St Edmund’s and the Fairtrade child at the annual Fairtrade Fair

In January the Fairtrade Club started on this year’s big art project: The Fairtrade Child. This is a life-size cardboard and papier-mâché figure, entirely covered in Fairtrade chocolate wrapping paper holding the world. The idea stems from this year’s theme, which is focusing on sustainability and our responsibility to our world. We are very proud of our child but it has not got a name yet. We asked Lower School children and parents to suggest a name and will vote on it on Monday. Suggestions such as ‘Ray’, ‘Coco’, ‘Unity’, ‘Divine’, ‘Pepe’ and ‘Faire’ are some of the many suggestions. What would you call it?

We took our Fairtrade child to the annual Fairtrade Fair in Canterbury. We displayed it together with our ‘Great Exhibition’ of the work Lower School has done on Fairtrade over the last few years. It made us all quite proud to look back at all the children who have been involved over the years. I have to mention two of our most loyal Fairtrade supporters: Josie and Katie Head, who were in Form 4 when we first started our Fairtrade events in 2014 and who are now in Middle Fifth. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm over the years and for wearing theFairtrade banana costume to get the message across!J

Our Fairtrade Club children performed two songs to the Lord Mayor Terry Westgate and all the guests at the Fair. Their singing and drumming was very well received. We were given a certificate by the Lord Mayor which acknowledges all the hard work Lower School has over the years. The children were fantastic and enthusiastically answered questions from other visitors about their learning and work. It was a great community event with an important message about why Fairtrade matters.