Barclays Money Skills with Year 9 - 4th July 2011

All pupils in Year 9 spent the morning learning about Banking, Credit and Debt.  Within this time, their knowledge was tested and it was apparent that a lot of pupils had very little or no understanding about these areas.

In groups of 5/6, pupils then researched any one of these 3 topics and created posters to accompany a presentation they did in front of the two other groups. 

Within the Banking topic, pupils learnt about opening a Bank Account, Savings, ISAs and Overdraft Facilities and were introduced to the idea of Mortgages in relation to having Savings.  In the Credit topic, pupils learnt about Loans, Higher Purchase, Overdrafts, Credit Cards and APR, Finance, Store Cards and how this can lead to getting into debt.  Pupils also learnt about Debt, Consolidation of Debts and discussed in depth how it can affect people emotionally, e.g. Stress, Anxiety and Depression.

The pupils presented their work extremely well and the rest of the group sat and listened and digested the bits of information they had not already learnt.

The pupils gave some really good comments on what they got out of the time they had with the visitors.  Here are some of the quotes;  "If I get into any debt problems, I'll know what to do", "I learnt how to manage my money in the future and I have a better idea of what credit is", "How to open a bank account and which one would suit me best"