My husband and I are moving to Brussels in August for a 3-year period with our son, who will turn 3 in mid-August. We are Americans and native English speakers, but would like to put our son in an English/French bilingual program because this seems like such a great opportunity for him to learn a second language. What is the best option for exposing an English speaking kid to French? I have seen other threads on this question, but most are from non-native English speakers looking to keep their kids fluent in English.
He is currently in a Montessori preschool program, so we have looked at International Montessori Schools and Montessori House. I understand that both bilingual programs are more geared towards giving non-English speakers exposure to English, so our son may not benefit. We have also looked at BSB, which looks like it has a good bilingual program that may cancel out some of the "noise" from other languages, but it isn't available until age 4.
I'm not opposed to putting him in a program that is entirely in French, but neither my husband nor I speak French, so we need to be able to converse with the teachers and administrators. He has a health condition that requires constant monitoring (T1D), so this is really important for us.
Cost is not an issue, we just want to put him in the right program, and we are willing to pay for it especially if we feel like the staff will be tuned in to his medical issue. We'll decide where to live based on the school, but I'll be working near Porte du Namur metro, so we have been looking at apartments in Chatelain, Watermael, WSP, and Uccle.
English/French Bilingual Preschool/Kindergarten Brussels
While we wait for responses, some threads on very similar topics that you may read through: https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=740407https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=223567
And many more in: https://www.expat.com/forum/257-6-study … ssels.html
If you want your child to actually speak French, the best choice is NOT a bilingual pre-school, with the exception of Lycee Francais, because, with the exception of Lycee Francais, the bilingual pre-schools have very few French speaking children and English dominates in the classroom and playground, meaning fluency in French will not happen from pre-school alone.
Therefore look at the free public French schools and choose one with a high number of international well educated families.
You'll find loads of former posts on public French schools. Pre-school for under 6s is known as maternelle and most form part of a 2.5 to 12 school called a fondamentale.
Don't live in Chatelein. 1) you won't find a place in the local public school now without a near miracle happening and 2) it's the most expensive housing per m3 in the whole of Belgium and 3) compared to other areas of Brussels, it offers less for young children.
Look east to Etterbeek, WSL, WSP, some of Schaerbeek, Auderghem and Watermael, but since Porte de Namur is on the metro 2/6 line which links to metro lines 1 and 5, look along metro lines 1 and 5 or linked tram lines 39/44.
Given the T1D, I'd also go for a smaller school, just for practical reasons that less staff to inform. I'm assuming he is on a pump and you can see the blood sugars in real time?
Maybe Ecole Bemel, Van Meyel (Constellations annex), Vervloesem annex, Les Naides, Le Colibri, Les Aigrettes, Colombe de la Paix (Gerard annex)? These are all schools with between 40 and 80 children.
If you don't find any luck with a public school willing to accept T1D in such a young child, then do return to BSB and you'll just have to wait a year to get into the bilingual programme. At BSB, I can guarantee you T1D is no problem at all, with 2 nurses on site all day who monitor the other T1D children with pumps and have assigned staff members who are trained to check the pumps readings and who monitor food intake etc etc. It's far from Porte de Namur, but workable and I'd live somewhere between Montgomery and 4 Bras to be half way to work and school.
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