This year, we are delighted to be continuing a project called LifeSavers.

LifeSavers is a financial education programme for primary schools, giving children the knowledge, skills and attitudes to manage money well. Habits around money are being formed by the age of 7 and just 5% of parents think that their children leave school with the skills needed to manage money well. LifeSavers equips teachers to teach financial education, supports schools to set up savings clubs and provides resources to engage parents and families.

For more information on LifeSavers, click here.

LifeSavers at Grace Darling

Our savings club will be run within the school, opening weekly on a Wednesday morning before school starts, in the parent meeting room and is staffed by Mr Stewart and pupil cashiers.

Children can open accounts with the Savings Club and can deposit their money at the weekly savings club, just like they can with a bank, building society or credit union account. Children are encouraged to save for a purpose and to set savings goals, and the hands-on learning from the savings club will be linked to classroom teaching. The emphasis is on saving regularly, rather than the amount of money, to help foster positive behaviours in relation to money. Children / adults will be able to withdraw their money when needed or when they reach their saving goal.

The fact that the world is increasingly cashless makes it all the more important that children get to experience handling real money, so they are more aware of the cost of buying things and the value of money.