Fair trade issues have been embraced by primary school pupils who have created a garden and grown their own produce.

Youngsters at Eastry school celebrated their achievements with an end-of-term picnic.

Their project began at the beginning of the year and plans have been made to ensure the village school continues its support.

Head teacher Tim Halling said: “It all began with a visit by Charlotte Tagart from World Educational Development Group, East Kent, who led a school worship to raise our awareness of fair trade.

“This led to a whole school project, lead by the Conservation Club and Eco Team, so we all started to collect Fairtrade wrappers from our shopping to contribute to our displays.

“Everyone in the school had the opportunity to submit their garden ideas and the Eco Team selected their favourites to merge into the final design.”

Landscaping work started and seeds were planted.

Each class took responsibility for a box of flowers and vegetables, with staff helping children to create a floral mosaic.

Mr Halling added: “To finish it all off the whole school joined in a picnic when we harvested the salad and vegetables to enjoy eating with Fairtrade food.

“We are already thinking about our autumn planting for the next term, so our project will provide a long term feature to welcome visitors to our school.”

Fairtrade guarantees a better deal for Third World producers. For more details see www.fairtrade.org.uk