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Teaching young people about money

Financial literacy is becoming increasingly relevant for children. It is easier these days for young people over 18 to borrow money and obtain store cards and loans. This article provides tips for teaching personal finance across the curriculum.

Young people of today are faced with a complicated array of financial services on offer, such as loans and pension schemes.

According to a YouGov poll for Insight Investment, 87 per cent of people felt financial literacy should be introduced as a compulsory topic to the school curriculum. Recent studies show 98 per cent of teenagers consider it valuable for the future to learn about managing their money and 89 per cent would like to do so at school.

Although it is not a compulsory teaching subject in its own right, there are opportunities for pupils to develop financial skills through their work in Mathematics, PSHE and citizenship, as well as through involvement in school activities such as work with business and the community. Since August 2002, financial literacy has featured in the teaching of PSHE through Key Stages 3 and 4 and Citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4. The PSHE framework states that pupils should be taught:

that money comes from different sources and can be used for different purposes
to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving
what influences how we spend or save money, and how to become competent at managing personal money
how to use a range of financial tools and services, including budgeting and saving, in managing personal finances
as part of citizenship, the rights and responsibilities of consumers, employers and employees.

See TeacherNet's PSHE section for further information.

Help is at hand
The school curriculum is already so overcrowded that it can be difficult for some schools to find a slot for it. This, combined with some lack of confidence in teaching the subject, means that schools are finding it difficult to deliver lessons in financial literacy. However, the financial world has developed a range of materials for schools to try and make financial literacy a more approachable subject. See the links below for further information.

Guidance for teachers on Financial Capability through Personal Financial Education was published in July 2000 and made available to schools on request.

The Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg) is a charity funded by the Government, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the financial industry. Through its four-year project, Excellence and Access, 150 000 children have experienced personal finance education with 1 000 teachers participating in 300 secondary schools across England. Its aim is to help teachers find ways of weaving the teaching of personal finance into other curriculum areas. Their website provides good practice guides for teachers at Key Stages 3 and 4, case studies to show how teachers have integrated financial capability into the curriculum elsewhere and specific support materials.

Involving the banks
You could involve the banks themselves in your financial-literacy teaching. For example, NatWest runs a website called Face 2 Face with finance that allows teachers to download teaching modules that link to the curriculum on basic banking, using credit cards, money management and borrowing and presenting tenders.

Resources for teaching financial literacy
The Channel 4 website offers a resource called Money Talks which encourages pupils to think about their attitudes towards managing finances.

ProShare Student Investor 2005 is a secondary resource pack for schools that aims to make learning about finance fun. Recommended by Pfeg, the pack includes details of the Portfolio Challenge, a successful student investment competition in the UK, now in its 13th year. The resource is directly linked to the Business studies and Economics curriculum and is aimed at 14 to 16-year-olds.

The Pfeg website includes extended case studies, lesson plans and a 10-minute video showing how some schools have taught personal finance education.

The FSA website contains a selection of downloadable resources for teachers.

DirectGov Kids Big Blue Office
This is an interactive website for pupils, teachers and parents with downloadable fact and work sheets. For 4 to 11-year-olds, it is aimed at developing an understanding of the place of tax in society and the basics of how taxes are collected and spent. The office contains:

an animation about the way that government gets its money and the services that taxes pay for.
a comic strip about Jack and Grace who rescue a magical bird who grants them three wishes. They get a shock when they wish for a town without taxes.
an interactive game, 'Fair Shares', which puts you in charge of the DirectgovKids town for twelve months.

This article was commissioned by TeacherNet's editorial team, independently of DCSF policy teams.

Last updated: 12 February 2009