personal finance teaching in schools

Financial Services Authority

Personal financeteaching in schoolsImplications for consumer education ofresearch carried out by the National Centrefor Social Research

ConsumerResearch

11

January 2002

Foreword 2

Summary 4

1 Introduction 7

2 Methodology 8

3 Amount of personal finance teaching 11

4 Schools not teaching personal finance 14

5 How personal finance is taught 18

6 Value of personal financial education 24

7 Assessment of materials for teaching personal finance 26

8 Training for staff 28

9 The future of personal financial education 31

10 Conclusion 34

Appendix: Questionnaire

Contents

© The Financial Services Authority 2000

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been given a statutory role to promote public understandingof the financial system. The aim is to provide individuals with the knowledge, aptitude and skills basenecessary to become questioning and informed consumers of financial services and manage theirfinances effectively. Our work with schools and young people is central to achieving this objective in thelonger term. Inclusion of personal finance in the curriculum in England, Wales and Scotland is a majorstep forward and we are now working towards making sure that this change in policy is reflected inpractice by providing support for teachers in delivering the new curriculum.

We recognise that we need to be well informed about current practice in schools and how much schoolsare already doing to achieve financial capability through personal finance education. It was for thesereasons that we commissioned this research in England.

We are publishing this report as we believe these findings will help those involved in the development ofpersonal finance education in schools. It is also our intention to use this research as a baseline for thecurrent situation in schools in England and we are considering conducting similar research in Scotland,Northern Ireland and Wales. Repeating this research in the future in schools throughout the UK willhelp us to measure the effectiveness of our work as well as to help us ensure that we are achievingmaximum benefit from the use of our resources.

Deborah ArnottHead, Consumer Education Services

Foreword

2 Financial Services Authority

Preface

The National Centre for Social Research is the largest independent social research institute in Britain. Itconducts social research among members of the public to provide information on a range of socialpolicy issues in Britain.

Acknowledgements

The research was carried out by Lindsey Jarvis and her colleagues at the National Centre for SocialResearch. We would like to thank all those schools who gave freely of their time to be interviewed.

Authors

This research report was written by Lindsey Jarvis (National Centre) with additional material providedby Gill Hind and Steve Stillwell (Consumer Education Services, FSA)

The study was managed at the Financial Services Authority by Paul Hunter (Risk and Research Dept.,FSA)

Further information for schools

To find out more about the support the FSA can give to schools please visit our websitewww.fsa.gov.uk/consumerhelp or contact Steve Stillwell on 020 7676 4516 or [email protected]

To find out more about the work of the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg) and the Excellence &Access Project visit their website www.pfeg.org.

Financial Services Authority 3

1. The research was carried out for the FSA by the National Centre for Social Research in spring/summer2001. The purpose of the study was to look at the extent to which personal finance education has beenincorporated into lessons in both primary and secondary schools in England and provided the firstbaseline figures for this.

Methodology

2. The survey was carried out using computer-assisted interviews. The questionnaire used was designed asthe result of a pilot study. A sample of 30 primary and 70 secondary schools were contacted for thepilot. Of these 9 primaries and 20 secondaries took part in the pilot via telephone interviews.

3. For the main survey a sample of 300 primary and 700 secondary schools was used, ordered by type ofcontrol over school, selection policy, Local Education Authority and size of school.

4. Schools were asked in advance of the fieldwork to give details of the person who was responsible for co-ordinating personal finance education. Those schools who said that they were not teaching personalfinance were re-contacted as a follow up to the main survey. 59% of primary schools and 49% ofsecondary schools in the sample participated. Computer-assisted telephone interviews were carried outduring March and April 2001.

Amount of personal finance teaching

5. 80% of primaries and 54% of secondaries had no policy on personal finance education. 84% ofprimaries and 89% of secondaries said that they were teaching personal finance.

Schools not teaching personal finance

6. The reasons given by the 16% of primary and 11% of secondary schools who were not teachingpersonal finance included:

• not having enough time

• other priorities for lessons

• not appropriate for children of this age

• lack of staff time

• lack of awareness of the topic

• parental responsibility.

Summary


7. 43% of secondary schools not teaching personal finance intend to introduce it in the future. Schoolsreported that:

• more materials

• more information from financial companies

• information on how to integrate the subject into the curriculum

would help them to introduce the topic. Two thirds of schools who were not teaching personal financethought that it was important.

