Finance awards - 11 Mar 2010
Chris Parr
The economic climate of the last two years makes it impossible to ignore how vital high quality financial education is for young people.
So it is perhaps fitting that, from September 2010, ministers have made personal finance education (PFE) a compulsory part of the secondary curriculum.
However, one award scheme has stolen a march on government, and has been recognising the outstanding work done by schools and individual teachers in the area of PFE for the last three years. It is currently on the look out for nominations for 2010.
The Personal Finance Education Awards, which are run by the Royal Bank of Scotland, are split into four categories: Best all-round approach to finance education; Most innovative approach; Best teacher; and a new award for 2010, Best student.
Last year’s winner in the all-round category was St John’s Wood Community School in Cheshire – a special school for 11 to 16-year-olds with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
As part of the school’s approach to PFE – which had to be suited to the specific learning needs of their students – the school implemented a voucher scheme to reward good behaviour and encourage saving (vouchers could be spent at the school breakfast club), a budget-themed charity fundraising project, and a school bank, operated by students, in which 80 per cent of pupils now keep their savings.
Also recognised in 2009 was Corseford School in Renfrewshire, which picked up an award for its cross-curricular approach to PFE. At Corseford, every class was required to run at least one enterprise project annually, allowing students to make decisions about how to finance it, and what to do with profits.
Post-16 students were given responsibility for running the school shop, after having applied for and been successfully interviewed for the role. The school was also praised for its real-world connections, and the fact that there were clear targets for both teachers and learners.
Last year’s award for best teacher was taken home by Robert Johnson, a then NQT at Wilmslow High School, also in Cheshire. Robert impressed his colleagues by taking ownership of the development of financial awareness and capability in the school, working closely with the maths and PSHE teams to investigate the school’s current PFE provision, and move it forward.
He also impressed the judges by leading the development of a series of initiatives designed to provide continuity in PFE from year 7 through to year 13. These included developing a form tutor-delivered “PSHE and Economic Understanding” resource for year 8, an off-timetable Finance Day for year 10s, and a year 13 Student Finance Day, designed to prepare students for budgeting at university.
The awards are supported by the Personal Finance Education Group (known as pfeg), an independent charity that provides free support, resources and consultancy to help schools plan and teach financial capability.
Wendy van den Hende, chief executive of pfeg, told us: “We believe that the Personal Finance Education Awards represent an ongoing commitment to building awareness of the importance of personal finance education and sharing best practice across the educational community.”
If you want to nominate your school, a teacher, or a student, the deadline for entries is Friday, April 23. The judging will be carried out in May, with the awards ceremony for winning schools taking place in London in June. There is a £10,000 prize fund up for grabs for the winner and runners up, along with other prizes including laptop computers, iPods, trophies and certificates.
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