We were lucky enough to have Joanna Fianu, who is the Chair of Lancashire Fairtrade, and Semmie, her Ghanian husband, to come and deliver Fairtrade workshops to our KS2 children today. Semmie was able to to tell the children all about Ghana, the Fairtrade cocoa farmers and the chocolate trade there. The children were shown the outfits the cocoa farmers wear and the tools they use; and they had the opportunity to touch, smell and taste cocoa beans. Having spoken to the children, they found it really interesting and have learned a lot. Our visitors were delighted by the children's enthusiasm and their passion for supporting Fairtrade Farmers. Here are some photographs of one of the workshops.
 

We were delighted to welcome Adrian Morrell to Coppull Parish on Friday to tell us all about the Windrush Festival he was organising in Preston this weekend to commemorate Windrush Day. Adrian explained that people from the Caribbean came over to Britain after the Second World War to help rebuild the country and work in lots of industries, such as the newly formed NHS, mining and transportation, where we had a shortage of manpower. He showed the children lots of flags and asked them to identify the countries involved; and the children did fairly well at naming them. It made us all realise how many countries were involved and how multi-cultural Britain is, as a result of their arrival. He also explained that many British people had only seen black people in films, represented as caricatures or servants, and this contributed to the racism that many of the Windrush generation experienced when they arrived. Our children were shocked by this as they recognised that the arrivals were here to support our country and were treated unkindly and not appreciated for their contribution to society. Adrian reminded the children of the impact of the Caribbean community on our food, music and culture and then invited everyone to take part in the Windrush Festival at Avenham Park in Preston on Sunday. I am sure it will be a huge success and that lots of our children will attend. Here are some photographs of his visit.

Our Kingdom Club organised a Fairtrade Coffee Morning this Friday, as they want to support Fairtrade farmers across the world and ensure they receive a fair wage for their hard work. To achieve this they have encouraged all our parents to take part in a Fairtrade Bake Off and use Fairtrade ingredients like cocoa, ginger, chocolate, spices, sugar and bananas to create some delicious baked goods for our competition. Naturally, they wanted to get involved with the baking, so they spent the afternoon producing plate after plate of yummy treats for the coffee morning. Here are some photographs of the preparations, the event and the amazing entries for the Bake Off competition - don't they look wonderful?? Well done to Ava in Year 3, who baked a sensational lemon drizzle cake with a range of Fairtrade ingredients - it was delicious. And thank you, of course, to the Kingdom Club for all their hard work promoting Fairtrade.

 Yesterday, our Kingdom Club led a whole school assembly showcasing all the wonderful work that Fairtrade do to support farmers throughout the world. We learned about the hard work carried out by the cocoa farmers in South America to make cocoa, drinking chocolate, soap, body lotions and chocolate for our supermarkets; and how being a Fairtrade farmer has benefited their community. We were also encouraged to think about sustainability through a performance of 'Choc to to the Future' in which the world actually ran out of chocolate, which doesn't bear thinking about!!! Now that we are all so well informed, I am sure that we will all do our best to support Fairtrade at Coppull Parish. Well done to the Kingdom Club for such an interesting and entertaining assembly.

As part of Health Week, we had the Blackpool Circus Skills company visit us and teach our children lots of fantastic circus skills. The children learned to juggle scarves, balance plates, play with the Diablo, balance peacock feathers, use a balance board and fling a flower sticks. They showed impressive skills. Here are some photographs from our Year 6 class.

As part of this year's Health Week, we invited Enrich to school to carry out an Explorers' Assembly and set up an orienteering challenge in the school grounds. Here are some photographs of the assembly, where children had the opportunity to dress up as famous explorers; and one of our classes working as a team to complete the orienteering challenges. It looks like lots of fun! Thank you to Miss Robson for arranging this for our children.