How personal finance is taught

8. Topics from the DfES Guidance ‘Financial capability through personal finance education’ were used asthe basis for asking schools what was covered in personal finance lessons. All primary schools wereteaching the basics such as recognition of coins and their value (which is also part of the NationalNumeracy Strategy Framework). A smaller proportion were teaching other aspects such as the need tosave in order to buy goods. Secondary schools were covering a wide range of topics including consumerrights and responsibilities and how to budget. 60% of primaries were teaching at least 5 out of the 9topics selected from the DfES Guidance while 69% of secondaries were teaching at least 5 of the 8topics selected.

9. Primaries used mainly Mathematics and secondaries mainly Personal, Social and Health Education(PSHE) as the lessons in which personal finance was taught.

10. The frequency of lessons on personal finance was not high. At both key stage 2 and 4 the majority ofpupils were only receiving lessons once or twice a term (or less). 80% of primaries and 51% ofsecondaries taught personal finance to all ages. In secondary schools it tended to be the older pupils inyears 10 and 11 who were taught.

11. Teachers used a variety of methods to teach personal finance including visitor talks, mini-enterpriseschemes, bank-run schemes, school bank and investment competitions.

Value of personal finance education

12. 65% of primaries and 87% of secondaries thought that personal finance education was very/fairlyimportant. However, 80% of primaries and 54% of secondaries were giving a low/very low priority tothe teaching of personal finance.

Assessment of materials for teaching personal finance

13. Overall there was low awareness of sources of help and information for schools.

Training for staff

14. Secondary teachers were more likely to have received training in the teaching of personal finance thanprimary teachers. What training had taken place was well received. Half of primary schools and two-thirds of secondary schools felt that they needed more help. Teachers wanted:

• more materials

• more training and more advice


• more information from the financial services sector

• exemplar lessons and examples of good practice

• information on how to integrate.

The future of personal finance education

15. 20% of primaries and 45% of secondaries have plans to change the way that they taught personalfinance. Predominantly this would be as part of their PSHE & Citizenship review.

16. 74% of primaries and 60% of secondaries feel that personal finance education should not be made astatutory part of the national curriculum. The reasons for this included, too much on the curriculumalready; the children are too young to learn about finance; school has other priorities.


1.1 The National Centre for Social Research was commissioned to carry out a survey into the teaching ofpersonal finance education in schools by the Financial Services Authority in spring/summer term 2001.

1.2 Personal financial education was introduced as a non-statutory part of the national curriculum inEngland in September 20001. Its aim is to develop financial capability among pupils of all ages. Themain purpose of the study was to look at the extent to which personal financial education has beenincorporated into lessons in both primary and secondary schools in England and provide the firstbaseline figures for this. It also explored: how the subject was being taught and by whom; theimportance the schools attached to the subject; the training the teachers had received; and the plansschools had for the future teaching of personal finance.

1.3 This research is only representative of schools in England. The Financial Services Authority isconsidering conducting similar research in schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland working inpartnership with the relevant organisations.

Introduction1


1 England - Primary: see national curriculum page 22 and the PSHE & Citizenship framework; Secondary: see national curriculumpage 24 and the PSHE framework and Citizenship programme of study

Other countries have similar recommendations, for Wales - see PSE framework for both primary and secondary schools; forScotland - see Learning and Teaching Scotland’s ‘Education for financial capability’ initiative; for Northern Ireland - curriculumcurrently under review but likely to contain personal finance education recommendations

2.1 The survey was carried out through computer-assisted telephone interviews. This is a quicker andcheaper way to conduct interviews throughout the whole of England than carrying out face-to-faceinterviews within schools. The interviews were carried out by the National Centre’s dedicated team oftelephone interviewers from its Telephone Unit.

Pilot study

2.2 The questionnaire was designed by the National Centre in collaboration with the Financial ServicesAuthority. As this was the first survey to collect baseline data on the amount of personal financeteaching being carried out, it was important to conduct a pilot study to test how the questions worked.

2.3 A sample of 30 primary and 70 secondary schools was selected (this was done in the same way as forthe main sample, further discussion of which is found in section 2.7).

2.4 Interviewing was carried out for three days at the end of March. Due to the short timetable, advanceletters were not sent out to the schools and so the telephone interviewers ‘cold-called’ the schoolsmaking first contact via this telephone call. An information letter was produced which, if requested, theinterviewers faxed through to schools to give them further details of the project.

