English-immersion French schools 1ry and 2ry in Brussels

I don' t have a reply to your question but I would also be interested in any hints as I have 3 kids that I would like to attend similar school too.

Hi

So far, from what I've found out this type of school don't exist in Brussels itself, but I found references to a few in places not too far from the city, such as Rixensart, Wavre; Court Saint Etienne and Clabecq. Not sure how easy/difficult it is to commute to Brussels from these places.
Will keep looking, but hopes this helps for those who are interested in the subject.

Easier to commute from Liege to Brussels than Clabecq and Court-St-Etienne to Brussels.

There are only 2 secondaires in Brabant Wallon doing English immersion, AR Maurice Careme and Le Verseau. The former is one of the least popular schools in the area. The latter is populaire at primaire, but at secondaire, it has yet to fill its places and is not particularly popular and again it's not the place to send an academically inclined child in Wavre who go to Providence, St Jean-Baptiste and ND de Basse-Wavre. The latter will also cost you close to €10,000 in top-up fees for 2 children, all for 4 hours a week in English, better to spend your money on a private tutor, cheaper, 1-to-1 for less money instead of 1-to-20 in a class. It's also a huge commute to Liege from Wavre by train - train to Leuven then change.

If you want a child to learn French and learn French fast, the last place they should be attending is a school doing English immersion, a French school is the place to be.  In Brussels, at primaire level, some schools have a high percentage of speakers of other languages, with the uniting factor that they MUST communicate in French, also some with a decent number of anglophones, handy for the first few months when communication can be difficult and handy to have parents on hand to interpret, if you cannot find staff with enough English. At secondaire level, far less non French speakers start. Communes with high numbers of anglophones and a good mix of non francophones are Etterbeek, WSL, WSP and Watermael-Boitsfort.

It is very easy to keep up English in Brussels, both on a social level and also if you want to your children to do some formal studies in English - you could hire a private tutor. You can sit GCSEs and A levels at BSB in Tervuren as an external candidate and there are many children who enter GCSEs as external candidates there, cost is between 100 euro and 200 euro per subject.

Oh and enrolments for primaires in Brussels have taken place in many schools already. Children in P3 and P5 and S1 and S3 are NOT allowed to change schools at the end of this school year, unless you are moving house, you'd realistically find if very difficult to enrol in other French Community funded schools without moving and re-registering elsewhere, if your children are in these school years.

Hi Tervurener

Many thanks for all the information and tips you've given me.
It all seems more complicated than I expected. My only reason to look for an English immersion school is to ease the kid's way into school. Since we're only going to be here for a couple of years at most, I'm not too worried about them learning perfect French, but rather don't want them to have a difficult time here in Belgium. Also, I do worry they'll not learn everything they're supposed to because of not understanding the lesssons.
Having said that, maybe between now and the summer they'd have learned enough French to be able to move into a fully French school. If I go for that option, could you please remind me:
1) Which primary and secondary schools would you recommend in Brussels itself (are there any schools that include both primary and secondary education, like the one they actually attend in Liege)? Preferably schools with experience in receiving kids who speak other languages (English, for instance).
2) Are they in nice areas to live? Will I find affordable, furnished accommodation to rent in those areas? (at the moment I'm paying 800 euros rent for a 3-bedroom, furnished flat in Liege).
3) How do I go about applying for a place in these schools (you mentioned that some have already closed the recruitment process for next academic year)? Next academic year my kids should go into 5th year primary and 3rd year secondary. Do I just approach the schools and ask if they have available places, or is there a common applicatin process I need to get into? And what are the deadlines for applying?
THANKS A LOT AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HELP

No central enrolments process, except 1st secondary, you approach each individual school. 5th primary will be harder than 3rd secondary.

The Dutch is going to prove a bit problematic, your elder child will find it especially difficult, given classmates will have studied Dutch already for 5 years at least, most even longer.

800 euro a month will get you a 2 bedroom flat of 80m2. Do you really want to move to Brussels?

Furnished accommodation is almost unheard of and you'll pay more for it.

Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic, but I know many people for whom choosing a French school with English has backfired and so often resulted in the children coming out with poor French. However, that is based on the private schools here which do French and English and have so many students who speak neither on entry and still neither on exit. It might mean a harder time for parents, if they don't speak French, but ultimately the best environment for learning French is one where French is spoken all day long.

Thanks for this info too. From what you say and what I have been able to find out English-French schools in Brussels are not an option any more, so thinking hard about the all-French (with Dutch, which might be problematic) schools. Or alternatively not moving to Brussels at all and staying for the next school year in Liege (although there are several reasons which it would be good to move there as well). To start with I will approach some of the schools you mention and see what happens. If you have any other tip, please let me know.
Have been looking at inmoweb and there is some furnished accommodation around, a bit more expensive than here, but will have to balance the extracost agains what we'll win by moving there.

IT would be cheaper to take unfurnished and buy furniture than to take furnished.

Hello,
My children attend Le Verseau (eiverseau.be)located in Wavre, south of Brussels. It's half public/half private in the sense that the anglophones are separated from non-native english speakers for their daily english lessons and that's where the tuition goes, but well worth it and MUCH less expensive than the international schools in Brussels. My children started in Kindergarten and are now in 4th and 5th grade, are bi-lingual and at grade-level in English and French. You could easily live in Rixensart, Ottignies, La Hulpe to be on the train line and be close enough to commute to school.
I hope this info helps.
Good luck,
Michelle

Many thanks for the advice, Michele.