Secondary schools near Woluwe-St-Lambert with multi-national students

Hi Pinco,

Welcome to expat-blog!

I suggest you to go through Schools & studies in Brussels section for more information, this might be helpful.

Thank you,

David.

Pincobru wrote:

Dear all:

Does anybody have knlowledge of French secondary schools in the proximity of Woluwe-St-Lambert that have a certain higher percentage of students coming from different countries/cultures?

I am trying to find a local seconday school with general academic orientation, overal good quality, and high percentage of international students, so that my daughter will feel more comfortable in a culture rich environment. She speaks fluent French.

I know the enrollment is now decided in residence location. But we may find a rent that is close to the school desired



I did a little homework and found such schools:

in WSL:

ATHENEE ROYAL WOLUWE-SAINT-LAMBERT
CENTRE SCOLAIRE DU SACRE-COEUR DE LINDTHOUT
COLLEGE DON BOSCO
INSTITUT DES DAMES DE MARIE
INSTITUT DE LA PROVIDENCE

in WSP:

ATHENEE ROYAL F. CROMMELYNCK
COLLEGE JEAN XXIII
LYCEE MATER DEI
INSTITUT DON BOSCO
CENTRE SCOLAIRE EDDY MERCKX

Which one you would suggest?

Thank you very much for your advice.

Sincerely
Pinco

You're only half correct, enrolment for FIRST SECONDARY if you're not priority is based on proximity of primaire and secondaire, it's not really based on residency.

You don't say what year of birth your child is, it really would help, as enrolment procedures differ for S2-S6.

All schools in Brussels have a high percentage of non Belgians, since about 20% of the population is not Belgian!

Cross off AR WSL immedately.

AR Crommelynck is ok.

Institut Don Bosco
Eddy Merckx
Providence
these 3 schools do mainly technical / professional options from S3-S6.

Of the rest, well I'd choose any of them, they differ in size, location, some slightly more demanding than others, hard to order but I'd say like this :

Jean 23
then
DDM
SCdeL
CDB WSL
MD

You might have difficulty getting into the latter 4, if applying higher than S1, definitely would need a good school report.

Thank you Tervurener.

Actually my daughter is still 2 years ahead of starting secondary school. But reading posts here I feel a strong need to get well prepared in advance. My daughter has good study record, so I don't think she will have any difficulty in school. We'll reside in WSL anyway so the choice will be limited to what you've mentioned.

In your list, you said the letter 4 schools are more difficult to get in. But you put Jean23 at first. Does that mean Jean23 is relatively easier to enroll but the latter 4 have better educational quality?

One more question: Is it allowed to change secondary schools should we move to another address in future? If so, on what conditions? Or we'd better drop the idea of changing school due to its difficulty.

Jean 23 filled up slower over previous 3 years but filled immediately this year. The latter 4 schools filled up immediately over the last 4 years. Any of the latter 5 schools are fine.

For the latter 5 schools, to enter S1 from P6 French school, you ideally need the primaire attended to be 1st/2nd nearest school of type and chosen secondaire to be 1st/2nd nearest school of type. So you have to use measuring tool on the enrolments website to ascertain order of primaires and secondaires, if you want to pick strategically for optimizing secondaire choices. Whatever you do, do NOT enrol in any of the primaires in Kraainem or Wezembeek, just outside WSL.

To move between secondaires and primaires, it's only allowed in P2, P4, P6, S2 and S4. At other times, you have to have permission to move and it's dependent on school places being available too, also remember around 1/3 of children in these general academic schools are pushed out because of poor performance, so you need to be sure you do not put your child in a school which is is to hard for them.

You do not need to reside in WSL to go to a WSL school though, you could live in Schaerbeek and your nearest school be a WSL one for example. There are residency restrictions only in Kraainem and Wezembeek in that area.

http://www.inscription.cfwb.be/

Don't be under any illusions that there is a high expat type population in the local secondaires - many of the high end earners either qualify for European school or have fees paid for at ISB, BSB or St John's. You'll find some in the latter 5 schools, would have a guess MD might have the highest number in lower years, but still overwhelmingly Belgian middle class.

Got your point. I'll follow your advice.

Just curious about where do they go for the 1/3 of children pushed out by their schools? They stop schooling or go to a lower school? And now for the places they left, do these schools recruit new students to fill up? So there is another possiblity that even one didn't get enrolled in a good school from p6 to s1, he/she still can transfer to a good one at s2 and s4 provided he/she has outstanding performance.