Whilst it’s not likely a young child will be purchasing a holiday with a credit card anytime soon, research carried out by the University of Cambridgeshire, indicates children’s habit formations including their spending behaviour, are influenced before the age of seven years old.
One year ago today, Harpenden Building Society teamed up with charity Young Enterprise, to enable schools access to financial education learning materials (developed by teachers for teachers), through its’ Money Manager Scheme for Schools. Carefully curated scheme lesson plans and workshops, equip children with the knowledge, skills and attitude they require to manage their futures in a financially sound way.
It all began with a workshop
It’s with great thanks to St Dominic Catholic Primary School in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, that the Society were able to pilot, test, reshape and launch its’ Money Manager Scheme, before rolling the model out to more schools across Herts, Beds and Bucks.
The scheme has now been successfully launched in four local schools including:
- St Dominic Catholic Primary (Harpenden),
- John Hampden (Wendover),
- Halton Community Combined School (Halton), and;
- Wendover Church of England Juniors (Wendover).
“Rolling the scheme out to this scale has already enabled over 1400 children to adopt better money management behaviours.” Nicolette Fletcher, Scheme Manager, Harpenden Building Society
The Society are looking to reach out to over 6,000 children with skills that will help to strengthen futures within the communities it serves. It is also handing the teacher tested scheme over to other regional societies, for them to help schools in other parts of the UK too.
The colour of your money in a digital world
With the amount of transactions now made online or by card, there’s little surprise that many young children on the scheme appeared more familiar with plastic cards than British currency and what it looks like. Evidence sourced by Young Enterprise has shown that children who do have an understanding of our currency, commonly perceive its’ source to be a hole in the wall, rather than a salary their parents have worked to earn.