UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize 2010 goes to FLY Family Literacy Project, Hamburg, Germany

One of two awards of the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize 2010 is attributed to the State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development in Hamburg, Germany for the Family Literacy Project (FLY). This intergenerational approach, with parents participating in and benefiting from their children’s learning, provides a model for enhancing literacy in immigrant families and promoting integration. 

In autumn 2004, the State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development, which is part of the City-State of Hamburg’s Ministry of Education, launched the FLY family literacy pilot project. During its initial conceptualisation and implementation phases, the project was supported by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.

The project focuses on providing parents and their children with literacy and language support. It also aims to help parents engage in literacy activities with their children and help them with their school work. It especially targets mothers, as a means of enabling them to help their children acquire written language skills at home, improve their overall reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, and foster their creativity. An additional objective of the project is to intensify co-operation between the home and the school.

The pilot was carried out in nine locations in socially disadvantaged districts of Hamburg, and involved the parents of five-year-old pre-school children and six-year-old first grade school children. Hamburg has a large migrant population and FLY therefore focuses on migrant parents and their children, many of whom are struggling to integrate or are experiencing language problems. Furthermore, parents’ insecurity with regard to the use of languages in the home often makes it more difficult for children from migrant families to develop literacy skills.

The programme comprises approx. 25 sessions delivered over one year. The activities centre on:

1. The active involvement of parents in the class. Parents take a class on a particular day of the week – usually after dropping their children off at (pre-)school. They undertake literacy activities, such as looking at books together with the children or playing literacy games.

2. Activities with parents. During the sessions, parents produce materials they can use with their children at home or in class. Often, parents write biographical texts for their children, such as stories and poems.

3. Joint activities with parents and children. These activities are often viewed by participants as programme highlights. They include excursions (to museums or libraries); smaller outings, such as “literacy walks” and trips to vegetable shops or markets near the school; and celebrations.

The programme recognises the intergenerational transfer of language and literacy that takes place between parents and their children. It also takes families’ culture-specific knowledge into account and draws on this during the scheduled activities. Parents are made aware of the fact that multilingualism is an asset that can enrich their children’s lives. Cultural diversity is celebrated. Parents are encouraged to share songs in their mother tongue, as well as games, fairy tales, rhymes and dances from their countries of origin.

The project works a great deal with stories/texts written by parents. Having the opportunity to read their own texts alongside those of others inspires them to express themselves in writing, for themselves as well as on behalf of other parents in similar situations and their children. Parents have written story books based on family photos that have been printed as small-format children’s books in several languages (depending on the language background of the family that produced the book) and used in the course and/or at home. Many other materials have been developed that again demonstrate the empowering effect of writing.

Approximately 90 per cent of the participating parents are women. The project evaluation has shown that it has not only helped to boost literacy skills; it has also had a number of empowering side-effects, such as improved communication skills, higher self-esteem and a sense of being better integrated into German society as a whole. Indeed, teachers actively encourage mothers to attend further classes to improve skills other than literacy alone. The project has also had a strong impact on school culture, opening schools up to families, the neighbourhood and the local community.

The 9-school pilot project has since been extended to serve 33 schools and reaches approximately 1000 parents and 1000 children annually. Since 2009, the Hamburg Ministry for Education has been scaling the programme up at a rate of 25 new participating schools per year.

Contact: Gabriele Rabkin, State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development E-mail: or