North East teachers welcome idea of expanding financial education
It's hoped pupils will have the knowledge to make decisions with their money
Teachers across the North East and Teesside are welcoming the idea of expanding financial education in schools.
It is hoped it will give pupils better knowledge to make decisions with their money.
Some teachers reckon more support is needed as there is not enough time in the curriculum to teach about finances in-depth.
Nik Jones, a secondary school teacher in County Durham, said: "Finances are one of the things that many students do request extra sessions on. They're interested to know how finances work and they're even interested in how taxes work.
"Even young students I think would certainly benefit from some form of financial education and indeed many already do. I know a lot of primary schools that run sessions around understanding the value of money and understanding how to budget pocket money and various things like that.
"Sometimes, particularly for the older students, they're asking questions which are beyond the general understanding of some teachers. There are reasons why as adults we go to financial advisers to talk about some of these things, there's a reason why many adults don't necessarily understand the finances.
"But on time, the other issue is the curriculum, particularly again is you're looking at those students towards the backend of primary school, largely all they're going to be doing is English, maths and science in preparation for their SATs. They're not going to be doing the sort of maths that are finance-based, they're going to be doing the sort of maths that fits the test.
"Once you get into Year 9, 10 and 11 most of their lessons are going to be tailored entirely around those exam results, because it's those exam results which allow schools to live or die. We have league tables, people pay attention to those league tables and we have Ofsted. Schools cannot afford unfortunately to do anything other than teach to the test."
Meanwhile Lorraine Nash, a part time primary school teacher in Redcar, said: "I believe that children in the early years are introduced to coins, money and the value of money. There should be progression outside of maths lessons and I think learning how to save money and how to budget should be part of PHSE.
"Children can be taught in a fun way by giving children a budget for managing maybe a charity that supports animals for example, how would they spend it? Where would they use the money? How many members of staff would they have? How would they raise money?
"I think the numbers that the average Year 6 has to do with in a maths lesson are too large and beyond some children's comprehension. If their household income is £30,000 then I'm not sure why they need to know millions and hundreds of thousands."