Pupils at St John’s School have been celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight.
Peregrine and the Raven classes (Year 5 and 6) kicked off the event with an assembly urging everyone to 'Be the Change', by picking up Fairtrade products.
Afterwards, the children and their parents enjoyed Fairtrade tea and coffee with cakes made by the children using Fairtrade ingredients such as sugar, chocolate and bananas.
On ‘Fairtrade Friday’, Fairtrade bananas were sold at breaktime tuckshop.
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The celebrations continued after school with a Fairtrade Cafe serving tea, coffee and homemade treats. Meanwhile, the school’s Eco-Club made flapjack, rice crispy cakes and banana muffins using Fairtrade sugar, bananas, Mars bars and chocolate. There was also a range of Fairtrade goods for sale.
The community event was organised by the School Council and Eco-Club. Money raised will go to the Fairtrade Foundation.
The term Fairtrade is used to describe an arrangement which helps producers in developing countries get a fair deal when it comes to selling their products.
Mary Jane Douglas, teacher at St John’s, thanked everyone who baked or donated Fairtrade products to sell at the event, and also thanked Margaret Newton and Crosby Co-op for their support.
She said: ‘St John’s was recently awarded an Eco-Schools’ Green Flag for the second year running. Learning about and supporting Fairtrade will contribute towards our 2025 Green Flag award as one of our chosen topics is Global Citizenship’.
Earlier in July, four Year 5 children from St Johns School were invited to take part in a Fairtrade Conference organised by the One World Centre and held at the Legislative Buildings in Douglas. It comprised of four workshops, including chocolate tasting and a debating session in the Tynwald Chamber.
It’s 30 years since the first Fairtrade certified products hit supermarket shelves.
Since then, a global community has been working towards more responsibly produced and fairly priced goods, and millions of Fairtrade farmers have secured a fairer price for what they grow.
