The Trade Game.

In honour of Fairtrade Fortnight, today the Year 7s played the 'Trade Game'. Half of the Year 7s (about 120 kids) played today and the other half will play tomorrow. This is a real classic where small groups of students are allocated a specific country and they either have the raw materials or the means of production - or some combination of both. They also start with various different amounts of money, based on how rich or poor their particular country actually is.

The 'raw materials' were sheets of paper and the 'means of production' were a stapler, scissors and a pencil. They had to make small booklets and then sell them to the teacher. The booklets had to be a certain specification and quality and any that fell short of this were paid less for. As in real life, the price regularly went up and down so the kids not only had to work out how to make a booklet if, say, they didn't have a stapler, but they also had to try and get the best possible price.

There were 35 countries in total and it was brilliant seeing so many playing this game at once. They were supposed to trade with each other to get what they needed to make the booklets and it was really interesting seeing how the different groups worked. Some students sold their staplers, scissors and pencils which was quick, easy money but then they found they were left with no way to make a booklet. Others showed great goodwill and loaned other groups items... which were never to be seen again. Some groups (mostly the ones that had a lot to start with) proudly waved their wads of 'loadsamoney' while many others made a loss. One student (who was like a one-boy Interpol throughout) told me someone had stolen their stapler but there was no evidence (and anyway, apparently it was sold on several times so the trail became impossible to follow!). Several others seemed to be letting loose their 'inner dictator'!

After the students finished - and hopefully had a good idea of the difference between 'fair' and 'unfair' trade - a lady came to talk to them about the Fairtrade Foundation and they watched a couple of short videos.

I thought it was wonderful but the best bit was this totally unrelated video that one of the teachers showed me today. Watch it all if you can. It's terrific. And here's a link to the maker's website...