Aims and objectives
This is a fun demonstration aimed at providing students with an overview as to how an EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) system works.

Previous knowledge
No previous knowledge is required for this activity although students would benefit from having had ‘real world’ experience of what happens at a supermarket checkout.

In the classroom
This activity is appropriate for KS3 pupils following the ICT National Curriculum. It demonstrates an EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) system which is used by most shops and supermarkets as a stock control and to reorder goods. This reduces the time consuming stock control tasks of manually counting stock and prevents shops from carrying too much stock.

The pupil is guided through a series of notes explaining EPOS and then watches an animated demonstration of the EPOS system in action.

This activity could be used as part of Unit 11 of the QCA Scheme of Work: Data and Misuse. Further discussion can examine the more accurate, faster and convenient till service given to customers and the use of information gathered about how well shops are doing and about the shops' customers through the input at the EPOS terminal.

A homework activity could be to study the information on a supermarket till receipt identifying the different components and their possible significance.

Curriculum references
ICT – KS3:
2b