PFE Awards with RBS

Winners announced

richard — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:19:34 +0000

The RBS PFE Awards 2011 ceremony took place on Thursday 16^th June with student and teacher representatives from twelve schools present. Information on their entries can be found in the Case studies section of the site.

Below we’ve listed the winners and runners up for each category.

Best all-round approach to PFE – primary

Winners

St Budeaux Foudation Church of England School, Plymouth

Westdene Primary School, Brighton

Runners up

Green Park School, Newport Pagnell

Kew Riverside Primary School, Richmond

Best all-round approach to PFE – secondary

Winner

St Luke’s High School, East Renfrewshire

Runners up

The Abbey School, Farnham

Perryfields High School, Oldbury

Teacher award – primary

Winner

Eveline Dawson, Waltham Leas Primary School, Grimsby

Runner up

Catherine Cunningham, Drumchapel Early Years Centre, Glasgow

Teacher award – secondary

Winner

Helen Kemp, Humphrey Perkins High School, Loughborough

Runner up

Paula Lee, Highfield School, Ossett

Joanna Shaw, Culcheth High School, Warrington

Student Award – secondary

Winners

Bethan Oakes, Bethan Wray, Jessica Wright and Laura Lawson, Roseberry Sports and Community College, Durham

Congratulations to all the winners and runners up. The RBS PFE Awards will return next year and we hope to see even more examples of best practice then.

Catherine Cunningham, Drumchapel Early Years Centre, Glasgow

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:30:47 +0000

Catherine explored different themes to help teach valuable lessons about money and inspire her pupils. The judges were impressed with the range of activities that Catherine was able to introduce to such young ages.

She has implemented a cross-curricular approach to Financial Literacy where her pupils learnt about PFE through Art, Maths and Literacy with activities such as:

making notes and large coins from paper plates to aid money recognition and numeracy
taking the pupils shopping and allowing them to write their own shopping list and compare prices
making wallets/purses from recycled materials
visiting the local bank to deposit money raised through a sponsored walk
setting up an international café using role-play.

The judges were also pleased to see a relationship with the families with a ‘show and tell’ session for the parents at the end of their Money Week.

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Eveline Dawson, Waltham Leas Primary School, Grimsby

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:29:23 +0000

Eveline, with huge personal commitment, has produced a consistent, whole school approach to PFE. With the support of a pfeg consultant, she incorporated elements relating to finance to each of the year groups’ schemes of work in an enjoyable and meaningful way. For example a theme of ‘Nation of shopkeepers’ was introduced to year 5 pupils and through this the pupils were challenged to set up a business and to make a profit from a £20 loan. The initiative was widely supported by families, local businesses, the RNLI and an HSBC Bank volunteer. The pupils were able to use and apply their basic skills in a truly cross-curricular way which led to an increase in their confidence and self-esteem and the project made a £700 profit.

Eveline has been responsible for a programme of study that the pupils enjoyed, learnt a lot from and shows the potential that teaching effective PFE has to bring pupils together with the local community. By not being afraid of taking risks, she has made a great contribution to her pupils’ education.

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Kew Riverside Primary School, Richmond

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:27:38 +0000

Kew Riverside Primary School has a well-balanced and creative approach to PFE. Since opening their school bank, nearly a third of the pupils have opened accounts and the pupils created an excellent DVD about saving and the value of money. The pupils have then gone on to deliver a presentation to 43 newly-qualified teachers.

The school has also taken an entrepreneurial approach to teaching and learning about money. The pupils started a school shop and considered all the relevant issues from ‘Why start a business?’ to ‘What should the cost of the products be?’ Pupils were set business targets rather than predictions, giving a real-life insight into the project. Working together they undertook all aspects of the business including designing a logo, sourcing products, reselling goods, publicity and managing the financial accounts.

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Green Park School, Newport Pagnell

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:23:16 +0000

The judges were impressed with Green Park’s approach to PFE, that ‘Personal Finance Education should be like fibre in your diet – little and often!’ Their curriculum ensures that all pupils engage in Maths and PSHEE lessons that develop their financial awareness. These include a Money Week, money-making games, the creation and costing of their own pupil section of the School Improvement Plan, a NatWest school bank, fund-raising for charities and costing, planning and cooking their own healthy meals.

Green Park School places financial capability at the core of their curriculum and uses a range of real-life examples to keep the students engaged. They are serious about providing their pupils with the means to be successful adults. Their Local Authority has recognised the success of their PFE programme and the Green Park’s PSHEE subject leader is to be part of a national working party assessing financial capability.

