Pupils at Sir John Leman High School in Beccles have been getting into the swing of Fairtrade Fortnight.
To promote awareness of Fairtrade produce, a group of dedicated Year 9 pupils showed the younger students how to make delicious smoothies with ethically-sourced ingredients.
The school’s Fairtrade Action Group spent weeks researching recipes and planning the event, held at the school on Tuesday.
One of the Year 9 pupils organising the workshop was Anya Sainsbury, who said: “We came up with the idea of making smoothies and we were going to sell them, but we thought it would be more fun if people could make some themselves - it’s more interactive.
“We’ve been asking pupils what they wanted to put in their smoothie - everyone has gone straight for the chocolate!”
Ingredients included Fairtrade Malteasers, Mars bars, bananas and locally-sourced milk.
And during the fortnight, pupils heard from the Beccles Fairtrade Town Steering Group and a Kenyan tea producer who talked about his work.
In the staffroom, teachers also joined in by swapping their usual breaktime snacks for Fairtrade coffee, tea and hot chocolate.
Year 9 pupil Rebekah Aiken said: “It’s just nice to help out and do things for other people, and I really enjoy food technology.
“I hope people will be more aware of Fairtrade and when they go to the shop they know they’ve got that option.”
Sir John Leman is currently working towards a Fairtrade School Award, and is at the first level - ‘Fair Aware’.
Events like the smoothie workshop will help it move onto becoming ‘Fair Active’, the next step to becoming a Fairtrade School. It was overseen by teacher Kirsten Remer, who said: “The Fairtrade Action group has been meeting once a week since Christmas and then more regularly over the last month or so to plan for this, it really has come from the students.
“The whole fortnight is about raising awareness of Fairtrade as we’ve been covering it in assemblies and lessons as well.”
Is your school organising an event? Email polly.grice@archant.co.uk with the details.
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