Parents brought up in the days when there were student grants and money was a dirty word may be a little worried by the way the workaday world of business and finance seems to be creeping into their children's education. With an extra E for economics being added to the confusing subject area known as PSHE in September, teachers might feel similarly ill at ease.
Many PSHE teachers feel daunted by the quantity and range of material they are expected to cover in a subject that is given at most one hour a week. Kate Firth, who teaches languages at a secondary school in Derbyshire, is expected to cover a year 7 PSHE curriculum in just one hour a fortnight.
"The real difficulty is having to deliver any aspect of a personal or social development curriculum in the time given," Firth says. "I feel we're very much skimming over the material. PSHE is at the bottom of the list of priorities."
Although Firth admits her own personal finance skills are "not fantastic" she says teaching financial capability is: "... no more frightening than globalisation or anything else we are expected to cover. Of course it's a good idea, but I'm not sure it's so good to use teachers who have other specialities. I've spoken to the kids about it and the main opinion was that it was up to parents to teach their children about finance."
Leroy Coley, a year 11 teacher at Stoke Newington school in the London borough of Hackney, feels more comfortable about fitting personal finance skills into his classes. He says it is vital that kids learn to be realistic about money. "From personal experience I know that most people get into debt in their 20s and 30s. You come out of education and think £100 is a lot of money. You are encouraged to sign up to ridiculous loans and to get into debt. Teaching financial capability is a step in the right direction."
Five out of 10
Despite his enthusiasm, Coley would welcome more training. "At the moment I'd give myself five out of 10," he says. Coley's school has strong links with local businesses and already incorporates personal finance into its own PSHE curriculum, which is given the more user-friendly subject title Life Skills. Students get an hour a week at key stage 3, more at key stage 4. "We teach kids to be wary, to understand what families can afford, and to think about things like rent and utility bills. I think financial skills are not taught enough to younger kids."
Sarah Hughes, PHSE co-ordinator at a primary school in Islington, agrees it is important to teach kids how to manage money, "but it's one more thing that there is never enough time to do. If a lesson has to be sacrificed, PSHE is the first one to go."
"We have no resources or training in teaching financial capability," says Tina Tutton, a year 6 teacher at a primary school in Hackney, east London, "But we recently had a 'work week' where we talked about the importance of money and pupils learned to cost things out."
Fellow year 6 teacher Carl Dixon finds he has great results if he includes financial matters in his maths lessons. "The moment you put maths in the context of money, they understand it," he says. "You rely on your pedagogic skills to relay the information in an interesting and relevant way." Both teachers would welcome training in this area and agree that financial capability is best taught as a cross-curricular subject.
Workshops organised by Pfeg, often in co-operation with local authority subject advisers, aim to overcome any lack of confidence teachers may feel when approaching the subject of financial capability with their students. "There's a certain amount of healthy scepticism from some teachers attending our workshops," says Garry Hunter, Pfeg regional director for London and the south- east. "But the scepticism ends when they realise that we are an independent charity offering free workshops with consultants who all have an education background."
"When you sit down and think about it, you realise what you are already teaching about money and how you can develop this into a whole school approach to financial education," says Gill Lawrenson, a year 5 teacher in Wigan after having attended the first of three Pfeg training workshops. "Doing a project involving money is fun because it is relevant to everyday life and children can identify with it."
