Hello, my name's Mrs. Hopper and I'm looking forward to working with you in this lesson on personal finance.

We're going to be thinking about lots of different aspects around money, where money comes from, what money is spent on, how things are funded, and how the government raises money as well.

So if you're ready to make a start and to have some interesting discussions about how we make and how we spend our money, let's get going.

In this lesson, we're going to be thinking about ethical spending.

So we're going to be thinking about making decisions between products and considering the environmental and ethical way that they've been produced.

Oh, lots of important words there.

Let's have a look at the language we're going to be using in this lesson.

So here are our key words for this lesson.

We've got ethical, Fairtrade, recycling, and sustainable.

Let's just practise saying those words before we find out what they mean.

I'll take my turn and then it'll be your turn.

So my turn, ethical, your turn.

My turn, Fairtrade.

Your turn.

My turn, recycling.

Your turn.

My turn, sustainable.

Your turn.

I wonder if you've come across those words before.

Some of them might be familiar to you.

Some of them might be words that you've heard but maybe haven't really explored their meaning.

So let's have a look at what they mean.

So when something is ethical, it is in line with beliefs and principles about what is right or wrong or morally correct or acceptable.

Ethics are something that's really interesting to think about.

It helps us to guide the way that we behave and maybe the way that we spend money.

That's what we're going to be looking at today.

You might have seen Fairtrade on some products that you've bought or some things that you have at home.

Fairtrade means that producers such as farmers are paid a fairer price for their work.

There are also higher environmental standards and investment in local communities.

For example, building schools.

Recycling is treating things that have already been used so that they can be used again.

Recycling's really important and I'm sure you recycle things at school and maybe at home as well.

Sustainable, means causing little or no environmental damage.

So for example, if trees are cut down to make a product, more are replanted.

So listen out for these key words.

We're going to be using them in our lesson.

In the first part of our lesson, we're going to be thinking about what an ethical product is, and in the second part, we're going to think about making ethical decisions.

So let's make a start on part one and think about what is an ethical product.

And we've got Alex, Jacob, Sophia, Aisha, and Alex's older sister with us in the lesson today.

Alex wants to buy a bar of chocolate.

Fairly straightforward.

I'm sure we've all bought a bar of chocolate at some point.

He says, which one should I buy? Jacob says, "Buy the cheapest one, then you can buy more." Well, that's one way of thinking about it.

Sophia says, "Just buy the one you know you like.

You know one, you know you're going to enjoy eating." It's a good idea as well.

What does Alex's older sister say? She says, "Have you thought about being an ethical shopper?" Hmm? Have you ever thought about being an ethical shopper? Alex finds out more about ethical chocolate.

So we've got some chocolate here.

Some of it's labelled as fair trade, some organic, some has Rainforest Alliance sticker on it, and some of it says Plastic free.

He says, "There are so many, which chocolate should I buy?" His sister says, "Let's take a look at what some of the labels mean." So Fairtrade was one of our key words.

Can you remember what it meant? So Fairtrade means that growers are given a better price.

So the people who grow the cocoa beans are given a better price for those beans by the company that makes the chocolate.

Do you know what organic means? You might have seen organic produce.

Organic means that it's been grown without artificial chemicals.

So the idea is that it's kinder to the environment and that the product itself won't have the risk of any of those chemicals present.

The Rainforest Alliance helps to protect habitats and you can see rainforest.

So we're thinking about those places where we're at risk of losing a lot of trees and a lot of habitats for creatures, there's a risk of extinction in some areas because of the rainforest being destroyed.

So the Rainforest Alliance works with producers to try and protect areas of rainforest.

Plastic free, some chocolate is packaged without using plastic plastic's, much harder to recycle and it takes a long time to biodegrade.

So plastic free packaging is something that a lot of people are aiming for at the moment.

Alex investigates Fairtrade chocolate.

He says "A cocoa farmer gets a tiny amount of money from each pound that you spend." So then we've got a sort of pie chart, haven't we? And a big area of it is in that dark colour and a tiny bit is in the paler colour.

So if that represents a pound, five pence goes to the farmer.

95% goes on other ingredients, transports, the shop and company profits.

I wonder how much of that is real profit? Hmm.

A Fairtrade farmer gets paid about twice the amount.

So a fair trade farmer will get 10 pence from every pound and only 90 pence then left.

So where does that five pence have to go? Maybe it goes in the profits.

Alex wonders about other Fairtrade products.

He said, "Is it just chocolate that can be fair trade?" His sister says, "No, there are lots of products that can be Fairtrade." You might have seen a fair trade sticker on bananas.

There's Fairtrade coffee and tea, there's Fairtrade clothing, and other Fairtrade gifts and products.

