🇧🇪 Brussels · Schools
Schooling and childcare in Brussels
Two parallel free state systems in one city, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking, plus the European Schools and a substantial private international sector.
The thing people get wrongBoth state systems allocate places through a central registration round with its own calendar and its own priority rules, and both are oversubscribed in the popular communes. The choice of system is also a choice of language of instruction for the next decade — treat it as irreversible.
Two systems, one city
Schools in Brussels belong either to the French Community or the Flemish Community, and each runs its own curriculum, calendar, inspection and enrolment process. A child in the Dutch-speaking system is taught in Dutch and one in the French-speaking system in French, with the other language as a subject; immersion streams exist in both but are limited and competitive. In the Dutch-speaking system, having a parent who speaks Dutch is a formal priority criterion for admission.
- French-speaking: enrolment via a central form in the final year of primary for secondary places.
- Dutch-speaking: registration through the central digital system, with defined priority groups.
- Immersion (immersion linguistique / CLIL) streams are free but heavily oversubscribed.
The European Schools
Brussels hosts several European Schools, teaching in national language sections and leading to the European Baccalaureate. Places are prioritised for children of EU institution staff, with other categories admitted where space allows and paying fees. If your employer is an institution or an agency, the school allocation is usually made for you and determines which side of the city is convenient to live on.
- Priority categories are defined by the parents' employment, not by residence.
- Language section allocation follows the child's dominant language.
- The sites are spread across the city; the allocated site drives the housing search.
Private international schools
There is a well-established British and American international sector, mostly in the southern and eastern communes and just outside the region towards Tervuren and Waterloo. Fees are among the highest in Europe and are frequently paid by employers as part of a posting package. Apply in the winter for the following September, with school reports and usually an assessment.
Childcare before school
Nurseries (crèches / kinderdagverblijven) are supervised by the community that runs them, with income-scaled fees at approved settings and market rates elsewhere. Demand exceeds supply in the central communes, and people put their name down during pregnancy. Compulsory education starts at five, but free nursery classes from two and a half are the norm and are attached to primary schools.
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