Buy Smart teachers' resources

As a teacher, why do you think the Buy Smart Program is important?

Well just understanding consumer rights. The students don't know their rights.

So, I really appreciated when Patrick Fox came through and actually spoke to the kids as well, just to give them ideas and help them to understand it a bit more.

And then they could go further and explore and research and the things they came up with after that were pretty remarkable.

It's really broadening their minds and really understanding their rights—it's actually a good service to the country, to let them know more about consumer rights.

What lessons were learnt from incorporating Buy Smart into your classroom?

Well, we did major consumer decisions and they had to go through:

• What are their rights?
• Can they actually go and refund a car when they buy it, when they go into a dealership, if it's a new car?

There were some surprises that came across.

It was good for the students and they've made a beautiful, tangible project with something that you can really look at and understand and explore and to make it interesting. So that's something very relevant for them.

Did the Office of Fair Trading visit your school for a free presentation?

They came to our school and explained the whole story to us and gave a little presentation that sparked a lot of interest for the kids to go and explore and find out more.

Communication from Chris, also brilliant. Really appreciated his emails coming through, very prompt with things, so we never had a problem thinking where we stand, so he was very clear in his communication.

Did any of your students win a prize in the Buy Smart Competition?

Well, we actually have 2 students with entries that are going to receive something, so that’s actually fantastic—just to be able to come here all the way from Gladstone.

We don't know—the anticipation—what they're going to get, but it is just a privilege to be here.

We've only done it the last 3 years. The first year we had an entry that also came, so it's the hype and it broadens the kids’ perspectives on what's out in the world as well. They work and they can actually get something for it, which makes them more enthusiastic about the issues.

Consumer rights is just so broad—understanding scams, how to make major consumer decisions are the topics we entered this time around. So yeah, awesome stuff!