Belgium · Brussels
ISB sits at Kattenberg 19 in Watermael-Boitsfort, in the Forêt de Soignes. It is a not-for-profit day school. The tuition page lists large numbers. Confirm the year on the invoice before you treat them as 2026/27.
Dit portret staat nog in het Engels. De andere talen komen school voor school.
Curriculum zoals de school het publiceert:US High School Diploma · IB Diploma Programme · IB Career-related Programme · Advanced Placement · BTEC
Onderwijstalen:English
The International School of Brussels is an independent not-for-profit day school at Kattenberg 19, B-1170 Brussels, in Watermael-Boitsfort, in the Forêt de Soignes. It opened in 1951. The about page currently says 1,300+ students from 60+ countries, preschool through Grade 12. Treat that as the school’s own snapshot. The campus sits next to a UNESCO World Heritage site; that is a forest, not a marketing metaphor. Ask what a wet November Tuesday does to pickup.
It is a day school. Boarding is not advertised. If the posting has not found a flat, the bus — invoiced separately — is the conversation.
The sentence the high-school page wants you to remember: ISB says it is the only school in Europe with five graduation pathways — a US High School Diploma, the IB Diploma, the IB Career-related Programme, Advanced Placement, and BTEC. English is the language of the classroom. “Belgium’s top choice for the IB” is the school talking about itself. We are not ranking it.
The useful questions are not “is it the forest school.” The useful questions are: Which of the five paths is this child actually on? Can they work in English? Can you pay a Grade 10 invoice that already prints above €50,000 before the bus? And do you understand that the live tuition table, on 31 August 2026, does not name the academic year?
Admissions are open through the year. The school says it likes showing the campus to families new to Brussels and to families changing schools. That is open enrolment in the brochure sense. It is not a promise of a seat in Grade 11 in October.
Merit scholarships exist for new students entering Grades 7–12, for two consecutive years. Applications for the next school year are due 31 March. The committee is the Director, the Director of Advancement, the Director of Finance and Operations, the Finance Manager, and an academic panel. Current families who need money off tuition are pointed to means-tested financial aid, not the merit scholarship. Aid is described as mainly for existing families in temporary hardship, maximum two years, and it does not reduce “other potential costs.”
If an employer will pay, you may still be the legal customer. The terms say the enrolment contract is with the parent, and the student does not start until tuition for that year is paid in full.
One forest campus. The school offers a 360° virtual tour of classrooms, sports, and arts. Use it, then still walk the path from the gate to an ordinary classroom. Kattenberg is not the European Quarter. Budget the commute, or budget the bus.
The high school (Grades 10–12) names over 120 courses. That is a large menu. It is also how five pathways can coexist without being a slogan. Ask how many children are on each path this year, not how many courses exist on paper.
Preschool from about 2.5, then Pre-K at 4, Kindergarten at 5, then numbered grades through 12. The FAQ includes “How long is the school day?” as a live question; the accordion did not print on the fetch. Ask admissions for the current bell times by division. Do not invent a 08:15 from a forum.
Elementary and middle years are the long runway into the five paths. We are not inventing a PYP or MYP authorisation the high-school page does not claim. Ask which framework this Grade 5 actually follows.
Grades 10–12. Personalised pathways, the school says: IB DP, IB CP, AP, BTEC, and the US diploma that can sit under or beside them. IB examination fees are not inside tuition; the terms list them with bus, trips, private music, lunch, speech and occupational therapy, after-school activities, and equipment repair. That list is the real extras menu.
University placements for 2024–25 are listed on the high-school page. Read them as one year’s offers, not a forecast.
English is the primary teaching language. The FAQ asks, “How will my non-English-speaking child manage in an English-language school?” The answer is behind an accordion we did not extract. Do not guess an EAL hour-count. Ask what support exists in this grade, whether it has a fee, and what happens at the Diploma door.
Host-country languages — French and Dutch in Brussels — will matter if you might stay. The pages we fetched do not print a “every child studies French” rule of the VIS kind. Ask. A forest campus can be an English island or a bilingual Saturday. That is a tour question.
Admissions through the year. Contact admissions@isb.be. Tour if you can; use the virtual tour if you cannot. The FAQ includes waiting lists, grade-placement rules, mid-year entry, and learning-needs questions as live items. Read those answers on the site the week you apply. We are not reconstructing accordion text we did not see.
Grade placement is a school decision. A January start is possible; the money changes (below). Grade 12 from nowhere is a counselling conversation before you pay an application fee.
The FAQ names an application & capital fee and asks whether it is refundable. The amounts did not print on the fetch. They will be on the offer or the fee schedule. Ask for them in writing. We are not inventing those two numbers.
Learning-needs files need complete reports. The FAQ treats this as a real gate. Withholding a report is how places come apart later.
