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St Peter’s Catholic Primary School in Leatherhead is a Fairtrade School. This means that pupils and staff try to include Fairtrade into their daily life and work to raise awareness of Fairtrade in the local community.
Over the past few weeks, the school’s International Club have been learning about Fairtrade issues. They were really shocked to find out that the bananas that are sent to school as part of the Free School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme for KS1 children (which is government funded) are not Fairtrade!
Every day, approx. 2.3m children aged 4-7 in state-funded schools receive a free piece of fruit which includes bananas. The pupils think that not including Fairtrade bananas in this scheme is setting a really bad example to children around the country and they want the Government to change this.
With headteacher Mr McKenzie’s permission, they have started an online petition to the Government to request that they consider changing all the bananas in the scheme to Fairtrade bananas. They need 10,000 signatures by the end of January 2023 to get a response from the government, so are asking everyone to sign the petition and encourage other people to do the same.
St Peter's pupils have shared their petition with parents at the school, local parishioners and other Fairtrade schools in the UK … but need lots more signatures.
Please consider signing the petition and sharing it with your friends and families. You can sign the petition by clicking here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619553
If you have any questions, the school's Deputy Headteacher, Mrs McDonnell (who is the teacher that helps International Club) will be able to assist. She can be contacted through the school office T: 01372 274913 or E: deputy@stpeters-leatherhead.surrey.sch.uk
Fairtrade is a system of certification that aims to ensure a set of standards are met in the production and supply of a product or ingredient. For farmers and workers, Fairtrade means workers’ rights, safer working conditions and fairer pay. For shoppers it means high quality, ethically produced products. Choosing Fairtrade means standing with farmers for fairness and equality, against some of the biggest challenges the world faces. It means farmers creating change, from investing in climate friendly farming techniques to developing women in leadership. You can find out more about it on the Fairtrade website here.
