Sandon High School leads the way in teaching students how to better manage their money
| Published: 26th March 2008 22:49 |
Sandon High School has been highlighted for its good practice in helping to prepare students for the world of bank accounts, credit cards, pensions, insurance and mortgages, in a new report by Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills.
Sandon High School is one of 18 secondary schools surveyed for Ofsted's report on personal finance education. The report, ‘Developing financially capable young people' shows that delivering better teaching of personal finance education in schools and colleges can equip students with the right mix of skills and attitudes to help them manage their finances sensibly.
It can also help ensure that students will benefit - rather than be excluded from - financial services when they leave education and give them the confidence to successfully navigate the financial market - from pensions to whom to bank with.
Miss Barbara Hall, Headteacher at Sandon Business and Enterprise College said:
"As a Business and Enterprise College our aim is to equip our young people with essential life skills to enable them to participate successfully in business and the community. Building financial capability, with regard to the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become informed consumers of financial services and encouraging the ability to manage money, has now become ‘business as usual' for us.
"Working in partnership with our sponsor HSBC Bank and other financial organisations, students are more aware of the local, national and international dynamics of the economy. One of the highlights for us was to have Ed Balls (then Treasury Minister) visit and help us launch our school bank. It has been wonderful to observe the growing confidence of the students in making their own financial choices in life."
Students in schools and colleges that are already teaching personal finance skills successfully showed a good understanding of the issues. They were able to use financial terms correctly and apply their knowledge to making financial decisions.
Students did best when teachers had a confident grasp of the subject, skilfully managed discussions, used outside sources of information effectively and set tasks that engaged students according to their age and ability.
The main barriers to developing personal finance education were pressures on curriculum time; teachers' lack of subject knowledge and expertise in the area; a lack of awareness of available resources or other forms of support for the subject and the very wide variation in the nature of post-16 provision.
ENDS
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