2.5 Interviewers asked to speak to the Headteacher to receive their consent to carry out the survey. If consent wasgiven, the interviewer asked for the name of the person who was responsible for co-ordinating the teaching ofpersonal finance or someone else able to answer questions about the school’s policy on personal financialeducation. This person was then interviewed by the telephone interviewer using a paper questionnaire.

2.6 Nine primary schools and 20 secondary schools took part in the pilot study. Few difficulties were foundwith the understanding of the questions but some re-drafting of the questionnaire took place before themain field stage.

The sample

2.7 The National Foundation for Educational Research drew a sample of 300 primary schools and 700secondary schools from their list of all state schools in England. It was decided to select a greaternumber of secondary schools because previous research indicated that there was more likely to be agreater variation in teaching practices compared with the more homogenous nature of primary schools.The aim was to interview at state schools teaching some pupils aged 5-16, so independent schools,nursery schools and sixth-form only colleges were excluded. Special schools were also excluded as theirteaching practices were likely to be very different from other schools.

2.8 The sample was ordered by type of control over school (e.g. Community, Voluntary Aided, Voluntary Controlledand Foundation), selection policy (e.g. comprehensive, selective), Local Education Authority and size of school.Middle schools were split into either the primary or secondary sample dependent on whether they were ‘Middledeemed primary’ (having pupils up to age 12) or ‘Middle deemed secondary’ (pupils up to age 13 or 14).

Methodology2


Mainstage fieldwork

2.9 Advance letters which gave information about the survey were sent to the Headteachers of all schools inthe sample two weeks before the start of fieldwork. The letter also enclosed a ‘contact sheet’ asking forthe schools to return details of the name and availability of the person in their school responsible for co-ordinating personal financial education or someone who could discuss the schools’ policy on this.Around one in five schools (18%) returned these sheets with details entered and 4% returned them asrefusals. Those schools who did not teach personal financial education and therefore said they could nothelp with the survey were recontacted as we were interested in the opinions of those who were notteaching the subject as well as those who were.

2.10 Fieldwork took place for five weeks in March and April 2001 with a break during the Easter holidayswhen the schools were closed. Interviewers from the National Centre’s Telephone Unit carried outcomputer-assisted telephone interviews with one individual in each school who answered on behalf oftheir school. In schools where the Headteacher had returned a contact sheet, the interviewers tried tocontact the named person directly. In schools who had not returned a contact sheet, the telephoneinterviewers contacted the Headteacher by telephone to receive permission to interview in that schooland to find out the person best placed to help us. A small number of schools were unwilling for teachersto be interviewed by telephone and so they were sent a paper questionnaire which was functionallyequivalent of the computer-assisted telephone interview.

2.11 Participating schools were sent a thank you letter and a feedback document detailing results from thestudy a few months after the end of fieldwork.

Response

2.12 59% of primary schools and 49% of secondary schools in the sample participated in the survey. Fulldetails of response are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Response

Primary schools Secondary schools

No. % No. %Schools issued 300 700Schools out of scope(eg closed, phone number untraceable) 3 4Schools in scope 297 100 696 100Interview achieved 176 59 341 49Interview not achieved 121 41 355 51

Refusal 80 27 175 25Refusal to office 6 2 36 5Refusal by Head/ named teacher 48 16 34 5Proxy refusal 20 7 77 11Broken appointments 6 2 28 4

No contact 41 14 180 26No contact with Head 25 8 84 12No contact with named teacher 4 1 53 8

Other unproductive 12 4 43 6


2.13 A better response rate was achieved in primary schools than in secondary schools. This is possiblybecause the relevant person to talk to about personal finance was often the Headteacher, who was ableto speak on behalf of the school, and so there was no need to try to make contact with another teacher.Respondents were asked for their job title and allowed to give more than one answer as they could bethe Headteacher and also the teacher of another subject. Nearly all (92%) of those interviewed inprimary schools listed Head as one of their job titles compared with only a half (52%) of teachers insecondary schools. One in ten of those interviewed in primary schools was the PSHE or personal financeco-ordinator compared with one in three in secondary schools. One in five primary school teachers saidthat they were the teacher of another subject compared with half the secondary school teachers.

2.14 Response in secondary schools may also have been hampered by their larger size as it is more difficult tocontact individual teachers in large schools. A third of secondary schools had more than 1000 pupils. Ina quarter of secondary schools the interviewers were unable to make contact with either the Head or thenamed teacher responsible for personal finance teaching whereas the figure for primary schools wasonly 14%.

