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Let's be friendsAbbey Grange School P&P launch the Fairtrade campaign
Jonathon Hill, a student at Abbey Grange, reports on the successes and challenges of the campaign so far...
Abbey Grange are working towards Fairtrade status
At Abbey Grange we decided we wanted to change our community for the better by becoming a Fairtrade school. As a Church of England school and a humanities college, Abbey Grange has set up several groups in recent years to campaign for social justice, such as fund-raising to build a school in India, raising awareness of the situation in Burma and now ending exploitation of producers in the global south by going Fairtrade.
It has not been an easy ride, although the school had already achieved some of the Fairtrade goals on paper, like getting a policy and teaching students about trade justice, we came up against many challenges in making sure that they were implemented. For example, some subjects no longer teach Fairtrade and trying to get this back into the curriculum is proving quite difficult. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. We have managed to get a commitment from the school that it will be taught in many subjects by next year (2009-10). We also had a Fairtrade policy in place which a previous People & Planet group had lobbied for, but it was drawn up, signed and then promptly forgotten about. In fact, we couldn’t actually find the policy for a while. It seemed to get lost in a sea of paperwork and we still have no electronic copy of it. The policy will need to be redrafted, but we are still managing to find time for some fun awareness raising actions: our chocolate stalls have gone down a storm.
Despite the challenges we are learning a lot about how to campaign effectively (not least that you should keep a copy of policies and agreements and make sure that they are put into action!) and in the end the cause is definitely worth it.
Jonathon Hill
Abbey Grange School P&P group are campaigning to get their school Fairtrade status.
P&P supports over 70 groups in schools and colleges, helping them to campaign on issues effecting their lives. As a student-led organisation our aims are to empower young people and to have an impact on issues of social justice and the environment.
If you would like P&P to come to your school to set-up a campaign group or you would like more information, check out P&P’s work in sixth forms and colleges.
