Strategic

Planning is the foundation for making all those stunning actions, events and meetings happen, and developing ideas can be exciting. Make sure you’re thinking about what your actions will achieve and how they interlink.

Sample term plan

Sep- Recruitment/ Fairtrade stalls once a week.
Oct- Collect petitions to get Fairtrade policy for school.
Nov- Go to Shared Planet. Write to Head about Fairtrade policy for school.
Dec- Meet with Head about Fairtrade policy and hand in petitions. Plan for next term.

Term Plan template

Download a term plan template.

Case Study- Hunter High School

Hunter High P&P made a term plan which meant that they would raise awareness of Fairtrade through events and stalls before approaching the Head for support. They decided only to boycott the non-Fairtrade produce if staff were not willing to work with them towards the goal of Fairtrade status.

  • Sit down together at the start of term to plan some events, actions, and different types of meetings. Work out whether you really have time for everything, and be realistic about your resources. This will allow you to go ahead and book rooms and other things you will need.

  • Make your aims SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). For example ‘becoming a Fairtrade School by the end of the academic year’ is a specific, measurable and time-bound goal. As is something as simple as ‘having a Climate Change stall in the common room next Wednesday’.

  • Make sure everyone gets a copy of the resulting plan. That way if people don´t have time for every meeting they will still come to the things they are most interested in.

  • Ask yourself what your group needs most . If you need new members, plan for public events, or actions that will raise your profile. If you have the people but not the energy, plan for some inspiration - speakers, videos, and plenty of actions. If you need skills - plan that in.

  • Look back at the last term and see what worked and what didn’t. Learn from both your successes and failures. You could have a debrief meeting at the end of each term.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

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