2.15 Once contact was made with the appropriate person, the major obstacle to response was that teachersdid not have the time to take part in the study, due to pressure of their own work. There was little wecould to do to address this as the interview was already very short with a median length of only 11minutes. The timing of the survey was also unfortunate in that several teachers’ unions had adopted a‘work to rule’ because of staff shortages and a letter from the Department for Education and Skills(DfES)2 had recommended not participating in survey research as a means of using their limitedresources better.

2.16 Despite these difficulties, teachers contributed much useful information on personal finance teachingpractices within their schools and we were able to interview in schools in a range of areas from countryvillages through to big cities and their suburbs.


2 At the time of the Survey DfES was known as DfEE

3.1 The first part of the questionnaire was perhaps the most important in that it assessed how many schoolshad policies on teaching personal finance and whether they were currently teaching some aspects ofpersonal finance. In this section and throughout the reporting of results, we will present the results fromprimary and secondary schools separately as the ways of teaching the subject are clearly different.

Policy on personal finance teaching

3.2 We asked the following question to assess whether schools had a policy about personal financialeducation:

As you may know, personal financial education was introduced as a non-statutory part ofthe national curriculum in September 2000. Since then, some schools have introduced newpolicies on the teaching of this topic, some schools have continued with their existingpolicy on teaching this and others have chosen not to introduce any policy on teachingabout personal finance.

What about your school?

Since September 2000, has it ...

• introduced a new policy on the teaching of this topic,

• continued with its existing policy on the teaching of this topic,

• or, does it have no policy on the teaching of personal financial education?

3.3 As Figure 1 shows, only 7% of secondary schools and 2% of primary schools had introduced a newpolicy. In many cases, there was no need for the schools to introduce a new policy as they already hadan existing one - 18% of primary schools and 39% of secondary schools did. However, the majority ofboth primary and secondary schools had no policy about the inclusion of this topic within their school’scurriculum.

3.4 Secondary schools were twice as likely as primary schools to have an existing policy on the teaching ofpersonal finance and three times as likely to have introduced a new policy. There were no differences byarea in whether schools had policies.

Teaching of personal finance

3.5 Although schools might not have a policy on personal financial education they could still be teachingsome aspects of this topic. We therefore asked the following question:

Although there is no explicit policy on teaching personal financial education, does yourschool teach some aspects of personal finance such as the ability to manage money, thevalue of money, or understanding about saving and budgeting?

Amount of personal financeteaching

3


3.6 As the next table shows the majority of schools were teaching personal finance to some extent. Primaryschools were as likely as secondary schools to be teaching some aspects of this subject (84% comparedwith 89%), even though they were less likely to have a policy on this.

3.7 One in seven primary schools and one in nine secondary schools were not teaching anything aboutpersonal finance and had no policy to do so. Only three schools had a policy but were not teaching anyaspect of personal finance yet.

3.8 Larger secondary schools were more likely to be teaching personal finance than smaller ones. 91% ofsecondary schools with 500 or more pupils were teaching the subject compared with 79% of those withfewer than 500 pupils. No differences were found by size of primary schools. There were also nodifferences in teaching practices by the area that schools were located.

Table 2 Teaching of personal finance

% of schools: Primary schools Secondary schools

Teaching personal finance 84 89Have policy 19 46No policy 65 43

Not teaching personal finance 15 11Have policy but not teaching personal finance yet 1 *

Base 174 341

SecondaryPrimary

New policy introduced2%

7%

18%

39%

80%

54%

Existing policy

No policy

Figure 1: Policy on personal financial education


Implications: schools need a policy on personal finance education

80% of primary schools and 54%of secondary schools had no policy about the inclusion of personalfinance within their school’s curriculum. One in seven primary schools and one in nine secondaryschools were not teaching anything about personal finance and had no policy to do so. Citizenship atkey stages 3 & 4 becomes statutory in 2002 and schools will need to ensure that they areimplementing the programme of study which includes ‘pupils should be taught about how theeconomy functions, including the role of business and financial services’. Financial capability shouldbe part of learning across the curriculum and schools need to include it in their policies onpromoting other aspects of the school curriculum. The FSA wishes to encourage schools to adoptpolicies on financial education which meet their needs - which could well be part of planning forPSHE & Citizenship rather than a separate personal finance education policy.

