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FairAchiever Award

The final step in the Fairtrade Schools Award is FairAchiever.

At this point the school has fully embedded Fairtrade into their daily life and work to raise awareness of Fairtrade in their local community.

You will need to submit evidence to become a FairAchiever School which will be assessed by an independent assessor. Below are the requirements for this step which you will be able to upload on to the relevant section of your school’s profile page.

1. Adopt a Fairtrade policy

Your Fairtrade Group should be responsible for the Fairtrade Policy if possible. This is a record of why the school wants to make a commitment to Fairtrade, and what the school would like to do to support Fairtrade. Please make sure your policy is signed when you upload it.

For a sample policy, click here.

When you come to renew your award please make sure you review your policy to ensure it is still relevant to your Fairtrade commitments.

2. Repeat the Learner Audit

At this point you will need to carry out another Learner Audit. This asks young people a little about their knowledge, attitudes and opinions about the world around them and should take them around 10 minutes to complete. At least 60 learners should complete the audit – or the whole school if it’s smaller. If you do not have 60 pupils in the school please contact us on schools@fairtrade.org.uk. The Learner Audit can be downloaded, given out to pupils and then collated. These do not have to be the same pupils who completed the audit previously. It is important to know that there are no wrong answers. This should be an honest reflection of the understanding and values of students so please try not to influence the answers in any way. A teacher will need to record the results of the learner audit for self- assessment.

You may wonder why you are being asked to repeat this audit. There are two reasons. Firstly it is useful for your school to see if there is any difference in attitudes before and after their work on Fairtrade. It will also highlight any areas where you may need to do more work. Secondly it provides us with longitudinal data about the impact of the Fairtrade Schools Awards on the knowledge and attitudes of young people.

Please note that if your pupils are under seven years old or have special educational needs we have developed an Alternative Learner Audit which you may find more suitable. The Alternative Learner Audit is based around a story pack for young learners which can be downloaded here.

3. Embed learning

Embedding Fairtrade into your learning is a crucial element of the FairAchiever Award.

There are lots of learning resources to help you to teach about Fairtrade, from films to lesson and assembly plans. If you need any more guidance on finding a specific resource then do let us know.

For more information on how you could embed learning in your school, download our useful guide.

4. Use Fairtrade products

By the time you are a FairAchiever School you should be using Fairtrade products wherever possible. This might include tea, coffee and sugar in the staff room or at meetings, Fairtrade sugar and dried fruit in Food Technology lessons, Fairtrade fruit and juices in the canteen or Fairtrade cotton uniforms. Obviously some of these switches will be easier to make than others but it is always worth contacting your catering supplier or local authority and seeing if they are able to help in any way. Perhaps your local Fairtrade Group could do a presentation to show the benefits.

There is more information on where to source Fairtrade pages on the ‘Buying Fairtrade‘ pages of the website as well as the National Purchasing Guide, which has a list of UK suppliers.

5. Take two of our Fairtrade challenges

Because every school is different and what is possible in one school is not always possible in another school, the Fairtrade challenges are designed so that you can pick and choose which one you would like to work towards. It also means that when you renew at FairAchiever you can try something different each time. If you have previously completed the FairActive Award then the additional challenges you selected at that point will be relevant to this section.

We are aware that with the current circumstances this may be more challenging and so have added suggestions for how you could complete some of these challenges virtually or in class bubbles.

For FairAchiever you will need to take two of the challenges below:

Make a Fairtrade switch

Making a switch might involve working with your canteen, catering company or even local authority to switch to Fairtrade bananas in your canteen. You could also encourage a local café or restaurant to switch to Fairtrade ingredients.

Run a campaign

Have a look at our Take Action pages and see if there are any national campaigns that your school would like to be involved with or perhaps younger pupils could create a campaign to encourage staff to switch to Fairtrade tea and coffee in the staffroom.

Put on a Fairtrade event

This might be a Fairtrade bake sale, a Fairtrade fashion show or running a stall at a local event to raise awareness of Fairtrade.

Fundraise for Fairtrade

This could be through a Fairtrade tuckshop or perhaps a bakesale, there are lots of ideas here. Take a look at some of the activities and games that we have such as ideas for event decorations and quiz sheets.

Invite a visitor to speak about Fairtrade

There are many people that you could invite to speak at your school – your local Fairtrade community group may have somebody who would like to come and speak to pupils about Fairtrade. Or get in touch with a local Fairtrade-supporting supermarket to see if they have somebody who can talk about Fairtrade in your school or at a parents’ or community event.

It is also possible to request a visit from a member of staff from the Fairtrade Foundation.

A school visit related to Fairtrade

This could be a visit to an exhibition about trade, a schools conference or an event where a Fairtrade producer is speaking. Or talk to your local supermarket about running a Fairtrade visit, event or activity with them.

Hold a Fairtrade conference

This would involve inviting other schools to come along to a day or an afternoon of Fairtrade activities. You can use our schools map to find out which other schools in your area are working towards their Fairtrade Schools Awards. If you would like any help with this challenge please let us know at schools@fairtrade.org.uk.

Involve the wider community or another school

Take your learnings and activities to another school in your area, show them what you have been up to and help them begin their Fairtrade journey. Or perhaps you could work with a local Fairtrade community group on a project to share your Fairtrade work with the wider community.

Invent your own Fairtrade challenge

We’re sure that you have lots of great ideas that would suit your school so do feel free to get creative and come up with another activity that promotes Fairtrade in your school and/or local community.

Join us on Twitter at  @FairtradeUKEd