About Brussels International Catholic School (BICS)
Brussels International Catholic School (BICS) is an independent school in the heart of Brussels situated behind the European Institutions.
Benefiting from newly renovated buildings, it seeks to combine academic excellence with a calm family environment.
Our vision is to work with families in the task of educating your children in a climate of mutual trust and cooperation between leadership, teachers, pupils and parents. Our excellent staff enable us to offer academic programmes of high standards in English and French.
Our mission is to share with parents in the spiritual, moral and intellectual formation of their children, in a Christian community with which their families may be joined in friendship for the rest of their lives.
To educate the young in the tradition and sacramental life of the Church and to encourage each towards a joyful, free and self-disciplined life of faith and virtue.
To work for excellence in all our endeavours, academic, sporting and cultural. We ask each student to give of their best. We ask much of the gifted and we encourage the weak. Each is taught to appreciate the value of learning and the pursuit of the truth.
To help our boys and girls grow up mature and honourable, inspired by high ideals and capable of leadership, so that they may serve others generously, be strong in friendship, and loving and loyal towards their families.
How would you rate Brussels International Catholic School (BICS)?
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Find Out More >Curriculum
English,Belgian
Primary Language
English
Ages
3 to 18
Max Class Size
Unknown
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More Info >15 Reviews of Brussels International Catholic School (BICS)
Average Ratings
Reviewer Nationalities
How would you rate Brussels International Catholic School (BICS)?
Great school in terms of academics, teachers, staff and mode of teaching. Very well structured curriculum.
This school treats their teachers HORRIBLY. They are unfair, unreasonable, and unethical. DO NOT send your child here.
Students may get very low grades as some teachers teaching the A-Levels (year 12-13) and GCSEs are not qualified. That is for the English Language subject (history teacher teaching linguistics is a joke). It's very expensive and students waste their time by being forced to go to the mass every day! Can tell you that you get nightmares for a good year or two after leaving the school! Got higher grades after going to another school abroad. And having to wear that costume even when it's super hot is crazy! They don't have a proper room for gymnastics (it's outside in the park whatever the weather).
Our son started in year 7 at BICS - and accommodated perfectly to the more traditional, yet caring and yes, at times demanding, school environment. Bilingualism was a true plus and staff and pupils are nice and from different backgrounds. For parents seeking a more classical education for their kids without all the (at times quite detrimental) distractions of todays’ world, you can’t go wrong. Also, contrary to other international schools, less privilege, and money does not show!
Great school, combining robust curriculum with strong ethics and personal touch. This is from a parent of two kids enrolled there for a few years.
Excellent School with good teachers
Best school for pre-primary.
Absolutely horrible. Do not recommend unless you are a very strict catholic. Facilities and the school itself is very low quality.
The school is horrible, they force you to strictly believe in the religion they are preaching even though before we enrolled they made us believe this school was a welcoming and open-minded institution. This school brought nothing but misery, not to mention the teachers made it worse by being vindictive, racist, sexist and relied heavily on favouritism to deduce an assessment of a student. Furthermore, the priests especially do not allow nor understand anyone who has a different way of thinking or belief that differs from theirs. Making it very difficult to communicate or feel included and seen. The teachers rarely want to understand your view and even hang together to bring you down. Overall, if you aren’t a very strict catholic who heavily focuses their life on the religion, and are not okay with any form of discrimination against other students, this school is definitely not for you. The only thing you will miss out on by coming to this school is expensive therapy sessions.
I have only one thing to say. This school is total depression and super strict. One of the priest behaves horribly with us saying discriminatory things and forcing us to believe what he says even tho he says we aren't forced. There's a lot more issues apart from this And.. WHY DO WE PLAY IN A FREAKING GARAGE!!!I hate it
Reviews from Google
Recent reviews posted on Google.
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Caroline, 2 years ago
My daughter has been at BICS for five years now, and we have nothing but positive experiences to report. The teachers are fantastic, and the bilingual education (French and English) is of a very high standard. Academically the level is demanding. The music teaching is superb. My daughter has learned her Catholic faith here, she has learned the value of hard work and discipline, of friendships and she also has a lot of fun. It is a kind and happy school. It is a place where children can really flourish. Since it is a truly international school, my daughter has met children from around the world and this in itself is a valuable education.
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Joseph Yang, 2 years ago
Having studied at BICS for 8 years from end of primary till sixth form, I will always remain grateful for the lifelong values that the school has taught ; amongst them the preciousness of true friendships, and the understanding of people from other backgrounds and cultures. Throughout the years I have managed to become fluent in both English and French from scratch, a testimony to the incredible work done by the teachers at this institution. The school also offers to its pupils the opportunity to participate in its annual opera shows, which I highly recommend as it allowed students to appreciate the joy in singing ,and to learn more about what it takes for a theatrical production to succeed. In sixth form, students are guided by competent professors while facing the obvious academic rigour. Looking back, I believe the professors in A levels were right in being stricter at the beginning; Although many disliked them for their demanding course, pupils do come to realise later that it was necessary. All in all, I cherish deeply the memories I have from the close-knitting community BICS has provided; and remain thankful for the widening of my knowledge through interactions with peers from all around the world.
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reka felber, 5 months ago
Since i have to put a star, the maximum anyone can ever give is a one. The school also gave me depression.
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Daisy Chain, 2 years ago
Beautifully decorated but.. Extremely strict and Catholic. Rude, uncaring, unfriendly, arrogant, money hungry head (opinion of teachers and parents alike). Big staff turnover (unfortunate as we lost a lot of the good teachers). Lost one of the best pre primary English teachers this year and a very nice male staff member in the secondary section. Classes are packed of up to 31 children!! Refused to recycle till now that pressure has been put on them. Constantly changing teachers in a class during the school year! Minimum communication with parents and teachers. Feels like an establishment that only cares about getting richer, monetarily. They have a new deputy head now which is hopefully an improvement as the previous one was simply terrible. Just read the many reviews on the Web. The school took many of the bad reviews out.
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Adam Brand, 3 years ago
In December 2017, when it was snowing in Brussels and the entire traffic came to a halt, students who came late to school were forced to stay 20 minutes outside in the freezing cold, as punishment for their parents’ disorganization. It sure taught children a valuable lesson: that life is unfair and they will get punished for the sins of others. So there you have it: a true catholic school straight from the days when child abuse was a perfectly acceptable education method.
