On Friday 24th February we held our annual Fairtrade Conference for Primary Schools at the Tolson Museum in Huddersfield and welcomed almost 100 delegates to celebrate Fairtrade and discover how we are all connected: people and planet. We were thrilled to receive this review of the event from Mrs. Tombling – Eco Schools and Science Leader at Diamond Wood Community Academy:
“Well I’ve just sat down with a nice cup of fairtrade tea after an amazing day spent with eight of our year 1 and 2 Eco Councillors from Diamond Wood Community Academy at the fairandfunky Fairtrade conference for schools 2023. We arrived at the Tolson Museum and were greeted by Helen and Sophie, over the last few years we have built up a wonderful relationship with fairandfunky who have always supported our eco journey at DWCA. After a great introduction by fairandfunky, MP Jason McCartney spoke about his role as MP and how he is striving to reduce the number of single-use products such as plastic cutlery.
Then it was time for our first workshop with Suma… who had brought their truck that is powered by renewable gas from food waste. “That truck is amazing” one eco councillor exclaimed. We found out how the products we use are transported from around the world. It was brilliant sitting in the cab! We then headed to the hall to create our own haiku poems about fairtrade, using a vast array of words the children created poems with a very powerful message. One of the five syllable lines was ‘fantastic farmers’, “They must be fantastic because they work so hard to make sure we have good things to eat, and its sooooo much better if it’s fairtrade” one of our year 1 councillors told me.
Our third workshop was with Helen from fairandfunky, where we discussed how climate change can affect Fairtrade farmers and the problems this causes for them. We decorated pots with fairtrade chocolate wrappers and ensure the fairtrade symbol was prominent. After filling our pots with compost planted seeds. The children really enjoyed this activity. “It’s so good to plant things Mrs Tombling, then we can watch them grow!”
After lunch we headed to our final workshop with Couer de Xocolat, we definitely agree that being a fairtrade chocolatier must be one of the best jobs in the world! The story of bean to bar was so interesting and then we were shown how to taste the chocolate using all of our senses, feeling the texture, seeing the colour, hearing the snap, smelling the different aromas and finally tasting the delicious chocolate. A child from a different school said “It’s so good to hold the chocolate in your mouth a savor all the flovours” we couldn’t agree more!
The conference ended with a presentation and thanks to everyone involved. We were presented with a certificate and an amazing fairtrade goody bag filled with resources and treats! We will be using our resources in our Eco Council assembly on fairtrade and on our stall at our International Women’s Day event.
Thank you to fairandfunky for organising such an amazing conference with brilliant workshops and sending us away with the positive message “I support fairtrade”.”
Thank YOU to Mrs. Tombling and all the teachers who brought their students to the conference. Choosing Fairtrade is a great way we can all take a little step to change the world. See you in 2024!
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