The maximum amount of money parents will be asked to contribute to school activities in Flanders next year will increase. For pre-school, the total for four years goes up from €80 to €125; for primary school each pupil will pay €65 instead of €60. School trips of more than one day will now cost a maximum of €390 instead of €360. The maximum bill does not apply to secondary school students.

Veteran Flemish jazz guitarist Philippe Catherine was last week awarded the Klara Career Prize in a ceremony organised by the classical radio station in Ghent. Catherine has figured among the top jazz musicians of the world since the 1960s. Also given Klara Awards were harpist Anneleen Lenaerts (Young Hopeful); the ensemble Het Collectief (Musicians of the Year); Peter De Caluwe, director of De Munt (Music Personality); Klara4Kids (Music Event) and the recording Cecus by vocal polyphony group Graindelavoix (Flemish CD of the Year).

Ive Gödecke of Malle, Antwerp province, has been reunited with his daughter Jordan, now aged four, after a two-year search involving private detectives. Jordan was abducted by her mother, former TV dancing star Lisa Michael, when the couple broke up, and taken to South Africa. A British detective agency recently found Jordan in the small town of Sedgefield near Cape Town. The family has now called on the Belgian government to help bring Jordan back to Flanders.

Federal justice minister Stefaan De Clerck has halted the ongoing procedure to find a new boss for the federal police, to allow the incoming federal government to see the selection through. In October, Christine De Bolle, chief of the local police in Ninove, emerged as a front-runner in the process, with a strong chance of becoming the country’s first-ever woman police chief.

The well-known English bar Ron’s Pub in Ostend was destroyed by fire last week. No-one was in the building at the time. Fire services say the fire may have been started by a defective connection in a ventilator. An apartment above the pub was also badly damaged.

Antwerp’s parking management company this week started a pilot project that allows motorists to pay for parking tickets by credit card. The project covers 20 ticket machines in busy shopping and nightlife areas in Sint-Jansvliet, Ernest Van Dijckkaai, Vlasmarkt, Suikerrui, Frankrijklei and Quellinstraat, among others.

The Catholic University of Leuven has expelled two students from the chemistry faculty after it was discovered they were using the university labs to manufacture drugs. The two, a masters and a doctoral student, had made small quantities of a hallucinogenic drug for their own use. A police investigation has been started.

The Flemish Community of Brussels and the Belgian Institute for Post and Telecommunications are to investigate a plan by Télé-Bruxelles, the French-speaking local TV station in Brussels, to broadcast to Flemish municipalities around Brussels using digital technology, announced Flemish media minister Ingrid Lieten. Meanwhile, a number of members have called for tvbrussel, the local Flemish equivalent, to be allowed to broadcast to the periphery and the rest of Flanders.

Michelin-starred chef Luc Bellings and his wife, who run the restaurant Aan Tafel in Hasselt, have been fined €32,500 for employing staff illegally in the two-starred restaurant. The fine was suspended.

Entries for an SMS poetry competition organised by Ghent University can be submitted until 17 December. Poems on the theme “Durf denken” – Dare to Think – should consist of no more than 160 characters and be written in Dutch, English or SMS-ese. The university announced last week that the jury will include education minister Pascal Smet, culture minister Joke Schauvliege, EU council president and fervent haiku writer Herman Van Rompuy and outgoing minister and Twitter enthusiast Vincent Van Quickenborne. Entries can be SMSed free to 8690. www.tinyurl.com/smspoezie