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Westdene Primary School, Brighton

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:21:23 +0000

Westdene Primary has a wide range of events throughout the year which aim to develop pupils’ financial capability and economic awareness. These include a Finance Week that takes place every January, where pupils consider their ‘needs’ and ‘wants’; supply and demand (related to pupils’ experiences of Ebay, film merchandising and concert/fixture tickets); the concept of interest – using price comparison websites to research the best saving rates; and the costs of borrowing. Ethical issues were considered, such as the global cost of fashion and farming, and pupils were then asked to think of a present with a high value but low cost. Every summer years 5 and 6 take part in a mini-enterprise business simulation where they take different roles and form a catering company/tour operator to bid for a contract.

A number of schools, local and national, have made professional visits to Westdene to see their sustainable models of good practice which they have been happy to share and it was this openness and the range of activities taken on by the pupils which so impressed the judges.

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St Budeaux Foundation Church of England School, Plymouth

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:19:13 +0000

With a truly cross-curricular approach to PFE St Budeaux Foundation C of E School was praised by the judges for the varied and effective ways that they delivered PFE in the school. In collaboration with their infant feeder school, a differentiated programme of work was developed with accompanying interactive resources. This enabled the pupils to learn a variety of life skills linked to money, ranging from budgeting, the true cost of owning a mobile phone to how Fair Trade works. Within their My Money week (evaluated as their most successful enrichment week ever run), the school worked with a pfeg consultant to investigate what the school’s fundraising for Shelter Box had bought. Students were able to see what their money had bought for families in Haiti which gave them an idea about the true value of money both in the UK and abroad. There was also a visit from a poet who helped the students explore finance creatively through writing.

The school is in an area of deprivation and the local Credit Union was invited to train parents about saving. Also the school bank is open weekly for adults and children including younger siblings who attend the school to help foster a habit of saving.

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Bethan Oakes, Bethan Wray, Jessica Wright and Laura Lawson, Roseberry Sports and Community College, Durham

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:15:27 +0000

Four students at Roseberry Sports and Community College have become the ‘Roseberry Money Saving Experts’ and have worked hard and made a huge contribution to raising financial awareness to the whole of Key Stage 3 and 4. They have undertaken assemblies giving advice and tips to others on saving and money management, run Key Stage 3 drop-in sessions and placed posters around the college with weekly financial tips. They have changed the perception of many students of how they can make money with simple ideas.

By dedicating their own time and commitment towards the project they have been an inspiration within the school and have shown that a small number of young people can really make a difference.

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Paula Lee, Highfield School, Ossett

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:14:06 +0000

Paula introduced a ‘Working @ Highfield’ initiative for the whole of Highfield High School to support students’ understanding of Personal Finance and Economic Well-being and the World of Wwork. It runs alongside and supports the teaching of PSHE and the money element within Maths. The initiative involves students completing jobs within the school for which they’re paid a ‘wage’. These wages are pooled as a class and used to buy supplies and save for bigger treats. These pools of money are managed by the students who learn about the need for budgeting and how much things cost and individual classes can choose how the money they have earned is spent.

She has found that asking students to get involved in the initiative has been very successful with students appreciating the ‘real-life’ aspect of handling money and keeping accounts. Students are now more confident when discussing work and work-related issues and have been encouraged to work in a team to support each other to complete jobs. She is keen to promote the ‘Working @’ initiative to more schools in the area.

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Joanna Shaw, Culcheth High School, Warrington

richard — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:11:35 +0000

Since starting her role as Leader of Financial Capability and Enterprise in April 2010, Joanna has been pro-active in making sure that Culcheth High School offers its students a well-balanced view of PFE throughout the school. Students of all ages benefit from the programme of PFE that has been introduced and Joanna has shown that there is scope for inviting experts into schools to provide fresh information to the students. These include speakers from pfeg (who also helped develop PFE schemes of work), Liverpool John Moors University and Debtcred.

She has also enabled students to enter a range of programmes suitable to their abilities. For example, she entered students who are at risk of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) into a Young Enterprise scheme which they won and are now working with a Councillor on an Enterprise scheme to create a community orchard/allotment.

In the future there are plans for linking the school to local primary schools in order for her students to ‘train’ primary pupils on the benefits of being confident with their money. She also plans to introduce a short course qualification on personal economics that her KS4 students will take part in.

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