French / English bilingual schools in Brussel

They are french schools in brussels as brussels is a dutch and french area. However the international/ english taal schools are all very pricey

The cheapest bilingual school in Brussels is the lycée Francais. You would have to be happy with the French curriculum. You also need to be aware that it can be very difficult to secure places there if you are non French nationals, I think priority might then go to those who have attended French government subsidised schools overseas. Basic fees are just under 5k for section elementaire.

There are slightly more expensive options, Acacia - 6k, and BICS - 6.6k, but attention as you pay for quite a few extras there, you would also have to be comfortable in these Catholic schools, both very different in interpretation of Catholicism, on the latter there is a rather interesting blog which google picks up and I am guessing it is written by an ex teacher. I will not say publically what I think of these schools, but bear in mind 3rd language interference.

Then you are looking at the bilingual programmes of International Montessori schools, expect to pay 13k + and again bear in mind 3rd language interference.

Then the most expensive option is BSB, 14k -20k for primary age. All children there at least must be fluent in either French or English to enter the bilngual programme, many are already fluent in both (phew) like the lycee Francais.

What is your home language? I am guessing it is French, the children have learned English at school?

I'd personally thing very very very hard at bilingual options in Brussels. There are no schools like EAB and EABJM in Brussels, the nearest you find is the lycee Francais and BSB.

Look also at monolingual French schools. Your children having 4 year in English should be more than capable of maintaining their English by doing extra-curricular activities in English. I have a big list of them as a word file, if you want a copy. There are lots of English/French bilingual children in local French schools.

If you are French, you might already know that the biggest nationality after Belgian in certain communes of Brussels is French. In our commune of Woluwe St Pierre, with a population (not even counting the probably 10,000 on special status as EU civil servants, diplomats, NATO and Eurocontrol empoyees that are excluded from official stats) of 40,000, there are around 2,000 French nationals, and 30% of the "official" counted population is not Belgian too, so it makes a nice place to live if you're not Belgian. Other similar communes are Woluwe St Lambert, Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort.

Here's a map of non local schools, I've listed the schools which do French-English and at which ages, plus the fees.
http://batchgeo.com/map/0777fe5f939fe09 … 91ceee1066

Thanks schoolmum - very valuable and comprehensive piece of information. We are french indeed.
We're also leaning towards going to a french school and having parallel english classes for them - like Kiddy Junior Classes - don't know if you've heard of them? But that seems like an interesting option. Otherwise Acacia seems fairly good as well.
In terms of location, I think we're rather looking for staying central within Brussels and being 10-15 min max from Gare du Midi by public transportation. How would you qualify belgian public schools as far as education quality?

Yes I know Kiddyclasses, our children have only done the holiday stages, but they do weekly classes in their central Brussels location (EU quarter). I suspect in fact you will find very few native level English speakers studying with them, they are aimed at French and Dutch speakers learning as a second or third language, so probably the level will be too low.

If you really wish to continue with reading and writing in English, I would instead spend my euro on private tuition with a specialist teacher such as the one who runs ENGLISH IS FUN or advertise at the international schools for a teacher looking for extra work. ENGLISH is FUN official private rates are rather expensive, the going rate for a French tutor is 20 euro and hour, so I would aim for the same rate.

Sorry I can't say publically what I think of Acacia, except that I don't think I'd be in trouble if I ever posted comments from current / ex parents I know there. The same thing cannot be said for other "bilingual" schools. Still, I would keep the 2 * 6k per year in my pocket and spend it on private tuition and activities in Engish.

You are going to find it rather difficult to get 2 schools places at the same school in a decent area at this time of year. Expect at least a 20 minute journey to gare du Midi from a decent area. If you want city living in a mixed race and class area, I'd go for Etterbeek and communes adjoining. If you want suburban living, then go for the Woluwes, Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort, Auderghem. In fact Watermael-Boitsfort is at least 30 mins realistically from gare du Midi, but I know there is more space in the schools in that commune than other communes and it's the most affluent commune in Brussels yet rental prices not the highest.
http://www.englishisfun.be/

