Fairtrade Fortnight...

Tomorrow sees the start of this year's Fairtrade Fortnight...

Click on the logo to link to the Fairtrade Foundation website where you can find out more about why Fairtrade is important and about how you can get involved.
New for this year is Go Bananas - the aim being to get as many people as possible eating Fairtrade bananas between noon on 6th March and noon on 7th March... Click on the picture below to find out more.

And if you're that way inclined, you can become a fan of Fairtrade on Facebook or follow the Fairtrade Foundation on Twitter.

Why not leave a comment to let us know what you're doing for Fairtrade Fortnight? Better still, send a picture!

Make Trade Fair!

Chatting with Liam this morning reminded me of the fab Fair Trade movie he and Danny made a couple of years back...



Nice work boys!!

Fairtrade

A reminder that this week is the second week of Fairtrade Fortnight...

There will be a Fairtrade Stall in H5 at lunchtimes this week, and tickets for the Fairtrade Raffle are on sale every break and lunchtime this week in Humanities... Some very nice prizes to be won!

If you want to find out more about Fairtrade, have a look at the website of the Fairtrade Foundation http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/

Wake up and smell the coffee....

Black Gold tells the story of Tadesse Meskela, on a one man mission to save his 74,000 coffee farmers in Ethiopia from bankruptcy, and follows Tadesse as he travels the world in an attempt to find buyers who will pay a fair price for his coffee.



The film was released on 8th June in the UK, and is showing at the Ritz Cinema in Belper on 30th June and 4th/5th July, and at the Nottingham Broadway from 6th to 12th July.

More information about the film and other screenings here...

Go and see it, and leave a comment to tell us what you thought!

RED NOSE DAY!

What is happiness? And what makes you happy?

Those are the two questions we've been thinking about today... Have a look at this bit of the Comic Relief website to find out about some children that Comic Relief has helped... What makes them happy?


There are also lots of games on the site, and a competition to design a Fairtrade computer game and have it made into a real game!


Leave a comment and tell us what you have done for Comic Relief, and what makes you happy!

HAPPY RED NOSE DAY!

Green TV

Green TV is a site linked with the United Nations Environment Programme and Greenpeace, and has some excellent short films on a wide range of environmental issues...

Year 13 will be watching one of them tomorrow ("Oil on Ice") - about whether the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska should be opened up for oil drilling, and there are a number of Fairtrade ones that we might having running during our tasting sessions on Thursday and Friday lunchtimes!

There is a variety of others that Yr13 should be having a look at as well - "Return to the Southern Ocean" and "Pole to Pole" are two that I've spotted... Have a look and leave a comment if you find any others that will link well to the Cold Environments work.

Fairtrade Fortnight is almost here!

26th February to 11th March is Fairtrade Fortnight, and 8NSq have been working hard to plan some events to help you learn more about Fairtrade...

Tutor time quiz - these will be appearing in register folders early next week - show us how much you know about Fairtrade, and win some prizes!

Tasting Sessions - lunchtimes on 1st and 2nd March in H5... Come and find out how nice Fairtrade products are!

Fairtrade Treasure Hunt - open to teams of upto four students in Yr7 and 8... lunchtime on 8th March...

Fairtrade Raffle - buy some tickets and win some fab Fairtrade goodies!

Look out for the posters and notices in registers for more details... learn more, join in, help farmers around the world to improve their lives, and spread the word!

Big Deal!

Thanks to Mrs K for pointing out this excellent site from Cafod - loads of information on a variety of development issues such as Fairtrade, Debt, HIV/AIDs, Conflict and the Environment, and you can also find out more about Cafod and the work that they do...

Useful for RE and Citizenship as well as Geography...

Fab Fairtrade Photos!

Dan Raven-Ellison - geography teacher extraordinaire from Reading - has put together this excellent "virtual transect" of a cocoa farm in Ghana. The farm is one of many that sells beans to Kuapa Kokoo - the co-operative that supplies Divine and Dubble Chocolate (ask my Yr8s about these... or better still, go buy some and try it for yourself!). Thanks Dan!

Dubble Dubble...

My Yr8 group were very lucky today to have the opportunity to talk via video link to Louise, who works for an organisation called Trading Visions whose aim is to increase awareness and understanding of Fairtrade. Louise has been to Ghana and stayed with some of the cocoa farmers there - she told us all about where chocolate comes from and how it is produced, and explained how Fairtrade helps these farmers, and then we had an opportunity to ask some questions (which we did very well!).

Clicking on the Fairtrade logo will take you to the website of the Fairtrade Foundation where you can find out lots about Fairtrade, how it works and the Fairtrade products you can buy (it's not just chocolate, you know!)

While we're looking at the logo... What do you think it shows? I've heard lots of very interesting suggestions and ideas when I've asked groups this in the past!

Louise also talked about Dubble and Divine chocolate - both of which are produced by the Day Chocolate Company. Yr8s tasted some Divine chocolate yesterday and it's sold in Sainsbury's and other supermarkets so you can try it for yourself... Dubble is sometimes available in supermarkets, but you can definitely buy it in Oxfam shops. The Co-Op also sell loads of Fairtrade products, including their own brand Fairtrade chocolate.

Click on the pictures below to find out more about Dubble and Divine, sign up to be a Dubble Agent, and watch out for events (and chocolate tasting opportunities!) in school during Fairtrade Fortnight - between 26th February and 11th March... If you have ideas for Fairtrade activities or would like to help out, email geogtastic@yahoo.co.uk or come and see me in H5!

"Season's Eatings" from Ben and Jerry's!

Amidst all the hype (or is it?) about global warming and ethical consumerism that's about at the moment, it was interesting to hear that Ben and Jerry's are the latest company to jump on the bandwagon, launching two new flavours - "Fairtrade Vanilla", and "Fossil Fuel". Their website also has a lot of information about Fairtrade and about global warming and CO2 emissions...

Click on the picture to go to their website and look at Caring Dairy and Cool Your Jets...