Literacy conference

It was a really worthwhile experience for me when on September 12 and 13 I attended the first national family literacy conference organised by the Institute for Child and Learning Support within the Foundation for Educational Services (FES). The theme for the conference was "Getting there together - a family approach to basic literacy".

As a parent I was asked to share my experiences of the Hilti programme and Parents in Education (Id f'Id) Programme during the workshops held, with other parents and delegations from Belgium, England, Italy, Lithuania and Romania.

The conference also included the participation of family literacy tutors involved in the Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy project (PEFaL).

PEFaL is an international project carried out by the FES with the support of the European Union. The FES is coordinating this project in collaboration with the countries mentioned above. The aim of the project is to implement family literacy in these countries by adapting the Maltese family literacy experience.

Together with the other parents I also had a meeting with Alan Wells, director of the Basic Skills Agency in England and Wales. We told him about our experiences in family literacy initiatives in Malta and showed him artifacts from our participation in FES initiative programmes. Mr Wells was very impressed about our participation and he also shared his experiences of working with parents in a literacy context.

Sheila Wolfendale was one of the keynote speakers. She stressed points on reading techniques with children and was also present with parents during an on-site workshop to see family literacy groups in action.

I am grateful to the foundation for giving parents empowerment, support and facilities to help ourselves and our children to be a force towards educational equity.