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Team from Edinburgh school crowned Young Consumers of the Year 2007

94/07    27 June 2007

A team of pupils from Portobello High School in Edinburgh have been crowned Young Consumers of the Year at a competition in Manchester.

They beat off competition from across the country to take home the coveted title and the top prize of £1000 for their school, which was presented by Samia Smith who plays Maria in Coronation Street.

The runners-up were Chatham House Grammar School in Kent and Holy Cross High School in Scotland.

The final tested the students' consumer skills and knowledge, and improved confidence in areas such as money and finance, food and health, safety and the environment.

OFT Consumer Education's Paul Burton, said:

'The amount spent by young people is enormous and they are increasingly involved in spending decisions whether it is mobile phones, computer games or traditional areas like clothes. Having a skilled group of consumers shopping around and aware of their rights benefits us all. The participants in Young Consumers of the Year gain valuable skills and a grasp of key consumer issues that they can pass on to parents, friends and adults.'

Photographs and interviews of the winners are available upon request.

NOTES

1. How would you do? The hundreds of schools participating in the Young Consumers of the Year competition successfully answered questions on food and drink, safety and the environment, consumer organisations and finance. Sample questions were: a) name the government body responsible for food safety? [Food Standards Agency]; b) toys with small, detachable parts must not be sold to children under what age? [three years]; c) if you buy a shirt labeled 100 per cent silk and then find that it is 50 per cent Polyester, what criminal has been broken [Trade Descriptions Act 1968]; d) which government department is responsible for collecting income tax? [Inland Revenue] e) a decline in general economic activity over a six month period is called what? [a recession]

2. Young Consumers of The Year is a competition that involves hundreds of schools and youth groups from across the country that rise to the challenge to become the nation's top young consumers of 2007. Coordinated by the Trading Standards Institute, it invites teams of four aged between 14 and 18 years old to compete in a knockout quiz and has links to several different areas of the national curriculum.

3. The competition is sponsored by the Office of Fair Trading, Argos, Consumer Education Liaison Group, Experian, Food Standards Agency, Financial Services Authority, and the British Toy & Hobby Association.

4. The schools in the final were: St Albans RC High School, Wales; Caldicot Comprehensive School, Wales; Chatham House Grammar School, South East; Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Manchester; Portobello High School, Scotland; Holy Cross High School, Scotland; Arthur Terry School, Birmingham; Heanor Gate Science College, East Midlands; Plymouth College, Plymouth; Allerton High School, Leeds; Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School, London.

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