And with all of these, there's a guarantee that the person who's doing the producing of the materials to go into this product is getting a fairer price for their product and their work.

Alex thinks about other ethical products.

"How else can you tell if a product is ethical or not?" He says, and his sister says, "There are other things for you to think about." And here are some.

The Forest Stewardship Council, FSC.

So if you're buying products made from wood, these will come from sustainably grown forests.

So any trees cut down to make those products are replaced by new trees for the future.

There are biodegradable products that break down naturally.

It's always worth looking on packaging of things to see if it's recyclable or biodegradable.

The leaping bunny on a product means that it's not been tested on animals.

And that's another thing that some people are very keen to avoid.

They want to know that no animals have been harmed in producing the product that they're buying.

And an RSPCA assured mark so that's the, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

That mark is used for farms that consider animal welfare.

So that means that they treat their animals well and they keep them in good conditions which allow them to lead as natural a life as possible.

I wonder if you've come across any of these or if you've seen any of these labels, maybe you'll have a look out for them next time you are out shopping.

Alex is feeling a bit overwhelmed.

I have to admit Alex, there's a lot of information here, isn't there? He says, "How do you ever buy anything?" And his sister says, "I try to think positively.

How can I make a difference with my money?" That's a really interesting way of thinking about it.

Considering what we're buying, can we make a difference to the environment and to the lives of people and to the lives of maybe animals involved in this product by spending our money wisely? So she says, "I can buy from small companies." I can buy local products because there's less transport needed often.

I can only buy things that I'm going to use or eat.

Did you know that one third of our food is thrown away? So we think really carefully, do I need that? And only buy the stuff that we know we're going to use and eat we can reduce waste.

And we can think about buying from charity shops.

It's a great way of recycling or reusing and it costs less.

"Cheap, fast fashion is an environmental disaster," she says.

Hmm, she might tell us a bit more about that later.

So yes, buying secondhand, buying from charity shops is a really good way of reusing and recycling things so that we are not adding to that mountain of waste.

So there are two questions here.

Time to check your understanding.

Are these ethical questions or not? Pause the video, have a think and when you're ready for some feedback, press play.

What did you think? So are these ethical questions? "So how good it tastes," Alex says, "Is important, but it's not an ethical issue." It's a personal thing, isn't it? Of course you want to buy something that tastes good.

Fairtrade is an ethical issue.

It's very important to some people.

So is it Fairtrade will be an ethical question and some people will try very hard to buy fair trade products because they believe it's the right way for the world to work and for people to interact with those people who produce the goods that we buy.

Okay, time for you to do some practise.

There are some questions for you to sort, which are ethical questions and which are not.

You might find it helpful to discuss ideas with a partner.

And Sophia says, "Think carefully, it might be important, but it's not about right and wrong." Remember, these are things linked to our own beliefs, our own ethical decisions.

And can you think of any examples of your own? So you'll find the questions on another sheet.

Have a look and see if you can sort them into that table.

Pause the video, have a go.

When you're ready for some feedback, press play.

How did you get on? So those were your questions.

This is how we sorted them.

So those were our ethical questions and are not ethical questions.

Is it expensive? Does it taste good? Is there lots of added sugar? That is important.

Okay, some of you might be trying hard not to eat as much sugar.

So knowing the sugar content of your food is very important, but it might not necessarily be an ethical question.

"Is it made or grown locally? Could be an ethical question," says Aisha.

"Well, it depends." And Sophia says, "Just because it's expensive doesn't make it ethical." That's really important, isn't it? Expensive things aren't always ethical.

And let's start the second part of our lesson, helping us to make ethical decisions.

Alex has spotted a problem with ethical products.

He says "Ethical products are often more expensive." Jacob says, "People might not want to spend more or maybe they don't have enough money to buy those ethical products." His sister says, "Are you paying more or are you just paying the price that we should be paying?" So is the cheaper product less ethical than we want it to be? Is it giving a false impression of how much things really cost? That's a really interesting question to think about, isn't it? And Sophia says, "Buying ethically can make you feel good." Even if you can't do it all the time if you make some decisions about ethical buying, it can make you feel good and make you feel that you are doing your bit to help other people and maybe to help the planet as well.

Ethical spending is not very simple either.

"Are all Fairtrade products the same? Asks Alex.

"No, they aren't." Says his sister.

And this is where things can get complicated.

Not all Fairtrade chocolate producers pay workers the same.

So there are differences even within fair trade companies.

And some chocolate not labelled as Fairtrade actually gives their workers an even better price.

So maybe we need to do a bit of research into the chocolate companies that we like just to see how good they are and how close they are to being fair trade, even if it doesn't say fair trade on their labelling.

