The Council of British International Schools (COBIS) visit to The British School of Brussels (BSB) took place between 26-28 November, 2018. The school has met the standards as set out by COBIS for The Patron’s Accreditation and Compliance programme. The COBIS Patron’s Accreditation and Compliance is a school improvement and development journey which recognises high-quality international British schools overseas. “BSB is to be congratulated on maintaining a student learning and teaching environment that supports all students”, said the independent report.
In the report’s overall observations about BSB, it said that “conversations with the students demonstrate how proud they are of their school. Students of Primary age used words like caring, happiness and extraordinary to describe their own feelilngs about BSB. Secondary age students used some of the same words and also opportunity, facilitating and encouraging. This is not just the pride they have in the outstanding facilities, but the ethos and day in day out learning that takes place.”
The report went on to praise the values and the ethos of the school. “The school has a genuinely international mix of students with over 70 nationalities represented. The school’s ‘Guiding Statements’, and a ‘BSB Learner Profile’, ensures that core values sit at the heart of BSB. These can be seen everywhere – ‘confident, caring, courageous, curious, resilent and respect’. These are demonstrated in the actions of staff and students, as well as the language they naturally choose to use.”
Melanie Warnes, Principal of BSB said “BSB has been accredited by COBIS for many years as well as being accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) who recently described BSB as ‘joyous’. We all take great pride in the excellent education we offer to all of our children, but more importantly, that our children are happy here.”
The COBIS Accreditation and Compliance Report included monitoring school standards on recruitment, student welfare, facilities, governance and ethos and values. BSB was judged to be performing well in all of these areas.