• Five million farmers, workers and their families are better off because of Fairtrade; you can help to increase this.
• Young people are passionate about global issues and really enthusiastic about Fairtrade - they will love it!
But there are other benefits too:

For the whole school

• It provides opportunities for challenge and growth
• Your school gets national recognition.
• The process of becoming Fairtrade School can contribute to Every Child Matters (England and Wales), and the Determined to Succeed programme in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Becoming a Fairtrade school can support other targets or initiatives, such as the Eco schools, Sustainable Schools, International Schools and Healthy Schools initiatives, the Curriculum for Excellence and Education for Excellence.
• You get a prestigious award to display at your school entrance with pride!

For students/pupils

• You'll be part of a national and international movement. weighing cocoa

• Gives you a chance to make a difference - make the world a fairer place, and you'll develop lots of new skills.
• You can play an important role in making your school better.
• It's fun!

For teachers

• Its an opportunity to spice up almost every area of the curriculum. See the curriculum links pages for more information.
• The scheme provides your school with exciting opportunities to explore citizenship from a global perspective.
• Becoming a Fairtrade School is a great learning opportunity and can be brought into all areas of the curriculum.
• It gives students an opportunity to participate and take responsibility for decisions, develop a wide range of new skills and grow in confidence.

Best of all, no-one has to do it alone - the Fairtrade Foundation Action Guide and schools website www.fairtrade.org.uk will give you signposts to many exciting local and national organisations and volunteers who are keen to support you in this work, and to provide you with information and inspiration. Available from March 2007.

FairTrade School Award

The Fairtrade Foundation have now introduced Fairtrade School guidelines. These are the goals that you need to work towards:

• GOAL 1: Our school has set up a Fairtrade School Steering Group. The steering group is a group of people - teachers, pupils, other adults in the school community - who get together to lead the school in becoming a Fairtrade School.

• GOAL 2: Our school has written and adopted a whole school Fairtrade Policy. The Fairtrade Policy puts in writing your decision to become a Fairtrade School, what that means for your school, and says that the whole school supports it.

• GOAL 3: Our school is committed to using, promoting and selling Fairtrade products. This is about making Fairtrade products (things such as drinks, snacks, footballs, fashion ...) available in your school and beyond.

• GOAL 4: Our whole school learns about Fairtrade issues. A Fairtrade School uses every opportunity to learn about the people who make the products, and how Fairtrade makes their lives more secure.

• GOAL 5: Our school is committed to promoting and taking action for Fairtrade in school and the wider community. Fairtrade is getting more popular as people realise the good it does - but its important to keep spreading the message, and encouraging more people to take action.

What should I do next?

• To look at your goals in more detail, download the record forms: Fairtrade Schools Goals.doc

• Register with Wirral Environmental Network to receive support from them
• email cheryl@la21.net

• Fulfil the five goals, gather evidence of your achievements, complete the record forms and return them to Wirral Environmental Network. They will be forwarded to the Fairtrade Foundation for validation.

Once your application has been processed and you have achieved all the goals, your school will be presented with a certificate as a record of your achievement.

If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?

(Nelson Mandela, 2005)