A Fair Trade Week
Diversity
Learning about the everyday lives and backgrounds of producer
families in other countries, and the issues that face them, enables
children to explore similarities and differences.
Sustainable development
A look at the environmental implications of the global
marketplace will promote thinking about longer-term sustainability.
Where does our food come from? How far has it travelled? What are
the social and economic costs – locally and across the world?
Social justice
Children readily grasp ideas about what is fair and unfair. A
focus on Fair Trade gives the chance for them to consider
their power as consumers to take action for change.
Interdependence
Finding out about our links to other countries through trade
gives children the opportunity to identify how individuals and
countries are interdependent. What we eat, what we wear, the music
we listen to, everything we use ties us into a gigantic web of
global connections. Fair Trade is about making more equal
relationships.
Some ideas for your week
- Different classes could research products that have a Fair
Trade mark, e.g. bananas, chocolate. Find out about their origins
and map their journey to Britain.
- Use games and simulations to experience fair and unfair
trading.
- Set up a Fair Trade tuck shop/ hold a Fair Trade breakfast or
coffee morning for parents.
- Source and cost a Fair Trade school uniform or sports kit.
- Conduct a survey of your local shops. Use supermarket labels to
create a map of your town’s global connections. Find out how many
shops stock Fair Trade products.
Create menus or
recipes and bake cakes using Fair Trade ingredients.- Design packaging and advertisements for Fair Trade products –
get them displayed in local shops. Draw up a local Fair Trade quiz
or a treasure hunt.
- Creative writing – pieces written from the point of view of
overseas farmers or their children; a play or presentation
illustrating Fair Trade ideas; persuasive letters asking shops to
stock Fair Trade products.
- Invite speakers from your local Fair Trade group – you
may even be able to get hold of a cocoa or coffee farmer visiting
Britain as part of Fair Trade Fortnight.
- Create a school vegetable garden to promote local food and
sustainable, healthy schools.
Becoming a Fair Trade school
Fair Trade linking
Link your school to a
school with an interest or a connection that will help
you to support Fair Trade.
Resources