Parents as volunteers in their children's school education

This year’s conference titled “Parents as volunteers in their children’s school education” is the fourth edition in the conference series called “PARTNER SCHOOL”, and its thematic area corresponds to the European Year of Volunteering. The conference is of an international character and will gather some 300 attendees from all over Poland and from some 20 European states. The conference is organized by the Parents in Education Association in collaboration with the Federation for Educational Initiatives and the European Parents Association.

The two-day conference comprises two parts. The first part will be held in two Warsaw-based schools that will present their programmes for volunteer cooperation with parents (Elementary School No 114 in the Targówek district and Elementary School No 92 in the Żoliborz district).
At 5.00 p.m. in one of the schools, four “Expert cafés” will be launched where visitors will be able to obtain information about various areas of functioning of Polish and European schools and share experiences and network. The day will be closed with an artistic performance of schoolchildren that will be presented in two languages: Polish and English.
Part two of the conference will take place on Saturday, 26 November, at the Palace of Culture and Science (Pl. Defilad 1) or in the City Hall of the Capital City of Warsaw (Pl. Bankowy 3/5). The aim of the conference is to show the role of parent volunteering in children’s school education in different European countries and to present the spectacular achievements of parent associations in establishing volunteering programs in their respective countries and the influence of these programs on the life of the school and quality of education.
The subjects proposed include
- how to arrange parental volunteering in an elementary school, Polish and Dutch experience,
- parents’ contribution in organising school’s social space as a place of building social capital and integrating of the school environment of students, teachers and parents – Dutch, Austrian and Polish experience,
- schools ran by parents’ associations, successes and barriers – Polish and European experience.
The evening part of the conference will be taken by workshop sessions conducted in four thematic groups. The workshops will be held in two languages and the resulting materials will be recorded by reporters and distributed afterwards among conference participants, and published on the website launched for the conference:
www.rodzicewolontariusze.pl in Polish
www.rodzicewolontariusze.eu in English.

The conference will be complemented by artistic performances given by the students of both schools presented both in Polish and English languages, ballroom dancing shows, exhibitions of children’s art and photo galleries of school festivals with the participation of parents. Conference attendees will be provided with training materials and information leaflets.
Conference admission is free upon earlier registration.
Detailed information on the conference will be published on the organizers’ websites until the end of September 2011.
www.rodzicewedukacji.pl
www.fio.org.pl
www.epa-parents.eu