Brompton Hall pupils and teachers at York St. John University, where the award ceremony was held.

Brompton Hall School in Brompton, near Scarborough, were awarded with a Fairtrade in Yorkshire School Award 2014, in recognition of all the work the school has done to raise awareness of Fairtrade.

The school has its own Fairtrade group, which coordinates a wide range of activities and Fairtrade is raised in cookery classes, where many fairly produced ingredients are used.

Ken Wyatt of Fairtrade Rotherham

For Fairtrade Fortnight 2014, primary school pupils in Rotherham Metropolitan Borough are being invited to design a poster which reflects the principals of the Fairtrade movement. Ken Wyatt, of Fairtrade Rotherham, points out that there are plenty of ideas for the pupils to focus on for the subject of their poster: there are well over 200 Fairtrade products available in the UK ranging from beverages, dry foodstuffs including yummy chocolate , sports goods, clothing, wines, fresh fruits and flowers….the list goes on. There is an emphasis on the relationships between producers and consumers; sustainable farming; decent working conditions for people with no exploitation of child labour and supporting communities to maintain their own well being.

Posters need to be returned to Ken Wyatt c/o Rotherham Town Hall before Easter for judging.  1^st 2^nd & 3^rd prizes will be awarded along with certificates for those whose posters are highly commended.  A presentation evening will be held for the winners, parents & staff  in May 2014.  The Mayor of Rotherham will award the prizes.

Leeds Lord Mayor Tom Murray and school children from Ireland Wood Primary school launched a very special Birthday card competition today. February 2014 marks 10 years of Leeds’ status as a Fairtrade City and all Leeds school children are invited to design a Birthday card to celebrate this great achievement.

“In 2004 Leeds worked very hard to involve the Council, Businesses, Faith Groups and Schools to attain Fairtrade City Status” said Fairtrade Leeds Chair Hannah Langdana “This is a great opportunity to celebrate everyone’s hard work and remember how we are making a real difference to millions of people in the developing world who are getting a fair deal for their hard work.”

Birthday party celebrations planned include a ‘Fairtrade Bake off’ for interested adults and cafes, a T shirt design competition for youth groups and of course a Birthday Party, with a  Fairtrade banana farmer, at the Civic Hall on March 7^th.

“The Council is very committed to Fairtrade and we look forward to seeing all the Birthday card entries and tasting all that Fairtrade cake” said the Lord Mayor.

Schools in the Leeds City Council area that would like to enter the competition should click here for more details.

Well Done to St. Mary’s Menston for their efforts in working towards Fairtrade School status.

Benedict, Isobel, Marienne and Jack Tunnecliffe: taking Fairtrade forward at St. Mary’s

The students have set up a campaign to make Fairtrade products more accessible locally and have worked with Leeds Development Education Centre to learn more about fair trade issues within school.  “The challenge is to continue this work by educating our families, our neighbours and the wider community about this essential work” says teacher Jack Tunnecliffe.

On the 5th of October, four students from Notre Dame Sixth Form College’s Fairtrade committee; Aneka, Rowanne, Katy and Hannah; travelled down to London to attend this year’s Fairtrade Supporters Conference.
This is an annual event which allows the students to join fellow Fairtrade campaigners and share ideas. There are also opportunities to hear from inspiring global speakers, meet like-minded people from around the UK, explore ideas for their campaign and find out what we will be campaigning for in 2014.

The day included introduction talks from the Heads of the Fairtrade Foundation, Kevin McCullough and Jonathan Smith, as well as contributions from Michael Gidney, the Chief Executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, James Mwai, Acting Executive director of Fairtrade Africa and Renwick Rose representing the Windward Islands Farmers Association.

In the afternoon there were a series of breakout sessions where students attended events focussing on the important issues for Fairtrade campaigns like how to use social media effectively and the importance of engaging local businesses.
Students also had the opportunity during the day to attend a creative workshop and to sample a range of Fairtrade products and network with suppliers.

The students all enjoyed the day and said that they had learned a lot about Fairtrade, in particular how it improves the lives of others and how to develop their own campaign within Notre Dame 6th Form College.
All four students have returned keen to share their experiences with other members of the Fairtrade group and to ensure that they have the best campaign strategy possible.

“The best presentation I have ever seen,” was the response from the Fairtrade Foundation’s Education Campaigns Manager, Kate Jones after watching a Leeds’ school present on how they became a Fairtrade School.

Six children from Otley All Saints school wowed Kate Jones with their visual and humorous presentation which gave lots of examples of the activities the children have been involved in to raise awareness of Fairtrade. The presentation was part of the Global Fairness School celebration at Leeds Civic Hall on October 18th, which was opened by Deputy Director of Children’s Services at Leeds City Council, Paul Brennan.

