644 Activities Planned as Part of Children's Week 2024

Luxembourg's Ministry of Education, Children and Youth has announced that it is organising the third edition of "Semaine de l'Enfance" (Children's Week), from Saturday 4 to Saturday 11 May 2024.

Centred around the theme "Learning - child's play!", education and reception structures in the non-formal education sector are mobilising across the country to highlight the work of staff who supervise children up to twelve years old outside school hours. Children's Week will launch on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 May 2024 with the Children's Festival and the "Kannerpräis" awards ceremony at the Abbaye de Neumünster in Luxembourg-Grund.

The ministry stressed that non-formal education plays an essential role in a child's overall development and chances of success. As part of their daily educational mission, education and reception structures offer children the opportunity to play, have fun and relax in areas adapted to their individual needs. The ministry added that it is through exploration and experimentation that children learn alone, with their peers or with other adults, through different fields of action.

The Children's Festival (Festival de l'Enfance) programme features 74 workshops aimed at allowing children and parents to discover through play the fields of action of non-formal education and the learning that results from it. Over the course of a weekend, this family-friendly event allows visitors to enter the daily lives of children in education and care structures. It is also an opportunity to meet those who work with children on a daily basis.

The activities are aimed at children up to the age of twelve and range from crafts to scientific discoveries, relaxation workshops to sporting and musical activities, as well as meetings with book authors and illustrators. Entrance to the festival and all activities are free for visitors. No prior registration is required. Catering options are available on-site.

The ministry noted that the Children's Festival attracted nearly 10,300 visitors over two days in 2023.

As part of this year's Children's Festival, the awards ceremony for the first edition of the "Kannerpräis" will take place in the presence of Luxembourg's Minister of Education, Children and Youth, Claude Meisch. The objective of the "Kannerpräis" is to promote education and care services projects carried out with children, to give them visibility and inspire others, explained the ministry.

More than 100 projects were submitted in four thematic categories: "My commitment", "My opinion", "My identity" and "My health", and in two age groups: "Mini-heroes", for projects carried out with children up to four years of age, and "Heroes", for children aged between four and twelve. Among these projects, a jury of experts named 24 finalist projects and, during the "Kannerjury" event, 92 children aged eight to twelve from different structures nominated the eight winners and awarded the second and third places.

Children's Week will continue until 11 May across the country. The education and reception structures will open their doors to the public and organise different activities. In addition to issues related to the well-being of children, educational work, stimulation of learning and the complementarity of reception at school will be highlighted. 197 education and reception structures across the Grand Duchy will be organising 644 activities in this context. Certain activities are subject to prior registration.

The full programme is available online at www.kannerwoch.lu.