Primary/Secondary Schools

Official schools are easy to find in telephone books. Look under “Enseignement/onderwijs” or under the name of school given below:

French-speaking:

AGE	NAME OF SCHOOL	TITLE OF HEAD
3-6	Jardin d'Enfants	Madame la Directrice or Monsieur le Directeur
6-12	Ecole Primaire	Madame la Directrice or Monsieur le Directeur
12-18	Athénées Lycées Ecoles Normales Enseignement Secondaire	Monsieur le Préfet or Madame la Préfète Monsieur le Préfet or Madame la Préfète Madame la Directrice or Monsieur le Directeur

Dutch-speaking:

AGE	NAME OF SCHOOL	TITLE OF HEAD
3-6	Kleuterschool	Mevrouw de Directrice or Mijnheer de Directeur
6-12	Lagere school	Mevrouw de Directrice or Mijnheer de Directeur
12-18	Athenea Lycea Normaalscholen Middelbaar onderwijs	Mijnheer de Prefect or Mevrouw de Prefect Mevrouw de Directrice or Mijnheer de Directeur

The younger the American child, the quicker the adaptation to school in French or Dutch. Older children may require intensive language lessons, but even high school students are usually quite comfortable after a few months of hard work.

At high school level, the American student should ask to be a “free student”. Free students do not register for the prescribed Belgian program of 13 or more subjects each week, but select the courses which will be most useful.

Only English and American history and English and American literature are inadequately covered by American standards. These deficiencies can either be met by tutoring or (and this is usually a more satisfactory solution to the problem) by arrangement with the American school to which the student plans to return (i.e. examinations over textbooks studied individually; two English or history courses in one year in America instead of the foreign language which will have been acquired here, etc.)