The conference will discuss the state of parental involvement in education in Europe and focus on how such involvement is leading to the parents’ own lifelong learning journey. It brings to a close the PEFaL (Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy) project led by the FES in collaboration with participating partner countries Belgium, England, Italy, Lithuania and Romania, with the support of the European Commission in the framework Grundtvig 1 strand of the Socrates Programme.

Through the PEFaL project, organisations from the participating countries set up innovative and successful family literacy programmes that are breaking new ground in the application of strategies that enhance parental participation in their children’s educational development thus leading to parents’ own development both as parents and as learning adults.

The conference will have an academic and an experiential component.

The academic element will include a review of current research and practice with the contribution of local and international experts and practitioners in the field.

The experiential component will focus on parent presentations.

Parents from Malta and the other countries involved in the project will talk about their experiences, the outcome of the implementation of family literacy programmes in their respective countries and what effect these have had on the parents themselves as learning adults.

The highlight of the conference will be a European Family Festival on the Coastline Hotel’s large terrace. An “Educational Market”, featuring information and display stands representing FES family literacy programmes and PEFaL programmes will be set up. There will also be fun activities for all the family. This activity starts at 7pm and will be open to the public free of charge.

For more information phone Marie Claire Mifsud at the Foundation for Educational Services on 2145-5600/7 ext. 121 or email [email protected]