Children at Burbage Primary School have been encouraging their parents to swap their usual brands of products for the Fairtrade equivalent to help producers in poorer overseas countries get a better standard of living.

Children in Year 6, led by teacher Sue Williams, welcomed parents to their afternoon assembly and urged them to take part in virtual swaps and to pledge that next time they buy products ranging from tea and coffee to orange juice and chocolate they will try Fairtrade equivalents.

Miss Williams said children had become interested in Fairtrade products and the difference it made for the producers to be paid fairer prices because of their studies this term.

“We have been doing Fairtrade as our topic this term and looking at global food markets and how we get our food, some of the good products and also some of the not so good,” she said.

Miss Williams is convinced that many children had taken the Fairtrade message to heart and would also try to persuade their parents to buy more Fairtrade goods in future.

Because the school could only have a very limited range on show, most of it sourced from the Pewsey Co-operative store, the ‘swaps’ had to be virtual with mums and dads agreeing to try Fairtrade products next time they went shopping, said Miss Williams.

They were able to try Fairtrade chocolate, tea, coffee and orange juice to show that the quality was as good or better than other brands and in some cases of similar cost, the teacher said.