The generation game In June 2019, BSB welcomed back alumna Larissa Wiegele and her sons, Ben and Sebastian, for the first time since they departed Belgium, Singapore-bound, in 2011. While their new home may be 10,000km and a fifteen-hour flight away, the Wiegele family will always remain deeply rooted here at Pater Dupierreuxlaan 1; they are one of BSB’s multi-generational alumni families, with three generations and over 30 years of history embedded in our community. Larissa’s parents taught at BSB from 19772007. Larissa herself attended from 19771989, as did her brothers Nick and Alastair. As a girl performing onstage in the Brel Theatre, she could not have imagined that she would return to BSB three decades later to enrol her own young children, Ben, Sebastian and their sister, Nathalie.
Excited exclamations of “I remember this!” floated across Tintin and Rubens as early memories resurfaced throughout their tour. Ben vaguely recalled the image of a somehow-important red line, later confirmed to be the painted border that marks the boundaries of the Primary playground! Sebastian, who was only six years old when the Wiegele family left BSB, could still sense that certain spaces were familiar, his memory activated by the smells of building hallways and classroom craft supplies. A stroll along the timeline of archival images surrounding BSB’s Swoosh Lounge allowed Larissa to fill in the gaps of their family’s history at BSB as she reminisced about the major figures and milestones that influenced her own student career.
Much has changed at BSB over the last eight years and although glad to experience the campus additions first-hand, the Wiegele family were delighted to see that the Primary School areas, where Ben, Sebastian and Nathalie had spent most of their days, remained largely recognisable.
Reflecting on her overall remembrance of BSB, Larissa fondly described the school as “nurturing; a safe, supportive environment in which each generation of her family could learn and grow.”
together 46 Learning inspiring success
All alumni are welcome back. Just email alumni@britishschool.be to schedule a trip down memory lane!