A barrier to the provision of personal finance education maybe the perception that this is anadditional topic competing for time in an already busy curriculum. The FSA believes that it ispossible to deliver personal finance education within the existing curriculum. The resources whichthe FSA has developed clearly show opportunities within Numeracy, Mathematics, ICT, PSHE andCitizenship for personal finance education.

The FSA is also supporting the Excellence & Access Project of the Personal Finance Education Group(pfeg)3 which seeks to work with schools to develop transferable models of personal financeeducation within the existing curriculum.


3 Information on this Project is available on the pfeg website www.pfeg.org.uk

4.1 There were only 26 primary and 37 secondary schools in the sample which were not teaching personalfinance. It should be remembered when looking at the results in this section that percentages are basedon very small bases and consequently tables are not included. However, these findings are illustrative ofthe views of those not teaching personal finance .

Reasons for not teaching personal finance

4.2 When asked about the reasons why they were not teaching personal finance, the same three mainreasons emerged for both primary and secondary schools, although in slightly different orders. The mainreasons given (in order of priority for primary schools) were not having enough time, other priorities forlessons and not appropriate for children of this age. About half of secondary schools cited otherpriorities and not having enough time as their top two reasons but they did still mention the age ofchildren as a reason for not teaching the subject.

4.3 Other reasons given fell into the categories of:

• resources,

• temporary situation,

• awareness, and

• more negative views towards personal finance.

4.4 The resource under most pressure was staff:

“My teachers are overworked: they’d be freaked if I asked them to do any more statutorylessons.” [Primary school]

4.5 Temporary reasons given were that it was an interim year and the schools were planning theintroduction of the subject. Other schools reported that they were failing to meet the necessarystandards and were facing closure.

4.6 There was, to some extent, a lack of awareness of the topic. Schools mentioned that they were notaware that it was part of the curriculum or that they had not viewed it as a distinct topic for lessons.

4.7 There were some negative reasons given with some schools feeling that personal financial educationshould not be part of the curriculum. Others mentioned that they did not consider it a relevant part ofschoolwork or that it was parents’ responsibility to teach this subject not theirs.

Schools not teachingpersonal finance

4


Implications: why schools need to tackle financial education

Apart from lack of time, schools gave a variety of reasons for not teaching personal finance whichincluded: not appropriate for children of this age; not a relevant part of schoolwork - parent’sresponsibility. The FSA believes that it is important for all children to be able to manage money andit is a necessary skill for adult life. The FSA research ‘A cycle of disadvantage?: financial exclusion inchildhood’4 showed that children growing up in lower income families have limited opportunities tolearn about the mainstream financial world and so fail to acquire basic financial knowledge andskills. While children from more affluent families lack budgeting skills, they are not knowledgeableabout how and where bills are paid and are less involved in decision-making about their family’sfinancial arrangements.

There is clearly a need for schools to provide personal finance education if all children are to leaveschool prepared for the rights and responsibilities of adult life. Not all parents will or be able toprovide suitable financial information and experiences for their children. The FSA believes thatpersonal finance education should start at an early age with teaching that is relevant to the child andthe DfES guidance5 and FSA resources6 show clearly how this can be achieved at each key stage.Personal finance education is relevant to children at all key stages – not just older pupils.

Some teachers feel that teaching personal finance will be difficult as it touches on sensitive issues andmay make pupils inadvertently reveal their personal home circumstances. Teachers who are moreexperienced have found that:

• providing a common experience in the classroom which serves as a base of shared knowledge

• using literature as a starting point - many children’s books contain descriptions of differentfamily circumstances

• focusing on ‘third party’ rather than personal experiences

are all ways of bypassing potential difficulties.7

Some teachers were not aware personal finance is a topic within the curriculum. Apart fromreferences within the national curriculum to financial capability, the National Numeracy Strategyidentifies ‘real problem solving including money’ within its Framework. Part of the FSA’s agenda is topromote personal finance education to teachers in such a way that they realise the necessity for theinclusion of this topic and see the curriculum links with topics that are already being taught.


4 For a copy of FSA Consumer Research 4 ‘A cycle of disadvantage?: financial exclusion in childhood’ visit the websitewww.fsa.gov.uk/publications

5 For the DfES Guidance ‘Financial capability through personal finance education’ see www.dfee.gov.uk/circulars/fcg/index.htm

6 See the School & Colleges section of the FSA website www.fsa.gov.uk/consumerhelp

7 There is a section on dealing with sensitive issues in the DfES Guidance

Plans for the future

4.8 43% of secondary schools who were not teaching personal finance said they had plans to introduce it inthe future compared with 8% of primary schools. Those who knew when the topic was to be introducedwere, in the main, planning to introduce the topic in September 2001 or 2002.

