Adapted from articles by Emma Seith (16 June 2026) and James Penstone (14 September 2026), first published by Tes.
Writing in Tes, our principal and CEO, James Penstone, argues that international schools are part of a much wider global mobility system, one that includes the corporations families work for, their HR and talent mobility teams, relocation agents and community liaison officers, not parents and children alone. Since taking over as principal, Penstone has built a more deliberate partner engagement strategy around that idea: reaching out to HR and mobility colleagues at the organisations whose families BSB serves, holding conversations with relocation agents and community liaison officers, and contributing to webinars and relocation-sector events.
That outreach reflects something the data already shows. Penstone cites ECA International’s 2025 Managing Mobility Survey, drawn from 262 global companies across 30 countries, which found that difficulties with family or employee adaptation were the second most common reason assignments ended earlier than planned. School satisfaction in the first eighteen months, he notes, often acts as an early signal of whether a whole family is settling, not just whether a child is happy in class.
For relocation professionals, that means the school a family chooses is not a side detail of the move. It is one of the clearest indicators of whether the assignment will hold.
This thinking shapes how BSB actually works. The Families of BSB association has its own dedicated villa on the school grounds, a hub for parent connection, clubs, café gatherings and a safe play area for younger children, giving newly arrived parents a ready-made network rather than one they have to build from nothing.
BSB has also partnered with Families of BSB to match new and prospective families with at least one other family already at the school, typically from a similar place of origin. For a parent who has left a job, a home and a support network behind, that single connection can matter as much as anything that happens in the classroom.
A child arriving mid-term is arriving mid-story: friendship groups have formed, routines are established, and the school year already has a rhythm. Head of Year Dr Clair Draper, whose doctoral research explored children’s experiences of moving school, describes transition as a process that starts the moment a family knows they are moving and continues well into their first months at a new school.
She compares it to walking along a mountain ridge. On one side, the view is clear: the school, friends and routines a child already knows. On the other, everything is still hidden in cloud. Whichever direction a family is travelling, in or out, a school’s job is to help them see across both sides.
BSB changes classes regularly so that children are always building new relationships, which means a mid-year arrival is joining a community used to absorbing newcomers, not breaking into a closed one.
Families who relocate to Belgium are usually managing a great deal at once: visas, housing, removals, and finding a school place that will actually fit their child, often on a shorter timeline than they would like. For those weighing up a move to Belgium, Brussels tends to feel familiar faster than expected. English is widely spoken, the international community is large and well established, and the city has a well-worn path for newly arrived families to follow.
Living in Brussels also compares favourably with many other Western European capitals. The cost of living in Belgium is generally lower than in other capitals such as London, particularly for housing, and Brussels’ compact size means shorter commutes and easier access to green space than most families are used to. Families researching moving to Belgium and comparing Belgium’s cost of living against their current city often find the numbers work out more in their favour than expected.
This care is not limited to arrivals. This year, Dr Draper turned the same attention to the pupils leaving BSB, setting up the Farewell BSB Club so departure gets the same consideration as arrival.
The club met weekly at lunchtime through the summer term. Leavers made scrapbooks, took photographs, and wrote to the teachers who had shaped their time at BSB. They researched where they were headed, from language and climate to the places they might explore, and used the school’s green screen to superimpose themselves onto images of their new home countries.
After the summer, the club changed direction, with a new name and purpose: welcoming the children who have just joined. The same structure that helped one group of children leave well now helps the next group settle in, on a cycle that runs all year round rather than resetting each September.
Families come to BSB from more than 65 countries, arriving on every kind of timeline a relocation can produce. Find out more about the families who make up our community and how we support them at every stage of their journey: Family Life.
Relocating to Belgium? Our Admissions team is set up for enquiries at any point in the year and can walk you through what a mid-year start at BSB looks like, from first contact to first day. Get in touch via our Admissions page.
This article is adapted with credit to Tes. Read the original pieces at tes.com.