We present…
…a new ‘School met de Bijbel’ in Brussels!
Introduction
In the Spring of 2010 the first steps were taken to start a new primary school in Brussels.
This school will be a part of the group of protestant schools in Flanders, which are called
the ‘Schools with the Bible’.
Previously, we drew the first outlines of our vision and mission for this unique school in
Brussels.
Imagine…
”The Treasure Chest”, a school where children discover they are of inestimable value.
A place where they can learn with ánd from each other and where they discover treasures
for life.
It’s a school where the can ‘come home’, in a friendly atmosphere, yet with the
necessary structure and boundaries
Here you can flourish and develop the talents God has given you.
There is room for creativity and learning at play.
“The Treasure Chest”, a treasure for children, but alsof or parents, the neighbourhood
and for other schools.
The initiators were Miet Demaerel-Vanbeckevoort and An Van den Eynde-De Rijck. They
made the very first move, together with “De Springplank” (School with the Bible in
Aarschot) and IPCO (‘Board of Trustees for Protestant Education in Flanders and the
Capital District of Brussels’)
Meanwhile, an NPO was formed that will function as governing body. All are
working hard to make the start-up possible.
Planned opening of this school: September 2015; Jette-Laken area.
We want to grow into a primary school that offers room to 16 children per age group (i.e.
160 pupils) and a department for special needs education (type 1 and type 8) for roughly
30 pupils. Due to insufficient funding and subsidies for the rent/purchase of a building in
Brussels we will start small (pre-school and first grade) and will expand yearly. After 3
years we hope to move to a bigger location where we can reach our larger concept.
Fundraising is of course essential to the startup of this new school.
Schools that are recognized and subsidized by the Flemish government only receive
subsidies for operational expenses, staff expenses and (part of ) purchase or reconstruction
of buildings. There is no budget for the startup of new schools. This expense is solely up
to the school’s institutional power. In larger and more established educational institutions
these costs can be met more easily. But smaller umbrella organizations (like IPCO) have to
count on gifts.
With a view to informing our sponsors about our new school and about the education
umbrella (IPCO) under which it shall function, we put together this sponsor folder.
If you have any further questions about the project, you can always contact An De Rijck.
Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 0486/73.20.05 of 016/43.74.73
Deposit your contribution onto this account:
BE 21 6528 2950 7003 (VZW School met de Bijbel ‘De Schatkist’)
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1. The need is great
1.1 Shortage of schools in Brussels
The shortage of Dutch speaking schools in Brussels is worrying. There isn’t enough room for
children in primary education. On top of that, the Jette-Laken section is one of the regions
of greatest need.
Read one of many articles in the Belgian media in 2010. In the meantime the problem
hasn’t yet been solved.
Dutch speaking schools in Brussels overcrowded
Source: VRT Fr 19/02/2010 – 21:06
In the Brussels Capital District, 37% of children that are hoping to register in
Dutch speaking primary education, haven’t got a school to go to. We’re talking
about 1.957 children.
Problems with the registration system in Brussels
To prevent long waiting lines and ‘camping conditions’,
parents were able to register their child online for the
first time. Parents of 5.286 children did that, but for
1.957 of them there is no room in the school or schools
of their choice. By 2014, we’ll have a shortage of 3000
places in Dutch speaking education in Brussels.
According to Brussels minister of Education Jean-Luc
Vanraes (Open VLD) there will be room for everybody next year, although it may not
be in the school of your choice.
Nederlandstalige scholen Brussel overvol
Bron: VRT vr 19/02/2010 - 21:06
1.2 The need of a ‘School with the Bible’ in Brussels
 Brussels does not yet have a Dutch speaking School with the Bible, whereas all
other provinces in Belgium do.
 There are more than 200 protestant and evangelical churches within Brussels, and
therefore many potential parents (and children) for protestant education.
 The French speaking School with the Bible ‘Les Tournesols’ in South-Brussel had
already registered 260 toddlers and pupils in September of 2012 with another 100
on the waiting list!
 More than 16 children already guaranteed to want to register for a place in a Dutch
speaking school.
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2. Position in the education landscape
2.1 Free Subsidized Primary School (Vrije gesubsidieerde
basisschool)
“De Schatkist” is a free subsidized primary school. This means:
 Free: Flanders has different education networks (see flowchart below). The
Catholic schools and other smaller ‘education providers’ in the left column are part
of the free network.
They are free to exercise their own faith and vision on education in their schools.
All other schools have to be pluralistic and must provide other religions.
IPCO stands for ‘Board of Trustees for Protestant Education in Flanders and the
Capital District of Brussels’. It is the network of protestant-evangelical education.
The schools that come under IPCO call themselves ‘School with the Bible’ because
the Bible is central in the protestant-evangelical faith.
 Subsidized: we are recognized and subsidized by the Flemish Community.
- With her subsidies the Flemish Community funds our staff and day to day
functioning for approx. € 400 euro per toddler and € 640 per pupil per school
year.