Here's a map of all the écoles fondamentales / maternelles / primaires in Brussels region which are the equivalent of "sous contrat" in France. There are around 350 schools at this level. The Catholic / Jewish etc ones are not quite like French ones in that there are no fees, but you do tend to pay more for extras such as garderie or diners chauds than schools controlled by the commune  or directly by the Communauté Francaise. There is also a bit of snobism in that in most areas of Brussels region, the Catholic schools are seen as the best ones, so those parents with more time on their hands to do research and applications often gravitate towards those schools. One good thing is that children in Belgium are allowed to bring in their own tartines, so the lunch time choice is tartines / diners chauds / maison (very rare now). There are 8 schools in Brussels region which have a little more freedom and charge extra fees, the most expensive I have heard at primaire level is 1.5k per year. All 8 of those schools are difficult to get places in. To give you an example of what you can expect to pay for, I pay 1 euro for lunch time supervision (whether tartines or diners chauds), 2,90euro for a diner chaud, approx 1 euro an hour for before or after school garderie. Most garderies in Brussels schools open 7.30-18.30.

I'd do plenty of research on areas, before even making a short-list of schools. Be aware that most schools do enrolments from September to March of the preceding school year. I'd research travel times to gare du Midi too.

https://batchgeo.com/map/1f1bf2b3b6e4ad … a57d56a826

All right - Thanks.
My approach is to target the best areas, find a place to rent and then from there finding a good school in the area. I don't know how it goes in Belgium, but for public schools in France, your kids would be assigned to the "by default" school located in your living area.
For shortlising schools, what is your resource for finding information? Some schools have some website indeed but that's not always very objective information ...

With the exception of the handful of French schools in Flanders surrounding Brussels (ie Wezembeek, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Drogenbos, Wemmel and Rhode-St-Genese) there are NO catchment areas for schools, be they communal, French Community controlled, Religious or Free category. So you are better off looking at the rental market is areas and choosing an area with a good supply of properties matching your requirements and budget. Then you look at schools in that area and try and get places, you could try for places in a few areas at the same time, then once you are happy with school places, look for housing. Securing housing without looking for a school first can be rather disasterous. For example, Ixelles is very popular with expats arriving in Brussels, but their schools are either heavily oversubscribed or really not very well regarded, so a school place absolutely needs to come first if you want to live there.

There really isn't a way of comparing schools, other than visiting all of them.

If you are thinking of arriving very soon in Brussels, if you cannot immediately find a school place and have a spare 12k to fund to children for the year at Ecole Acacia in Etterbeek (the private French-English Catholic school), I'd put my children there and then start trying to enrol for local schools for the year after. For a nice place to live in the city, I'd look for housing within 1km of Montgomery,Merode, Schuman metro stations -   journey time to Gare du Midi is 20 minutes. The most highly regarded primaire in Brussels (there is no maternelle) is College St Michel, very near Montgomery roundabout, there are other well regarded schools in this area too. You could try the schools around there in mid August for spare places (schools often open for 2 weeks for last minute enrolments before start of school on 1st September), but reserve places at Ecole Acacia, in case you don't secure local school places.

You will find if you click on the schools on that schools map, if there is a school website, you are re-directed to it. Most good schools in Brussels now have their own websites.

Thanks for all this information.

I've deepened my knowledge of the belgian school system over the last few days :-) ...

From that interesting website: http://brussels.angloinfo.com/countries … ooling.asp
There are 3 types of schools:
- Community schools come under the authority of the relevant ministry of education and must be neutral, that is respecting the religious, philosophical or ideological convictions of all parents and pupils
- Publicly run schools are subsidised and are organised by provinces and municipalities
- Privately run schools which are also subsidised. These include Catholic schools as well as Jewish, Protestant, Islamic and Orthodox schools. In Flanders they make up the largest group both in number of schools and pupils, however, in the French community they are roughly equal in size to community schools with a larger share of secondary and tertiary education.

Seems like standards might be rather even between public and community schools as being state dependents ... that's on the private school side (last category in my listing) that I see that there could be significant differences. Do you have a listing of those schools in Brussels?

No there are 4 types of schools, the 4th category is "free" and "non religious aligned". This 4th type of school charges extra fees, 9 of them in Brussels, between 1k and 1.5k. All other schools in Brussels have no fees, except for the usual garderie, school trip, school cantin charges.

ALL 4 TYPES of SCHOOLS are PUBLICALLY FUNDED. The only practical difference is in primaire only during religion lessons. In a faith school, all children follow relgion 2 hours a week in only that faith, eg Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, Judaism. In the 3 other non religous aligned categories of schools, there is a choice, always includes CAtholicism and Morality, also on offer a selection of other faiths, children segregated according to religion.

