Scotland's Enterprising Schools

About the organisation

The Scottish Fair Trade Forum was established in January 2007 by a group of Fair Trade campaigners, Scotland-based non-governmental organisations and the Scottish Government. It promotes the cause of Fair Trade in Scotland and, in 2013, the Forum helped secure Fair Trade Nation status for Scotland.

Our commitment to Fair Trade is drawn from Scotland’s resolve to challenge global poverty and its recognition for the need for fairness in international trading to preserve the dignity and rights of producers overseas.

Our involvement with schools and nurseries seeks to encourage the use of Fair Trade in the classroom. The Forum provides resources for teachers and students, and promotes the use of Fair Trade products in canteens, staffrooms and beyond. Through a Fairtrade Cotton Schoolwear campaign, teachers and children are becoming more thoughtful of where the cotton used in uniforms comes from.

Enterprise activity in schools and nurseries

Learning about Fair Trade

Learning and teaching about Fair Trade provides an ideal focus for cross-curricular work, as well as motivating pupils of all ages to expand their horizons about overarching issues affecting their day-to-day lives.

Important themes such as enterprise, citizenship, sustainable development, international education and creativity need to be developed in a range of contexts. Learning related to these themes is therefore built in to the experiences and outcomes across the curriculum areas.

We have developed learning materials that are tailored to the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence to help pupils of all ages learn about Fair Trade through their experience; whether it is through arts and crafts, music or discussions.

Fairtrade Cotton Schoolwear Campaign

The Scottish Fair Trade Forum’s Fairtrade Cotton Schoolwear Campaign was piloted in East Dunbartonshire in 2010 and is now active across Scotland.

The aims of the campaign are to: Raise awareness of the injustices surrounding cotton production, help schools switch to Fairtrade cotton schoolwear, and to encourage shops and suppliers to stock Fairtrade cotton schoolwear.

On our website you can also find our Cotton Unfolded online exhibition about Fairtrade cotton.

Supporting images, videos, audio

svsdbdf — Pupils from St. Andrew’s RC High School wearing Fairtrade cotton hoodies

sdvsd — Pupils from St. Andrew’s RC High School wearing Fairtrade cotton hoodies

Testimonials

Abronhill Primary School (Cumbernauld)

The children of Abronhill Primary School completed a 90kg Rice Challenge. Joyce Shannon (retired Depute Head Teacher) has written the passage below:

“The pupil Fairtrade Group at Abronhill enthusiastically took up the 90kg Rice Challenge. Each class was then involved in promoting and selling the rice. Middle stage classes designed and displayed posters in the local library and shops. Pupils used a section of the school eco-board to report back on progress, using a chart from the 90kg pack.

Pupils informed parents via the school and pupil newsletters, describing the benefit to the education of a Malawian child that buying the rice would bring. Parents and friends responded by buying the rice.”

St Elizabeth’s Primary (Hamilton, South Lanarkshire)

Pupils and staff at St Elizabeth’s Primary in Hamilton are very proud of their Fairtrade School status, and over the years they have worked hard to create opportunities to promote Fair Trade in a fun way. One activity they’ve created is ‘Helping Fairtrade Hands’, which promotes greater awareness of Fairtrade products and issues by recycling waste paper wrappers in a fun, unique art project.

“Pupils save wrappers from Fairtrade snacks they have eaten at home or school. Each class then gathers their wrappers and displays them in large transparent bags for all visitors, staff and pupils to see in the school foyer. The wrappers are reused (which fits with the Eco-Schools criteria as well!) to make ‘Fairtrade Hands.’ Plastic gloves collected from petrol display courts are stuffed with the wrappers and the ‘hands’ provide a colourful reminder of Fairtrade all to see around the school. Wrappers have also been used to make giant collages of the letter ‘F’ for Fair Trade – the ‘F Factor’!”

Kelty Primary (Fife)

Kelty Primary set up a tuck shop which is run twice a week by the children, a member of staff and a regular parent who has been helping for over a year. They order for the tuck shop once a month (at approximately £300 per month) and children use it well. They are now looking for healthier snacks, however, as they are not as easy to source. The tuck shop children have aprons and a big banana promoting Fair Trade and this has had an enormous impact on people choosing Fair Trade at home, because the children are increasingly aware of Fair Trade issues. The tuck shop is high profile at the many Fair Trade events Kelty Primary organises throughout the year with many of the parents sampling and buying Fair Trade products.

Nursery Case Studies

High School of Glasgow Kindergarten

Merlwood Nursery

St Mary’s Nursery

Busby Nursery