During March 2007, 9 children from our school attended a Fairtrade Fashion Show in Aberystwyth, where we opened the night by performing a presentation on Fairtrade.
A Fairtrade conference for primary school children was held at Ysgol Penglais on the 3rd of May, 2007. There were a variety of activities to do, ranging from tasting Fairtrade produce to printing pictures of Fairtrade produce. We had great fun. 
Here are the girls' group in the 'Ready Steady Cook'. They prepared some strawberries on cocktail sticks with a Fairtrade chocolate dip, and pineapples with orange slices and meringues. Delicious! 
On the 3rd of May, nine of us went to Penglais School on a bus because there was a Fairtrade day held there. I enjoyed all of the activities, but my favourite one was the Ready Steady Cook because it was funny, and we were allowed to taste the food that we cooked. Steffan, Year 6.
After we arrived, we had an assembly by Rhydypennau School. The children were acting like poor people from far away countries that grew food. They came to speak in pairs. One of each pair sold his food through Fairtrade. The other one wasn't as lucky and explained why making a living was so hard. They explained what was the difference between being a part of Fairtrade and not being a part of Fairtrade. One of the differences was that you had to use dangerous chemicals if you didn't sell your food through Fairtrade. I really enjoyed myself. Alaw, Year 5.
On the 3rd of May, we went to Penglais School in the morning, because there was a Fairtrade show there, and activities for us to do. There were only nine of us that went. There was this stall that showed honey. We got to taste the honey and I got Bluebell honey and Heather honey. There was another stall that allowed you to try Fairtrade chocolate, Fairtrade dried mangoes and Fairtrade juice. Rebecca, Year 5.
There was a special Fairtrade flag in the hall, which had been accross the whole world trying to get people to support Fairtrade. They showed you photographs of all the countries that the flag had been to, and we had to find those countries on a map of the world. A woman from Africa came to talk to us about how Fairtrade made a difference in Africa too. Ossia, Year 5.
We played a game called 'The Persuasive Game' . We were in teams of two and one group of three. We hade four pieces of paper with quotes on them by friends, family, shoppers and teachers. The ones that were acting the children had to persuade the people why they should by buying Fairtrade produce. One example was that one person liked the taste of Nescafe coffee, but we had to give reasons why Fairtrade coffee was better. Teleri, Year 5.
The activities we took part in were trying to get more people to buy Fairtrade things, trying to us to taste Fairtrade foods, and trying to get our friends and families to support Fairtrade too. We had lots of fun doing the Ready Steady Cook. We cooked strawberries with a chocolate dip, pineapple and oranges on cocktail sticks, and meringues with melted chocolate on top. It was very tasty. Katy, Year 5.
When we started the activities, the first one we did was the Ready Steady Cook! We had to go into two teams. In team 1 were Shaun, Ruby and I, with Steffan as captain. In team 2 were Katy, Ossia, Alaw, Rebecca and Teleri as captain. We had the most difficult ingredients to cook with. We cooked a salad with lettuce, tomato, orange peppers and pasta, and we also cooked coleslaw, and chocolate cakes, and iogurt with fresh mangoes. I think our team should have won! I really enjoyed the trip. Hanna, Year 6.
We had a day to raise money for charity, and years 5 and 6 prepared chocolate rice krispie and cornflake cakes for us.
On the Friday afternoon of the 29th of June, everybody at school had a picnic in an attempt to brake the world record for the biggest picnic ever! Aberystwyth Fairtrade Group organised the event, and Mrs Jen Horgan brought us bananas and orange juice. The weather wasn't good enough for us to go outside to have the picnic, but it was just as tasty inside in the classroom! We would like to thank Mrs Horgan for arranging the picnic for us.
In our school fair, some of the parents and teachers made Fairtrade tea and coffee. It was a chance for the pupils' families and friends to taste Fairtrade produce, and to try and persuade them to buy Fairtrade tea and coffee at home.
Here is Katy's mum preparing Fairtrade tea for the customers!
We have now elected our school's Fairtrade committee. We will be meeting once every half term to discuss ideas and plan of actions. We had a lesson where everyone in years 5 and 6 took part in a different research activity, ranging from looking into how many children brought a Fairtrade fruit with them to school, to invading the staff room and preparing a 'Fairtrade contract' for them.
Here are the elected members of the Fairtrade committee:
Welsh Secretary English Secretary Chairperson Research members
Alaw Dafydd Emily Hopkinson Amy Waters Ruby Cains and Maddy Parkinson
Years 5 and 6 prepared an assembly to remind the younger pupils about the benefits of using Fairtrade products at school and at home. We encouraged them to fill their lunchboxes with healthy Fairtrade foods, and to bring a Fairtrade fruit to eat at afternoon playtime.
Years 5 and 6 prepared a Fairtrade display to show families and friends what we've been doing to support Fairtrade in school. The school's Fairtrade website was up on the interactive whiteboard, and Mrs Horgan kindly offered to bring in different kinds of Fairtrade chocolate to taste. Our survey showed that the crunchy white chocolate was the tastiest!
The Reception class also made Fairtrade rice crispie cakes, and sold them on the cake stall. They had the Fairtrade logo on them.
Emily Hopkinson from Year 6 sent her poem about Fairtrade chocolate to Blue Peter and recieved a Blue Peter badge for her effort. Congratulations Emily!
Fairtrade Chocolate
To start off our Fairtrade Fortnight at school, we arranged a Football game with Craig yr Wylfa school. We had lots of fun playing with our new Fairtrade footballs, and playing against, as well as on the same team, as some of Craig yr Wylfa pupils. Mrs Jen Horgan was king enough to give us Fairtrade orange juice and biscuits at the end of our game. Big thanks to Mrs Horgan for her generousity and for Craig yr Wylfa pupils for coming to our school. 
Mrs Diane Isenberg asked us if we would be able to give a presentation on our Fairtrade activities at school at the Fairtrade conference in Penglais school. Nine children from Years 5 and 6 took part in the presentation. We also had the chance to meet two men from Ghana,, as well as tasting Fairtrade food, looking at Fairtrade objects, and guessing how the money we pay for a bar of chocolate gets shared from the cocoa producer to the shopkeeper. We also received a Faitrade football for taking part in the poster competition.
The best news we heard in the conference is that Llanilar school has now received its Fairtrade School status. Congratulations, and thank you to everyone whome have helped us. 
We had our Book Fair at school from the 3rd to the 5th of March, and on Tuesday the 4th of March, the teachers arranged Fairtrade tea and coffee for the parents to drink whilst we were looking through the books! Our Fairtrade Chairperson, Amy, also asked the children to try different chocolates and decide which one was Fairtrade.
All the schools in North Ceredigion had Fairtrade bananas for dessert to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight. They were delicious. Here we are enjoying the meal.
© 2007 Fair Trade Schools North Ceredigion