During Fairtrade Fortnight fairandfunky host TWO Fairtrade Conferences for Schools on the theme ‘Around The World’. Inspiring over 200 children to think about where products come from and who made them; empowering them to change the world.
Delighted to welcome Caroline Hardaker, The Schools Coordinator with Traidcraft – Conference Champion Sponsor for our Batley Conference.
“So, we’re all here because we want to make a difference in the world, aren’t we? We want to see everyone in the world treated fairly, and we want to educate young people about how important they are in making the world a better place. This can be tricky when you’re a teacher – your time and resources are so stretched, so the Schools Team at Traidcraft want to make it as easy and faff-free as possible to get involved in making the world a fairer place. We do lots and lots, so I hope I can try and explain some of our resources to you!
We pride ourselves on tailoring eveything we do to each individual school. We can help with setting up little healthy break time stalls or tuck-shops as part of a youth enterprise scheme, or we can help you select a few fair trade snacks and soothing tea and coffee for your staffroom. We can also help you to serve real fair trade ground coffee at Parent’s Evenings, do some fundraising, or even send a Speaker to your school!
Many schools aim to take some real action in school by setting up a tuck shop or enterprise stall. Traidcraft sell a huge range of treats and trinkets at prices compatable ith tiny purses, and we offer them to schools with:
Our Schools Team are always here to support you in setting up a little stall. You can read more about how simple it can be here!
If you’re new to Traidcraft, a great place to start is with our bi-annual Guides for Schools, to show the simple steps you can do each month to integrate fair trade into school. You do as much or as little of it as you want to, and you can download the free Guide straight from our schools site or email us (schools@traidcraft.co.uk) and we can send you a paper copy (though if you attend a fairandfunky event you might get one then)!
Our school website (www.traidcraftschools.co.uk) also has hundreds of free downloadable learning resources for every key stage and subject, including lesson plans, assembly ideas, outdoor games, real producer stories, and an interactive year planner with resources for national holidays and feast days. We’re always adding new resources so it’s worth checking back every so often to see what we’ve added!
Our Speaker Network is one of our most popular services for schools. We have a host of dedicated volunteers all over the UK who can come and deliver an inspiring talk to your class or assembly. This can be a great start to a school’s fair trade journey, as teachers can learn at the same time as students!
We really want kids to engage with fair trade in an intrinsic way, so we also run annual competitions throughout the year to help young people see the power they have as the world’s future decision-makers. Our biggest competition is the Snack Attack Challenge, where we ask young people to design and market a new and innovative fair trade snack. We award prizes to three different age groups so we can reward everyone’s good efforts! You can read more about Snack Attack and download your entry pack here (the deadline is the end of March!)
Well, that’s a quick round up of our schools activity but there is really so much more. And we do love to hear from schools about what they want and what they like, so get in touch with your thoughts and we can get chatting about what we can develop!
It’s brilliant to be linking up with fairandfunky again to connect to teachers and schools. Meeting teachers and talking about issues to tackle is such a brilliant way for us to keep developing new ways for schools to get involved with fair trade.”
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