Hampshire County Council Trading Standards Service

Aims / Outcome

To encourage children to consider safety and suitability when buying goods and to raise awareness of the hazards that may exist with certain products.

Objectives

By the end of the scenario the children should be able to:

understand that everyday familiar products offered for sale may be hazardous and not necessarily safe to use or consume
check for specific hazards, exercise choice, and make appropriate critical buying decisions
distinguish between counterfeit and genuine products and become aware of the dangers and consequences of buying fakes and copies
recognise that some widely available products are age-restricted for sensible health or safety reasons

How this will be achieved

Our scenario is a shop and we work around the SHOP message:

Safe
Honest
OK to eat
Permitted

The children are spilt into 2 teams, each with their own table, subdivided into 5 parts based around the four areas contained in the SHOP message, plus an additional one on pricing/value for money. All of the scenarios give the children a choice of 3 or 4 answers to specific circumstances/questions. They are given a basket into which they put what they believe is the correct answer.

When they have completed this task they bring the basket to a member of Trading Standards staff, who discuss with them what they have bought and what are, or could be, problems.

The activity is not a test, but designed to encourage pupils to develop critical buying habits, look for and at product label and warnings, and be aware of the age restriction attached to the sale of specific goods.

Items on the stall include:

Food - to look at labelling, aspects of nutrition, and whether or not it is in date. Difference between 'use by' and 'best before'.
Various drinks including alcohol to discuss the age at which it is legal to buy them.
Toys and other goods to discuss safety and suitability. What the CE mark means.
DVDs - some counterfeit. How to avoid buying fakes and what the problems are.
Packs of fruit at different prices to calculate value for money.