Primary education
An overview of how financial capability is provided for in the primary curriculum.
Within personal, social and health education
Financial capability is not high profile in the current primary curriculum although the non-statutory guidance on personal, social and health education recommends teaching about money in both key stages:
In Key Stage 1, under ‘Preparing to play an active role as citizens’ it recommends that pupils should be taught:
- to realise that money comes from different sources and can be used for different purposes.
Within the breadth of opportunities through which knowldedge, skills and understanding are taught, pupils should have opportunities to:
- make real choices (eg. between healthy school meal options, what to watch on television, what games to play, how to spend and save money sensibly), and
- consider social and moral dilemmas that they come across in everyday life (eg. aggressive behaviour, questions of fairness, right and wrong, simple political issues, use of money, simple environmental issues)
In Key Stage 2, under ‘Developing confidence and responsibility and making the most of their abilities’ it recommends that pupils should be taught:
- to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving.
Under the breadth of opportunities section, it recommends that pupils should have opportunities to:
- make real choices and decisions (for example, about issues affecting their health and well-being such as smoking; on the use of scarce resources; how to spend money, including pocket money and contributions to charities)
Within mathematics
The programmes of study for mathematics at both key stages also state that money should be used as a context to help pupils understand mathematical methods:
In Key Stage 1, pupils should be taught to:
- choose sensible calculation methods to solve whole-number problems (including problems involving money or measures), drawing on their understanding of the operations
At Key Stage 2, money is referred to as a context from which examples can be drawn in several places in the programme of study, such as within ‘Numbers and the number system’, pupils should be taught to:
- understand and use decimal notation for tenths and hundredths in context (for example, order amounts of money, round a sum of money to the nearest £)
and in ‘Calculations’:
- use a calculator for calculations involving several digits, including decimals; use a calculator to solve number problems (for example, 4 ? x 7 = 343); know how to enter and interpret money calculations and fractions
and in ‘Solving numerical problems’:
- choose, use and combine any of the four number operations to solve word problems involving numbers in 'real life', money or measures of length, mass, capacity or time, then perimeter and area.
Taken together, this does not amount to a structured approach to the early development of financial capability and teachers need to be creative when planning for and teaching personal finance education.
Guidance produced by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) in 2000, entitled ‘Financial capability through Personal finance education’ is very helpful in planning lessons and activities in primary education. You can download this below.
Recent developments
The primary curriculum has been recently extensively reviewed by a team led by Sir Jim Rose. Their final report was published in April 2009 and was open to public consultation until July 2009. The Rose Review report recommends a primary curriculum with six new areas of learning where ‘learning about money’ is an explicit part of the programmes of learning for mathematical understanding and for understanding physical development, health and wellbeing. Full details of the Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum are available through the link below.
The new primary curriculum will be implemented in schools from September 2011 onwards and can be seen at the website below.