4.9 The three most useful things to help schools introduce the topic would be:

• more materials,

• more information from banks and other financial companies, and

• information on how to integrate the subject into the curriculum.

4.10 Other reasons given were more resources in the form of either more money, more teachers or more time(“A six-day week” [Primary school]). Schools would also appreciate more advice from a variety ofsources - DfES, their Local Education Authority, the FSA and others; or help in the form of training andexemplar lessons. Again, there was some negativity towards personal financial education with a numberof schools saying that they did not think it should be introduced or that there should be less on thecurriculum generally. As one secondary school put it :

“we need a sound, reasoned argument as to why we should teach it from the QCA.”

Implications: help for schools

Schools would like: more materials; more information from the financial services sector; informationon how to integrate the topic into the curriculum.

The FSA has a planned programme of resource development in a variety of media8 as do others. TheFSA is keen to support resource production by the financial services sector and can give advice onwhat is appropriate. The Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg) has a quality mark scheme forresources and through this scheme is able to offer advice and encouragement to those developingmaterials. The pfeg website has a directory of resources for schools.

The FSA is working with the DfES on the DfES website ‘Teachernet’9. This will have lesson plans,schemes of work and links to resources to help teachers to develop a structured approach to personalfinance education in their schools.

The FSA is developing a curriculum audit/planning tool (which will be available on the FSA website)which will enable teachers to audit their current provision and plan to integrate the topic into thecurriculum.

The Excellence & Access Project run by pfeg is enabling schools in several areas of the UK to put intotheir existing curriculum personal finance education provision. It is planned to expand the Project toother areas of the UK and to make the good practice learned through the Project available to allschools.


8 See Schools & Colleges section of the FSA website www.fsa.gov.uk/consumerhelp

9 See www.teachernet.gov.uk

Views about personal financial education

4.11 Although some schools were not teaching personal finance, we were still interested in their views of thesubject overall. We therefore asked them how important they thought the teaching of personal financewas. Just under two thirds of secondary schools thought personal finance teaching was important.Indeed, one in ten secondary schools not teaching the subject viewed it as “very important”. Primaryschools were less enthusiastic -less than half thought it was “fairly important” with none considering it“very important”.

4.12 A quarter of secondary schools thought that personal financial education should be made a statutorypart of the National Curriculum but again primary schools were less convinced - none of them thoughtit should be statutory. Reasons given for making personal financial education statutory were that itwould help prepare pupils for life after school and that the subject was as important, if not more so,than other subjects already covered by the curriculum.

4.13 Not surprisingly, the majority view among those not teaching personal finance was against making thetopic statutory. This was because it was felt that there was too much on the curriculum already, that theschools had other priorities or that the children were too young to learn about finance.


5.1 The rest of this report will discuss findings from those schools who were teaching personal finance. Thissection explores what aspects of personal finance were being taught, how it was being taught and bywhom.

Topics covered in personal financial education

5.2 The DfES’s Guidance for Schools at either key stages 1 and 2 or key stages 3 and 4 shows the level offinancial capability that should be reached by each stage10. From the examples given in the appendicesof these guidance notes, we compiled two lists of topics, one for primary schools and the other forsecondary schools. The question asked:

I’d like to ask you about a range of topics that might be covered in personal financialeducation lessons or as some other part of the curriculum in your school. Some of thesewill, of course, only be taught to particular age groups. But please tell me if any children inyour school are taught these topics.

5.3 The next table shows that all primary schools were teaching the basics about understanding money -recognition of coins and their value. These tasks form part of the National Numeracy StrategyFramework for primary children which perhaps explain their high levels of teaching. Over half theschools were teaching more complicated issues such as the ethics of money use and the varying sourcesof income. Smaller proportions were taught more complex issues such as understanding probability anddebt.