Some products claim to be ethical but are not.

"Do you mean these companies lie?" Says Alex.

"Well, not always, but they often exaggerate or do not give all the facts." Advertising is all about trying to get us to buy things.

So they might exaggerate the good points and maybe not tell us so much about the bad points.

Some products claim to have recyclable packaging, but it can't easily be recycled.

You have to separate it.

It has to go through a process in a specific place.

So it is recyclable but not easily so, and it takes a lot of energy to do that recycling.

Some companies make up their own labels.

So instead of using Fairtrade, but nobody really checks that they're being responsible.

And there is something around called greenwashing where companies claim to be eco-friendly when they're not.

Green is something we often give to things that environmentally friendly.

So if people try to say that their products are very green, they might actually be exaggerating and not quite giving the full picture.

It's always worth checking out and doing your research if this is something you feel is really important.

Alex wants to know about some other ethical issues.

He says, "fast fashion." Yes, his sister mentioned this earlier.

So people buy cheaply made clothing that does not last.

It's often made from unnatural materials that do not biodegrade.

So things that have a lot of plastics involved in them.

The workers who make the clothes are often very poorly paid and mountains of old clothes cause environmental problems. His sister was really keen to suggest that he might like to think about buying secondhand clothes, visiting the charity shops, getting a bargain, but also stopping clothing from going into mountains of old clothes, into mountains of rubbish.

He says, "I could buy clothes from charity shops or buy Fairtrade clothes." "Even better don't buy anything at all.

That's the most sustainable option." I don't think his sister's saying we shouldn't be wearing any clothes, but we should make the most of our clothes and wear them for as long as we can.

And sometimes buying that better quality first, allows something to last longer.

Alex wants to know about some important issues.

He says, "I've heard that there's a problem with palm oil too." You might have heard about palm oil as well.

Palm oil is found in many products like biscuits, chocolate bars, even lipstick.

Tropical rainforests are often cleared to grow it.

Rare animals live in these rainforests including orangutans.

And orangutans are really endangered at the moment because their environment, their habitat is being destroyed because of palm oil production.

But there is sustainable palm oil and it is available.

So Alex's sister says, "Look carefully for RSPO on products.

This means it is sustainable palm oil." She said, "It's not perfect, but it's better." And hopefully we're protecting the environments of endangered species such as orangutans.

Time to check your understanding.

Alex still needs to make a decision about chocolate.

He's narrowed it down to three.

"Which chocolate should I buy?" He says.

Pause the video, decide how you would advise Alex.

And when you're ready for some feedback, press play.

What did you decide? Remember your decision is your decision, your own beliefs and your own ethics will come into this.

Let's see what Sophia recommended.

She says, "I'd buy the 1.

80 pound bar of chocolate.

It's Fairtrade, but not the most expensive." What did you decide? There's no right or wrong answer to that.

It's your decision on how to spend your money and how you decide to prioritise those sorts of decisions.

Time for you to do some practise now.

Imagine you are buying a bar of chocolate.

Think about what's important to you.

And you might find it helpful to discuss these ideas with a partner.

And remember, it's okay to disagree, but we must be sensitive to other people's feelings and allow people to have thoughts that are different from ours.

So there are some questions for sorting here, and you're going to sort them from the question that you feel is the most important down to the question that you feel is the least important.

Remember, respect each other's views when you're discussing.

Pause the video, have a discussion, and when you're ready for some feedback, press play.

I hope you enjoyed discussing our questions.

Let's have a look at how you might have sorted them.

So here are some possible responses.

Jacob said, "I think it's important that farmers are paid a good price for chocolate." So he's put, is it Fairtrade as his most important statement? Aisha said, "I try not to buy products that have plastic packaging, but is even more important." So when she's buying a bar of chocolate, the most important thing is, does it taste good? And that's okay.

She's trying to reduce the plastic packaging in her purchases, but it's gotta taste good.

I hope you enjoyed discussing all those questions.

Maybe you changed your mind after listening to somebody else's thinking.

But remember, your views are your own and your beliefs are your own.

And we've come to the end of our lesson.

We've been thinking about ethical spending.

We've been considering some really quite important questions and you may have had some quite tricky discussions.

So thank you for being part of this lesson.

What have we been thinking about? Well, what you buy has been made by someone and they may not have been paid well for their work, but there are schemes that make sure that what you buy is made in a sustainable or ethical way.

Sustainable products may cost more but may be better for the planet.

Lots of things for you to think about.

And I hope you'll look out for those labels when you are next out shopping.

And I hope I get to work with you again soon.

Bye-bye.