indice" was for each secondaire. With this information, you can work out if your child would have last year got a place in S1.

Once you've done above, you'll have a list of viable secondaires.

Next step is to research NOT REPUTATION, complete waste of time, for each secondaire, but to research the subjects on offer, the percentage of students kicked out between S1 and S6. Then consider whether your child will cope with the negative academic pressure in all of those schools, which will vary from moderate to huge pressure, whether they will get through 6 years of secondaire without falling apart academically or emotionally.