Table 3 Personal finance topics taught in primary schools

% of primary schools teaching pupils … Primary schools

… to recognise different coins and notes 100… to understand the relative value of different amounts of money 99… that people may need to save in order to buy certain goods 89… that there are different forms of money including cheque books, credit and debit cards 58… that there are ethical considerations in choosing how to use money 57… to recognise that there are regular and unpredictable sources of money 52… the importance of keeping financial records 37… about borrowing money and the problems of getting in debt 25… to begin to understand the principles of probability in relation to insurance 10

Base 148

How personal finance istaught

5


10 For the DfES Guidance ‘Financial capability through personal finance education’ see www.dfee.gov.uk/circulars/fcg/index.htm

5.4 Looking at the range of topics taught in secondary schools shown in the next table, we find that again awide range of topics were covered in many schools. Nine in ten secondary schools taught aboutconsumers’ rights and responsibilities and types of payment methods. Practical issues for when pupilsleft school, such as budgeting and understanding earnings were taught in eight in ten secondary schools.As it was for primary schools, principles of probability in relation to insurance was the topic covered inthe lowest proportion of secondary schools.

5.5 Figure 2 shows how many of the DfES Guidance topics asked about were being taught in each school. Avery small proportion of primary schools (4%) were teaching all nine of the topics but six in ten wereteaching at least five of the topics. A higher proportion of secondary schools (15%) were teaching alleight of the aspects of personal financial education listed in the question.

5.6 Larger secondary schools with 500 or more pupils were more likely to be teaching more of the listedtopics than smaller schools (72% of large schools taught five or more topics compared with 51% ofsmaller schools). The range of topics taught in primary schools was not affected by the size of school.

5 to 8

Fewer than 5

Don't know

All

5 to 7

Fewer than 5

Don't know

All

4%

10% 15%

15%

30% 54%

16%

56%

Primary Schools Secondary Schools

Figure 2: Number of topics taught

Table 4 Personal finance topics taught in secondary schools

% of secondary schools teaching pupils … Secondary schools

… that consumers have rights and responsibilities 91… that there are different forms of payment methods including cheques, credit and debit cards 89… how to budget and how to use these to plan and control personal spending 85… about earnings and benefits specific to school leavers including student finance 80… how to read and interpret bank statements and bills 69… that there are ethical considerations in choosing how to use money 66… the advantages and disadvantages associated with savings and investments 56… an understanding of the principles of probability in relation to insurance 31

Base 303


Lessons in which personal financial education is taught

5.7 We asked schools whether personal finance was taught as part of Personal, Social & Health Education(PSHE), Mathematics, ICT or any other lessons. The next table shows that nearly all primary schoolstaught personal finance in Mathematics lessons whereas in secondary schools PSHE lessons were theplatform most used for teaching personal finance. Around half of primary and secondary schools usedICT lessons to teach personal finance. Of the unprompted answers given by the schools, BusinessStudies and Economics lessons were the most often named by secondary schools and Geography andEnglish lessons by primary schools.

5.8 Pupils received teaching in finance in a variety of lessons and with different frequencies. Table 6 showsthat a very small proportion of pupils at key stage 2 or 4 received weekly lessons in personal finance anda half of pupils at these levels were taught once or more a term.

5.9 Primary schools with 250 or more pupils were almost three times as likely as smaller schools to teachpupils personal finance once a month or more. Within secondary schools there were no differences bysize of school.

5.10 We asked respondents whether children of all ages within the school received personal finance lessons orwhether it was restricted to certain age groups. Primary schools were more likely than secondary schools totake a universal approach to the teaching of the subject. 80% of primary schools and 51%of secondaryschools taught personal finance to children of all ages in their school. This may be because primary schoolswere teaching more basic elements that were appropriate for all age groups. In secondary schools whichtaught selected age groups only, it was the older pupils in years 10 and 11 who were taught.

Table 6 Frequency of personal finance teaching for pupils at key stages 2 & 4

% receiving personal finance teaching: Key Stage 2 pupils Key stage 4 pupils

At least once a week 5 4At least once or twice a week 11 11At least once or twice term 40 38Less often than this 19 34It depends 8 8Don’t know 18 6

Base 148 303

Table 5 Lessons in which personal finance is taught

% of schools teaching personal finance in these lessons: Primary schools Secondary schools

Maths 98 78PSHE 70 89ICT 54 56Business studies/economics 2 68Religious studies 24 16Careers advice — 15Geography 35 13English/drama/literature 30 5History/politics 26 5

Base 148 303


Teachers of personal financial education

5.11 As well as finding out how many pupils were receiving personal financial education, we were interestedin finding out how many members of staff were involved in the teaching. The answers shown in thefollowing table reflect the different sizes of schools. As primary schools tend to be smaller thansecondary schools they tended to have fewer staff teaching personal finance than secondary schools.However, even in primary schools, a quarter had more than ten staff teaching personal finance and halfof secondary schools had this number. This reflects the range of teachers that are sharing the task ofpersonal financial education across a number of lessons.

