草榴社区

ISB was not originally on our list of schools to look at for middle school, but then a friend recommended it and by the time we were done looking it felt like a hidden gem for us. My daughter started 6th-grade last year (21-22) in the French language acquisition track. There was a good mix of kids who had been there for a while and knew. I was also nervous that as a kid coming in with a new language it would not be what she expected, but she has enjoyed the French program and learned more than I ever would have expected in her first year. Now in 7th, she is settled and happy. We have been happy with all of her teachers. There is also a wide variety of things for her to try outside of her classes from school plays to student council to sports. It is a place where she has been able to do the kind of exploration I hoped for her in middle school.

My daughter has been attending the French program at International School of Brooklyn (ISB) for 5 years. She loves her school! She is always looking forward to go to school not only to see her friends but also to learn new things.As a parent, I think that the teachers are very attentive to the needs of each child and often communicate with parents. Kids are taught in a target language (French or Spanish) and English which makes the program comprehensive. However the teachers make it seem effortless. In addition to the academics, I have noticed that ISB also develop a positive attitude towards news things: my daughter and her friends are very curious about new things and accepting of things being different than what they do at home. Both the students and teachers at ISB come from various countries and background. My favorite thing at ISB is however the community. I am always impressed at the number of interesting and committed people I have met through the school. My daughter is not only bilingual but also proud to be multicultural thanks to ISB

Our 9 year old daughter is starting her 7th year at ISB (she started in Nursery at age 3!) We continue to be amazed at the fluency of her French and her stellar pronunciation, especially for someone who does not have native speaking parent. She has been super excited to go to school every day, has loved and cherished all of her excellent teachers, and made great friends across grade levels and language groups. We have found that the dual language approach has only made her more hungry for reading and understanding how language works. As teachers ourselves, we have found ISB's financial aid process to be supportive and fair, and as residents of a Central Brooklyn neighborhood, we've found their school bus option and afterschool programs to be tremendously helpful. ISB is a wonderful, diverse community of educators and families and we highly recommend it for expanding your child's intellectual horizons.

We have been parents at ISB for seven years now. We believed it was important to offer our children a bilingual education given the languages spoken in our home and our children have truly had an exceptional experience at ISB. The level of education in the target language sets ISB apart from other bilingual programs. In addition to the bilingual education, the school's curriculum and its focus on units of inquiry provides students with an opportunity to learn about subjects in an interdisciplinary way. Beyond the school's curriculum, the teachers and administration themselves demonstrate on a daily basis a real engagement with the students and their commitment to education. The diversity of the student body and the engagement of parents in the school further create a rich school culture and strong sense of community.

I am a parent of 4-year-old son, who has been attending ISB for the past two years. We chose ISB because we had a desire for him to bilingual and realized it would be an impossible task coming from a monolingual family, if he was not in an immersive environment. So, we were thrilled when we discover the existence of the International School of Brooklyn. In two years, our son completely understands the Spanish language and is beginning to communicate in Spanish too. ISB teachers do an amazing job of creating an environment where children, at various language capabilities, come together and feel comfortable speaking in the target language. If having your child speak, write, and read in Spanish and/or French is important to you, I highly recommend ISB.

The International School of Brooklyn is probably Brooklyn's best-kept secret. This is a wonderful school offering both the International Baccalaureate approach as well as a full language immersion program, either in French or Spanish. Beyond the curriculum though, what we found is that the school is a fantastic community of people who care for each other and raise great kids. Everybody knows everybody, the big kids watch out for the little ones, and you can feel that parents, teachers, administrators, and children support each other. We love it there.