Expat Community > Belgium

LorraineR
Joined 2009
Posts: 1

School recommendations for bright child near Brussels

15 years ago

Hello everyone,

There is a good chance that we will be relocating to Belgium, my husband would be working as a contractor for NATO in Mons. My 4 year old son has been attending an Australian preschool (we are US citizens living in Australia) and he has not been doing well there.

They had him assessed using the Brigance 4 year old preschool assessment and he scored in the highest bracket, he was also seen by a local psychologist who said that he was basically bored and needed more challenging work to do at school.

They are not equipped to deal with kids like him here in our area so we are trying to challenge him at home, but this is not easy as I have an 18 month old daughter.

Now that this opportunity is potentially coming up in Belgium I was excited about the prospect of getting him into a more appropriate school where he would be happy, but the more I look into schools in this area the more confused I get. I would have preferred that he attend a good montessori school as I am sure that would suit him, but I am not seeing positive comments about the International Montessori School in Tervuren. The other montessori schools in that area don't seem to go very high in age which would require a transfer to another school when he got a bit older.

I know NATO has their own international school but I do not know yet if he would be eligible to go as we would not be working for NATO directly. Will not find that out for a while.

Was considering the International School of Brussels which seems to be good, but not sure if they are equipped to deal with advanced students. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with schools in this area? I would also prefer that my son (and daughter) learn French and/or Dutch in their school as well as maintaining their English.

One thing to note, we do not push him in any way, and he has an unusual interest in letters, numbers, phonics etc and is already starting to read by his own choice. He is a bit of a sponge for information and has been causing trouble at the preschool due to boredom. The school wanted him assessed because they thought he might have issues with paying attention, but it turns out that the opposite is true - his attention span is insanely long for a 4 year old.....and he is apparently quite bright but is acting out due to boredom. So now we are needing to find an appropriate school for him in a country that we are not familiar with.

We have lived overseas for 15 years, but have not spent more than 2 days in Belgium.

Thank you in advance for your help.

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