Spar: Spar Kids 2005
Name:
Spar Kids 2005
Sponsor:
SPAR Ireland
In Brief
Recommendation:
It is the recommendation of the Campaign for Commercial-Free Education that Spar Kids 2005 not be used in its present form in primary classrooms.
Objective:
“to help with the implementation of the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum for years three and four” (3rd and 4th classes).
Classification:
Sponsored Educational Material and Competition.
Year:
2005
Past Record:
The same company produced a similar scheme, SPAR Kids 2004.
Materials:
Schools received (unsolicited) a teachers’ booklet with information on nutrition, exercising and health. Three large wallcharts are aimed towards the strand units of the SPHE curriculum with suggestions for classroom activities. Also included is a competition where students design a healthy lunch for a chance to win gym equipment, sports day kits or a party with a t.v. chef.
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High
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Fair
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Low
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Curricular Relevance |
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Logo/Brand
Presence |
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Influence on Spending |
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Comments:
This scheme claims to assist with the implementation of the primary school SPHE curriculum and to “include information covering each section of the curriculum”. However, we consider Spar Kids to be a patchy and food-dominated interpretation of the actual curriculum. Of its 20 pages, the booklet contains 8 full pages of recipes and ignores many important topics such as peer pressure, drugs, mental health and body image. The three wallcharts are similarly pre-occupied with food and eating, albeit with an emphasis on developing a healthy diet.
The main character in this scheme, “Sparky”, appears up to four times on each double sheet of the booklet apart from one. He is a bright boy – (red, yellow and green being main colours) – who wears the Spar logo on his t-shirt and cap. Page numbers in the booklet are written on the Spar tree logo, a logo which appears over 50 times in the booklet. The wall charts each carry the banner “SPAR KIDS 2005” as their largest heading and feature the three Spar store brands (SPAR, EUROSPAR and SPAR express) on each one.
Recommendation:
It is the recommendation of the Campaign for Commercial-Free Education that Spar Kids 2005 not be used in its present form in primary classrooms.
This decision is based upon what is considered to be blatant brand and logo promotion in the materials. The nutritional and fitness information, though well researched and presented, is not considered a balanced and appropriate resource in the implementation of the SPHE curriculum. The emphasis on recipes and food appears excessive and unsuitable for children in 3rd and 4th class. The association of one company brand with health and fitness is, we feel, not a fair one to communicate to students.
Teachers may wish to scan the suggestions provided as a means of augmenting work in very specific areas of SPHE curricular strands (eg the “food and nutrition” subset of the Strand Unit “Taking care of my body”). However, the ideas, topics and recipes found in this commercially laden scheme could, we feel, easily be sourced elsewhere. The study of health and fitness should be independent of any single brand, company or commercial logo.
