First-year Huntly pupil details brilliant Fair Trade efforts at The Gordon Schools
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A FIRST-year pupil has shone a light on how The Gordon Schools is supporting the Fair Trade movement.
Emily Berry (12) said the school had united behind two projects which showed off great Fair Trade goods and helped Huntly learners develop life skills.
She writes:
Recently, at The Gordon Schools, we have been working on lots of Fair Trade projects including The Rice Challenge and The Coffee Coven.
The Rice Challenge saw the school purchase 90kg of rice from farmers in Malawi, before pupils sold one kilogram bags of rice to people in and around their local area.
We interviewed some of the pupils at TGS who participated in The Rice Challenge.
They told us that some of the rice bags were sold to teachers, and pupils took the time out of their day to go to parents evening and sell rice to the parents who were there.
Amazingly, pupils managed to sell every bag of rice they bought – a whopping 90 bags at the price of £4 per bag.
This raised a total of £360.
TGS first got the idea to do The Rice Challenge from Mrs McGowan.
Some of the money that was made was given to the farmers in Malawi who gave them the rice, but the rest of the proceeds went to help pay for the education of Malawian children.
English teacher Jane Seivwright, who helped with The Rice Challenge, said: “I enjoyed this project because it gives children who are less fortunate than us a chance to go to school.”
Overall, The Rice Challenge was a great activity to help the pupils and teachers at TGS get involved in Fair Trade and help people around the world who are less fortunate than us to get the education that they need.
Another Fair Trade project that has been happening at TGS was The Coffee Coven.
This project has been running for around four years and is a course for S5 and S6 pupils.
The Coffee Coven helps teach pupils barista skills and how to make lots of different drinks and coffees.
At the end of the course, pupils are rewarded with a barista certificate.
This can eventually help pupils to get a job as a barista or something similar.
The Coffee Coven serves delicious drinks in the John Swan Atrium on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Each drink is priced at roughly £1.50 but it depends on which drink you want to buy.
Of course, all ingredients used in the beverages are Fair Trade, and money made from selling the drinks is used to buy more milk, sugar, and other ingredients.
Alex, who has been participating in The Coffee Coven, said: “It has helped me learn and it’s great that we use Fair Trade products.”
We also interviewed Esme Strachan, part of both The Rice Challenge and The Coffee Coven.
“It’s rewarding and worthwhile to be involved in both Fair Trade Projects," she said.
The Gordon Schools is a very Fair Trade friendly school and it is clear that everyone – pupils and parents alike – enjoyed helping with the projects that have been going on.
And we hope to participate in many more in the future!
