Year 6 Leadership

Since half way through Term 3, the Year 6 students have been working collaboratively on a wide variety of different initiatives. The first step for groups was to identify a need within our community.  Next, they devised a plan for addressing this need.

We have been extremely impressed with the ventures they have undertaken. Over the course of the next few weeks, the Leadership teams will be sharing information about their initiatives in the Newsletter. Our 'Fast Fashion Educators' have provided this week's instalment.

​Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is fascinating. Brands produce millions of textiles while selling them at dirt-cheap prices. However, in reality, they mass-produce clothing, supply atrocious quality clothing with synthetic materials and some provide working conditions for their employees that are not always up to standard. If we keep supporting these brands, the problem will never end.  We just wanted to let you know about the fast fashion industry and why not to buy from these unethical brands.

Workers who are employed at some fast fashion brands are expected to put in (on average) 14-16 hours per day, 7 days a week while being paid less than 39 cents per hour. They are not spending all that time in a clean, cared for factory, but in a dump with harmful chemicals which can cause cancer. Fast fashion is also unsustainable. It is the 3rd most polluting industry, only behind gas and agriculture. Over 500,000 tonnes of waste goes into the ocean, equivalent to 50 million plastic bottles! While doing this, they also produce garments with horrible quality.

Our 5/6 initiative group will be educating students about fast fashion by running lessons in classrooms. The lessons will consist of group members discussing fast fashion brands and their downsides. We will try to highlight the negative impact on the environment and what will happen if we continue to buy from these brands and continue to throw away our clothes so frequently. At the end of the information session the students will take part in a Kahoot (quiz) to test their new-found knowledge.

We hope that by teaching students about fast fashion they will try to avoid fast fashion brands because they understand the impact it has on the environment.

Our intention is that by teaching some people about fast fashion, they can also teach other people and we can spread the word so that we have a positive impact through our group’s initiative.  

Here are some links if you would like to take a closer look into fast fashion:

https://healthyhumanlife.com/blogs/news/what-is-fast-fashion

https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/

https://www.panaprium.com/blogs/i/fast-fashion-bad

Fast Fashion 5/6 Initiative Team: 

Jai, Everley, Thor, Annika, Katya, Blake, Ian, Renske.