In keeping with Co-op’s commitment to Fairtrade, we have started our own Fairtrade journey as an Academy. And it has started with bang!

This month we received our FairAware Award via the Fairtrade Foundation. This is the first of three awards that can be achieved by becoming a Fairtrade Academy. The FairAware Award is more of a learning audit. It is exploring how much students know (and don’t know) about Fairtrade, and establishing what the Academy does with regards to Fairtrade.

Our strong Fairtrade foundations put us in a great position to achieve this.

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In the past two years we have held Fairtrade assemblies, held Fairtrade coffee mornings and many other activities which have helped to raise the awareness of Fairtrade within our academy and parental community. Our pupils’ in Years 3; 4; 5 and 6 have driven this and led the way – they really enjoyed it and are already planning ahead. Our FairAware Award recognises our hard work – which is always nice!

As the award lasts for 2 years we are aiming to build on our existing work to apply for the next award – the FairActive Award – which we already feel confident in obtaining. As Fairtrade Fortnight is almost here we are planning to present another whole academy assembly, we are holding a Fairtrade Football event and we are planning another Fairtrade Community Coffee Morning to encourage our community to try Fairtrade products and possibly to make a swap! We have discussed joining forces with our Eco-Club to help obtain our next award and we are confident that our FairAware Award is a stepping stone towards our next level along the Fairtrade pathway.

“We all have our own values but it’s great when they align with everyone else’s. All in all, our pupils’ really excelled as they took it upon themselves to learn more about Fairtrade and embed into the culture of the Academy.”

Debbie Randles, Co-operative Coordinator