Mr Brennan used his speech to promote Leeds Child Friendly City initiative by drawing parallels between Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech to the struggle for all children to access their rights today.  Other workshops were delivered by theatre company Blah Blah Blah on freedom from slavery, Just Trading Scotland on the 90kg rice challenge, YMCA on Ugandan street children and Leeds DEC on ethical trade and modern day slavery. “I’ve got lots of ideas to do a Fair trade day at school” remarked one 9 year old participant.

Alice with the leading sheep.

Skipton Girls High School are the proud owners of a ‘lost Fairtrade sheep’.  Skipton pupil, Alice, designed the sheep which now stands in the drama studio window, looking out on one of the main routes into Skipton.

The sheep is part of a Dales Tourism promotion for the Yorkshire Grand Depart, the first leg of the Tour de France race which comes to the county next year.  Our fine woolly friend sports the winning yellow jersey and is proud to display two Fairtrade logos.

Prince Henry’s Grammar School’s winning entry to the MDG15 competition

A Leeds School has won a national competition with their art work raising awareness of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Students from Prince Henry’s Grammar School came top with a colourful batik design.

“We wanted to show how the Millennium Development Goals are a careful and delicate balancing act, with rays of hope radiating from behind as we move closer to achieving them,” said year 9 student Max Behrens.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals include targets to reduce the number of people living on less than one dollar a day and ensure that every child is able to complete primary school.

“The MDGs are really important Goals to achieve better lives for some of the world’s poorest people.” said competition organiser Alison Huntley from Leeds DEC. “Some great progress has been made, for example in 2000, 102 million children of primary school age were out of school. This number was reduced to 57 million children, in 2011, but that is still far, far too many children missing out on a basic education.”

“We are so proud of our students who took part,” said Art teacher Natalie Sadler “This work is part of our commitment to Global Learning as a school.”

See all the entries to the MDG15 competition here.

Talented young artists in Rotherham celebrated the borough’s Fairtrade commitment this month.

On Tuesday May 21st, at Rotherham Town Hall, pupils from across Rotherham’s schools were presented with prizes by the Mayor and Mayoress of Rotherham, Coun. John and Mrs. Kath Foden.

Organised for a second year by the Rotherham Fairtrade Steering Group, pupils at schools across the Borough were invited to submit posters that conveyed the Fairtrade message. The winners and runners-up were presented with prizes and gifts and will see their designs displayed in the John Smith Room in the Town Hall.

Coun. Ken Wyatt, Chair of the Fairtrade Steering Group, praised the youngsters for taking part. “We had around 100 entries and they were really impressive. The youngsters had obviously give the whole Fairtrade campaign a lot of thought and consequently me and my fellow judges had a very hard task in choosing the winning entries.”

Rotherham became an accredited Fairtrade Town in 2006. The accreditation acknowledged that Fairtrade is now an integral part of both the authority and the wider Rotherham community, giving ethically-minded shoppers much more opportunity to use and buy Fairtrade goods.

Oakworth Primary School where the first tree of the Fairtrade orchard was created on 15th May

Keighley is the latest town in Yorkshire working to achieve Fairtrade Town status. This comes after Yorkshire was declared the very first Fairtrade Region earlier this year.

Involving schools is key to a successful application for Fairtrade Town Status so Fairtrade Keighley has teamed up with Yorkshire based businesses fairandfunky and Small World to deliver an innovative new project: “Fairtrade Orchard”; across schools in Keighley.

fairandfunky (www.fairandfunky.com) is a Community Interest Company; empowering people to take little steps to change the world, through interactive and creative workshops on global themes to schools and community groups.

The project began on Saturday May 4^th at Small World where members of the community are invited to join in a fairandfunky workshop: creating 6 trees from recycled materials.

Small World, based at 20 Russell Street, provides grass roots, participatory arts; bringing communities together through a variety of inclusive projects with young people from all over Keighley: www.smallworldkeighley.org

These trees will form the basis of the Fairtrade Orchard which will then be adorned with leaves, animals, plants and flowers in 5 schools across Keighley in the following weeks; culminating in a community event at The Airedale Shopping Centre in June.

During the schools workshops, fairandfunky will lead interactive discussions on Fairtrade issues and celebrate the work done by The Fairtrade Foundation to get a wide variety of Fairtrade products across the UK. Helen Robinson from fairandfunky said: “In our workshops children will learn about Fairtrade and the people involved in supply chains and will be encouraged to think about the world around them, all whilst being involved in creating something really special for the people of Keighley to be proud of!”

The 6 trees will come together to create a Fairtrade Orchard representing olive, banana, coffee, tea, lemon and cocoa farmers; and was inspired by the visit to Keighley of Palestinian Olive farmers during Fairtrade Fortnight. The orchard will be at The Bingley Show in July.

“This project will connect schools and businesses to Fairtrade,” said Richard Dillon, chair of the Fairtrade Keighley Steering Group, “It will showcase the commitment of Keighley to Fairtrade and enable us all to make positive actions right on our doorstep.”

The workshops have been made possible thanks to funding from the West Yorkshire Co-operative Area Committee; and the Keighley Town Council Oak Fund.