Terug naar school – back to school signs in shops hang over boekentassen – schoolbags and pennenzakken – pencil cases, and parents are stocking up on notitieblokken – notepads and potloden – pencils.

Next Tuesday sees de hervatting van de lessen – resumption of classes, and for the youngest the first day at de lagere school – primary school. This tends to be much less traumatic than in some other countries since most of the kids will have spent the past three years together in kleuterschool – kindergarten.

One expense parents don’t have here – with a handful of exceptions – is school uniforms. The colour of your shoes or tights is never an issue, nor are there any signs that anyone wants to start up a debate on introducing badges and blazers. (The downside to this is that tying a tie is a mystery to most teenage lads.)

The most important thing about a school year is the holidays. The herfstvakantie – autumn mid-term holiday begins on 2 November; de kerstvakantie – the Christmas holiday begins on 21 December.

My favouritely-named break is de krokusvakantie – the one week holiday starting on 15 February, when the crocuses may just be out. Then comes de paasvakantie – Easter holidays on 5 April for two weeks.

You can enrol your child in whichever school has a place; there are no catchment areas. Equally, you can move your child out of one school and into another. In secondary school, the tests at the end of the first year come as a reality check, and many children will move to other streams. Once you leave the Latin stream (yes, Latin and Greek are taught) you can’t move back up later.

School is compulsory to the age of 18. To go on to higher education you need your diploma – leaving certificate, which the school awards on the basis of results of exams set by the individual teachers; there are no central exams. Whether you have studied in the Latin stream or the science stream, you will have to pass a range of subjects including physical education and geography. Most university studies are open to any student with a leaving certificate.

The recent shortage of teachers has become less severe with numbers being bolstered by some of those who have lost their jobs in industry in the past year. Let’s hope they make the grade.

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