ISB is not-for-profit. The Board of Trustees sets fees each year. The tuition page lists these euro amounts and does not state the academic year on the fetch we have. They are the school’s published figures as of the research date. Confirm the year on the invoice and on the live page before you budget a 2026–27 or 2027–28 move.
Tuition listed on the admissions/tuition page
| Band | Euro |
|---|---|
| Preschool (ages 2.5–3) | 22,995 |
| Pre-Kindergarten (age 4) | 25,480 |
| Kindergarten (age 5) | 38,440 |
| Grades 1–2 (ages 6–7) | 41,400 |
| Grades 3–6 (ages 8–11) | 42,145 |
| Grades 7–9 (ages 12–14) | 48,135 |
| Grades 10–12 (ages 15–18) | 51,105 |
| Intensive Learning Support (ILS students only) | 25,860 plus the grade-level fee |
Read the ILS line twice. It is on top of the grade fee, not instead of it. A Grade 8 ILS child is not €25,860. It is €48,135 + €25,860 on this table, before the bus.
How the year is billed, from the terms. Enrolment for a school year means the full tuition for that year, paid before the year starts; the child does not attend until it is paid. Start between September and December: full year. Start from January: an adjusted schedule, charged from the first of the joining month. The Board may change fees; changes are published and notified in writing.
Tuition covers compulsory curricular activities. Extra invoices include bus, co-curricular trips, private music, lunch, therapies, after-school activities, IB fees, and equipment. Lost or broken kit is the family’s bill.
Instalments, SEPA, a consolidated extras invoice, and bus fees are named as sections on the tuition page. We did not extract those accordion amounts. Open them.
A first-year Grade 10, on this table, is already €51,105 before application, capital, bus, lunch, or an IB exam session. That is the number to take to an employer. Do not round it down to “about fifty.”
Five paths, one campus. Easy to mash together.
The US High School Diploma is the American-style leaving certificate. Ask what it opens in Belgium, in the UK, and in the US without AP or IB sitting next to it.
The IB Diploma is the portable academic extra. The IB CP is the career-related IB path, not a second Diploma. AP is college-level courses and exams, not a full diploma on its own. BTEC is a vocational route. The school’s claim is that a child can be matched to one of these instead of being forced through a single corridor.
IB exam fees are extra. AP and BTEC will have their own charges; ask. We are not inventing those.
If a child would find the full Diploma too heavy, the school has already built the sentence for you: five pathways. That is a counselling conversation, with this child’s English and this child’s stamina on the table.
Intensive Learning Support is a published, priced programme: €25,860 plus the grade fee. That is more honest than “we differentiate.” It is also a second mortgage line. The FAQ treats specific learning needs as a real admissions question. Bring the current reports. Ask whether the child is ILS, a lighter support model, or not a fit — and what each of those costs.
Therapies can be extra. The terms already said so.
Ask which of the five paths a child like yours is actually on in Grade 11 this year, in numbers. Ask the English-support model for this grade. Ask whether the tuition table is 2025–26 or 2026–27 on the invoice you would receive tomorrow. Ask the application and capital figures in writing. Ask whether ILS is on the table, and what happens if the need appears in March. Ask the bus from your commune. Ask what a posting that ends in November does to the “full year if you started in September” rule. Ask to see Grade 5 and Grade 10, not only the forest path.
If you might stay in Belgium, ask what a Belgian university wants from each of the five papers. They will not all open the same door.
We are not saying ISB is the best school in Brussels. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not attaching an academic year to the live tuition table the page did not print. We are not inventing application or capital amounts. Accreditation named on school materials in prior official profiles has included MSA, CIS and IB; confirm the live accreditation page, because those cycles move.
Read the current tuition page and the terms, and write to admissions before you resign a flat in another commune. This is a map. The forest still has to be the right Tuesday.
Officiële pagina’s en documenten die we lazen. Als een bedrag telt voor budget of aanmelding, open de link en check of die nog klopt.
Vriendelijke oriëntatie, geen aanmelding. Data, tarieven en programma’s schuiven. Check alles bij de school.
Brussels is not one international campus. It is a European School system with categories, and two fee-paying woods that share an eastern forest and almost no Monday. Name who pays before you time the ring.
15 minDe letters op het diploma doen ertoe. Ze zijn niet het hele kind. Hier hoe je ze uit elkaar houdt zonder hoofdpijn, en zonder te doen alsof elke deur openblijft.
16 minJe hebt geen perfect algoritme nodig. Wel een paar ware dingen over je kind, een saai lijstje op de koelkast, en de moed om een mooie campus te negeren die niet past.
15 minHet schoolgeld is het getal op de homepage. De pdf is het getal dat in maart binnenkomt. Hier lees je hoe je de tweede leest, zonder een euro, een kroon of een deadline te verzinnen.