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Bury primary schools sign up for pioneering money education programme

Three more schools from Bury have given pupils an opportunity to get savvy with money thanks to a new association with a pioneering financial education charity called DebtAware, supported, among others, by accountancy firm Langricks.

Greenhill Primary, Our Lady of Lourdes RC Primary and Hazelhurst Primary School have got on board with the charity’s unique ‘Money Skills for Life’ programme and in so doing given 180 children aged 9-11 the chance to develop vital skills with cash.

DebtAware is the education arm of the national charity Debt Advice Foundation which provides free and impartial debt advice to anyone worried about loans, credit and debt.

It was established to offer school children the chance to understand how to manage money to try to prevent them from getting into debt in the future. With the number of people defaulting on their credit card debts soaring in the first three months of this year, according to figures from the Bank of England, the advice can’t come soon enough.

The Money Skills for Life scheme has enjoyed amazing success in Lancashire and has worked with over 160 schools to enable 10,000 children to gain a better understanding of how to manage money.

Natalie Lawton, a Year 5 Teacher at Hazelhurst Primary commented: “It is just what the children need in our “ buy now pay later” society. Brian had our children engaged and invested right from the start. The conversations continued long after he had left the classroom. We are all looking forward to continuing our sessions.”

“Children experiencing the classes have got so proficient they are totally at home with words like deficit and surplus and balanced budget and some are talking to their parents about good habits and challenging Child Trust Fund decisions!”

Education Manager Brian Souter, who has been teaching all his life, and only set up the Money Skills scheme four years ago, is passionate about the benefits. He said: “We believe good habits can be formed as early as primary school so that is where we focus our efforts – working with 9 and 10-year-olds. It makes a world of difference.

Langricks has been supporting the charity for a year to raise money and get more DebtAware teams on the ground in neighbouring counties – Cheshire and Yorkshire. They hope to raise a further £3000 at an annual golf day again in September.

Chris Langrick commented; “I cannot think of a single life skill that is more important than knowing how to manage money. It impacts on so much. If we – by working with DebtAware - can play a small part in reducing the future indebtedness of the next generation we will have done something worthwhile.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Souter .