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Children in Dutch Communes
Hello,
We are a non European family and have been living in Ixelle for over two years now. The closest school was a French school and so we enrolled our 03 year old and 05 year old sons in this school.
We are now about to buy a house for our own in st. Peter's leew (a dutch commune) I am learning Dutch at the moment, but will continue to send our kids to the same French school as they have now picked up the language and will be too much for them to shift to a Dutch school now.
We just heard that there is going to be a new rule saying that the kids living in the Dutch commune HAS to go to a Dutch school... Is this true?
Appreciate your help urgently.
"will be too much for them to shift to a Dutch school now"
No - it shouldn't be. You are, of course, quite free to keep your kids locally where they have a place (in French), but given the commute to Ixelles from SPL, I would strongly recommend looking for a school much closer to home.
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As you're buying in SPL, IMHO, it makes sense (as you must be here long term) to give very serious consideration to a local dutch school. If you've chosen to live there, it makes sense of be part of the community and meet the locals, and school is a great way of doing that.
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In terms of the education they will get, there's very little in it. In terms of the grief that commuting 1/2 way accross Brussels for the next 14 years will bring, and not having any friends locally (the kids, that is), I think going local is a no-brainer, especially with kids in young age where changing language is no big deal.
