Pupils at the Commonweal School in Swindon have marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery by spending their lessons investigating the subject of fair trade before watching the play One For Me.
The play, performed by the Fair Trade Theatre Company, was set on a simple stage which flipped from being a jail on a slave ship to a mansion, an African village and an exhibition.
The story followed a husband and wife who were taken from their African homes and put into slavery on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. From the sugar in a cup of tea to the greatest modern art gallery in the land, the play exposes the hidden horrors of Britain's slaving past.
Head teacher Keith Defter said: "This powerful play helped students in their studies in geography, history, drama and English to further their understanding in a very visual way.
"Creative learning I believe is the way forward."
Sales of products carrying the Fairtrade mark increase by 40 per cent every year in the UK, giving hundreds of thousands of producers in developing countries the chance to build a better future, says Christian relief agency Tearfund.
Peruvian coffee farmer and mother of four, Maridelsa Contrina Vera, says, "I'd like to encourage our friends in the UK to carry on buying Fairtrade coffee for us to be able to live a better life. We know that the fair trade market is for small scale producers like us."
Today, more than five million people - farmers, workers and their families - across 58 developing countries benefit from the international fair trade system.