Only the most fervent anti-religious person would disregard faith schools when choosing a school. Catholic French schools make up about 40% of children at primaire level in Brussels, about 70% at secondary level.

There is definitely a bit of snobbery favouring Catholic and other religious schools, but please judge every school on its merits, not on the 2 hours a week of relgion in primaire.

I already posted a comprehensive map of 350+ Brussels maternelles and primaires, just look for the batchgeo link. You click on each entry and it leads you to the school's website.

Hi,
considering to move to Bruxelles next school year.
A daughter in 3eme or grade 9. We wold like to maintain her bilingualism french/english.
Now she is enrolled in the french lycee de New York and she is doing honors english.
What is our best choice? We can have her enrolled in the European School as well  us being a diplomat"s family, but we are not sure it would be our best option for a top bilingual program. After high school she will be in an english college/university, most probably, like her sister. my daughter is both Italian and canadian national.
Thanks for any information you can provide.

Go for either the LF Jean Monnet in Uccle, living close to the school, or go for European school. There really aren't any other options for French and English. 3eme at LF Jean Monnet is not 50/50 French/English though.

If you receive a place at an EEB, then also live by it. Be aware that both the English and French sections suffer from oversize classes and from SWALS children with poor or non existent French or English (though of more consequence in the lower years).

I believe diplomatic families get category 2 status for EEB though, that might mean no place in either English or French sections, possibly Italian section might have space.

Dear Schoolmum,
Thank you for all the precious informatiions.
I ask myself though if you know how strong is the english program at the French Lycee?
Firthermore, I do not understand why you say that at the European school I would have to access the Italian section. My daughter has never been schooled in italian: french lycee and English at home with me since I am an anglophone Canadian and so is she.
Thank you so much for your answer.

I have no idea how much English there is at LF Jean Monnet, you'll have to ask the school.

EEB places are supposed to be given according to language/nationality - mind you there are plenty of less than truthful parents of children claiming their Spanish or Greek etc children actually speak English at home when they don't. Even those children with category 1 status have problems getting into their preferred English / French sections of EEBs, so if your daughter can speak Italian, then she might have more chance of a category 2 place at an EEB than a French or English place. I think you might find the difference in curriculum might be quite hard, curriculum is in 3 languages by what would in fact be the 4th year of EEB secondary. You can express a preference for Uccle, Woluwe, Ixelles or Laeken EEBs but if going for English or French sections as a category 2, you may only be offered Laeken or nothing at all. Italian section as category 2 might give you more chance of a place, but your daughter would have to be a fluent Italian speaker. I'd be in contact now with admissions to EEBs and LF Jean Monnet.

Thank you school mum ,
You were of great help. I will get in touch with the schools now and I will try to see what real options we have. Many thanks again.

We are moving to Brussels and my kids have been wait-listed at Lycee francais. They are already scholarised there and moved twice country with no fuzz, this time we are having it difficult. So we are strongly considering BSB. The problem is that since we have already signed the contract for a house in the Cavell area,it was the ideal location for everyone at home. Now I am facing the situation to have to drive them to BSB as of september. The bus takes long time, so it is out of the question. Any idea at how long does it take to drive those 15K in the morning between Cavell and BSB?

Hi,
I happen to read this blog post when I was trying to find some English/French Bilingual schools for my kid.
As you mention English schools are way more expensive ; hence i too wanted to try for Bilingual schools.
Reading the posts and some infor from frds.. i have 3 to 4 schools in mind which are within 6k/per year.
which are Tutti Fruitt, Acacia, Lycee Francaise and BICS.
I would like to know more in detail about each school . how do u i get a review about a school.
If you feel this is a public forum.. it would be of great help if you can send some reviews about these schools to my inbox [email protected].
Also, are there any other bilingual schools within 6k to 7 K in Brussels?

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Hi,
Except Belgian Schools, all schools are very expensive here even the Lycée Public Français Jean Monnet.
If you 're looking for an English Primary School I will recommand BJAB bjab.org
Bonne chance : )

Hello!
We live near  "Le Bois de la Cambre" Avenue De Fré, our three children were in BJAB ( bjab.org )  for Primary and moved to BSB for secondary.