- We provide the learning content which the Flemish Community dictates to
Flemish schools. They are called the development goals for toddlers and the
final attainment levels for primary school (see also www.ond.vlaanderen.be).
We also use added curriculi (mostly from Catholic schools) that are recognized
by the government.
- For their religion education, the so-called Bible Lessons, we developed our own
development goals and final attainment levels. These were recognized by the
authorized institution PEGO ( Protestant Evangelical Religious Education).
 Primary School: we are a preschool (for toddlers from 2,5-5 years) and a primary
school (for pupils aged 6-12 years).
2.2 Dutch speaking education
We will be a Dutch speaking school. This means that we will speak Dutch at school and that
all letters and parent evenings will be held in Dutch. To that end, the school will be
careful to use simple and straightforward Dutch and supporting icons in her communication.
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Parents who haven’t mastered Dutch are encouraged to learn Dutch and/or look for an
interpreter within their circle of family or friends who can help them with the reading of
school letters and who can accompany them on parent evenings to translate.
3. School with the Bible “The Treasure Chest”
3.1 Schools with the Bible
There are roughly 1000 children that go to a “School met de Bijbel” in Flanders. We’re
talking about nursery and primary school together. And in some places there’s a special
education school linked to a primary school. Flanders does not have any protestantevangelical secondary schools.
Our country also has a couple of French speaking protestant-evangelical schools. “Les
Tournesols” also has a secondary school.
The schools are all started up and maintained by parents, teachers and sympathizers.
Every school has its own NPO and its own board of trustees. These are all united as
umbrella organization under the IPCO flag.
IPCO as umbrella, is the recognized spokesperson on behalf of the protestant-evangelical
schools in their dialogue with the Flemish Government.
The ‘Schools with the Bible’ have also united and form a community of schools with the
name “Scholen met de Bijbel”.
The ‘Schools with the Bible’ have a common education statement as a foundation,
sometimes with an additional local touch. The Christian identity (love of God, neighbor
and self) is interwoven throughout the whole of school life. We have specific Bible Lessons.
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The main target group will be children from Christian families, without making the
distinction between church denomination, culture or language. Besides that, the
school reaches out to people from others faiths that can subscribe to our vision.
More information about IPCO is to be found on www.ipco.be
3.2 Our mission
The school “The Treasure Chest’ in Brussels aims to provide high standard primary school
education, flowing from a Christian identity, with the Bible as measure.
3.3 Choice of name and logo
‘The Treasure Chest – Full of big and small and treasures’ stresses the value of children,
the Bible and that which they will discover and learn together at school.
3.4 An Inspiring Scripture text
The next Bible text summarizes our vision and mission.
Ephesians 3:16-19:
“I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your
inner selves, and I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you
may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God's people, may have
the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ's love. Yes, may you
come to know his love—although it can never be fully known—and so be completely filled with the
very nature of God.”
3.5 Our education statement
In our “eductation statement” we describe the foundation of our education.
On request, you can look into the complete education statement for ‘The Treasure Chest’ .
Here is a brief summary:
In the Treasure Chest, we have a heart for children and want to see these unique treasures
flourish. Together we enjoy all the valuable traits the Creator has layed in them. .
In The Treasure Chest, children discover the riches of a life in a God-friendly environment,
joined together with others, their environment and themselves. We believe that from an
early age children can have a personal faith, a living relationship with God, a love for the
Bible and an honest desire to apply Gods will to their daily life.
We have an eye for the environment children grow up in. We work together with their
parents and educators, but also with the broader surroundings. We pay attention to their
home language and culture and to each child's interests and talents.
We strive to offer education of high-standing quality. We offer the subject matter in a varied
and captivating way: playful learning, learning from and with each other.
We strive for an environment where lots of warmth and love go hand in hand with clear
boundaries and discipline.
Teachers and board members live according to their own christian convictions and are a living
testimony to the children.
We want to give children optimal chances of learning to get a (better) grip of the
Dutch language.
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4. Estimated startup expenses
In the first year we don’t receive any subsidies until January. The furnishing as well as the
operational costs for six months have to be bridged. Here is a brief description of the
estimated expenses:
Learning facilities, toys, furniture: € 36.000 ( providing we can purchase a certain part of
it second hand or get it for free.)
Insurance: € 4000/year (for a school of 200 pupils)
School furnishing (paint, alterations): € 10.000
Basic facilities: water, gas/fuel, electricity: € 5.000
Administration: printing, telephone, maintenance, administrative software etc.: € 10.000
Total: € 65.000
 This spring we received enough money to provide in all these expenses!
Besides that we will have to provide the "start up costs" related to the building:
- a rent guarantee + adaptation costs for making it into a suitable school building (if we
decide to rent a building)
- installation costs (if we find a piece of land on which to install rented container
classes)
Should you want to look into the detail calculation, please contact An De Rijck.
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