Malta Writing Programme

I refer to the editorial of The Times (April 28). The Foundation for Educational Services (FES) would like to take the opportunity to thank The Times for its positive remarks about the Young Writers Club programme operating in Gozo. We would also like to further clarify the editorial statement for the readers' information.

The Young Writers Club (YWC) is organised through the Malta Writing Programme, one of the five core services of the Foundation for Educational Services. The Malta Writing Programme is co-managed by the Department Curriculum Management of the Education Division. The YWC was launched by FES in March 2002 and, to date, six programmes have been held, benefiting around 160 families. FES runs two programmes per scholastic year; the current programme in Gozo, which commenced last March, is our first such programme on our sister island.

The aim of our Young Writers Club is to encourage children and young persons to extend and develop their creative writing skills in Maltese and English through the use of pre-writing, drafting, compositional, editing and publishing skills. The programme includes parallel sessions for parents as well as workshops for whole families to experience the writing process as a family. All the educational initiatives of the FES are family-focused, having in-built parallel and joint learning opportunities for both children and parents. This is in line with the National Minimum Curriculum and EU lifelong learning policies.

Other initiatives of the Malta Writing Programme include writing process workshops for school communities and the provision of technical support to schools in implementing the writing process. The MWP uses a "teachers-teaching-teachers" model that is demonstrated as being very empowering and perceived by participant teachers as very realistic and usable since it not only addresses writing strategies but the reading-writing connection, writing across the curriculum, formative and summative assessment, autonomous learning and teachers' reflective practice and action research.

The MWP is one way of implementing holistically the NMC while effectively addressing basic skills concerns. Indeed, the FES works in close collaboration with the Education Division, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment as well as other national entities in addressing issues related to the development of basic skills.

An important forthcoming event that readers might appreciate knowing about is the upcoming European conference entitled Lifelong Learning through Parental Involvement in Education which will be held in Malta between July 10-11. More information about this conference may be obtained from our offices on telephone numbers 2145 5600-07 or from our website.

More information about the Malta Writing Programme and the Young Writers Club may be likewise obtained or by e-mailing me directly on josephine.a.saliba@gov.mt.

www.fes.org.mt