5.12 In secondary schools we asked whether personal financial education was being taught by teachers intheir role as PSHE teachers, maths teachers, form teachers, head of year or as teachers of other subjects.Teachers were able to give more than one answer as they could have several jobs within the school andso the following percentages will sum to more than 100%. PSHE, maths and business studies teacherswere the ones most likely to be teaching personal financial education.

Table 7 Number of staff teaching personal financial education

Primary schools Secondary schools

Number of teachers: % %One 3 32-5 28 196-10 39 26More than 10 28 52

Base 148 303

Implications: concerns over how personal finance is taught

The research showed that a good range of personal finance topics were being taught. However, thefrequency of the teaching was low (only 16% of key stage 2 and 15% of key stage 4 pupils beingtaught at least once or twice a week) and secondary schools identified Business Studies/Economics asone of the main lessons in which it was taught. This is problematic as Business Studies/ Economics isan optional choice for post-14 pupils. This would imply that not all pupils were receiving personalfinance education - or certainly not to the same depth. There is also a concern over whether thespecifications for Business Studies/ Economics support personal finance education. For example, apupil may do work on the UK tax system but have little understanding of personal taxation and howthis affects their savings and earnings.

In developing their personal finance education plans schools need to ensure that there is bothprogression and cross-curriculum linkage. Students need to have a planned programme which buildsup their experiences through school in a coherent way. They also need to be enabled to make theconnections between different aspects of personal finance which might be delivered throughMathematics, ICT, PSHE, or other subjects.


Ways of teaching personal financial education

5.13 We have seen that personal finance is taught in a range of lessons by a range of teachers and the lessonscover many different aspects of the topic. We were interested in finding out what other methods ofdelivery were employed by schools. The following figure shows the proportions of schools employingthe methods personal finance education which we asked about directly.

5.14 Looking first at primary schools, we see that project-based work is the most common method used toteach the subject - two thirds of primary schools taught it this way. In over a quarter of primary schools,pupils learnt about personal finance though running a school bank, setting up mini-businesses(sometimes known as enterprise education) and through visitors giving talks. A fifth of primary schoolshad bank-run schemes but only a small proportion (3%) were involved in investment competitions. (Wedid not ask primary schools about careers advice as it was clearly not relevant to the age of children intheir schools.)

Investment competitions

School bank

Bank-run schemes

Project-based work

Careers advice

Mini-businesses

Visitors’ talks

SecondaryPrimary

78%

28%

28%

65%

21%

28%

3%

78%

73%

64%

62%

48%

30%

Figure 3: Ways of teaching personal finance (prompted)

Table 8 Teachers of personal financial education

Secondary schools with teachers describing their role as: %

PSHE teachers 82Maths teachers 69Business studies/economic teachers 68Form teachers 52ICT 23Head of year 20Religious studies 20Careers advice 19

Base 175


5.15 Around three quarters of secondary schools used visitors’ talks, pupils setting up mini-businesses andcareers advice to teach personal finance. Just under a third of secondary schools used investmentcompetitions (such as those run by ProShare) and this was the least commonly used method.

5.16 Larger secondary schools with 1000 or more pupils were more likely than smaller secondary schools touse investment competitions as a way of teaching the subject (47% of schools with 1000 or more pupilscompared with 22% of those with fewer than 1000 pupils) and were also more likely to use pupilsrunning mini-businesses (86% of larger schools compared with 73% of smaller schools). There were nodifferences for primary schools, nor by area for either type of school.

5.17 Schools were asked to specify any other methods of teaching personal finance that they used. Theseunprompted answers are shown in figure 4. The most popular method among primary schools waspricing items for sale for events like school fairs. Fund-raising was the second most common choice inprimary schools with a quarter of schools having used this. Secondary schools gave a slightly greaterrange of alternative methods of teaching personal finance from making use of ICT such as the Internetand videos through to the “Real Game” (a scheme being piloted in certain areas which involved role-playing different scenarios encountering personal life choices including financial decisions) and workexperience. However, it is clear from the findings that both primary and secondary schools showflexibility in their methods of teaching the subject.

Work experience

Business plans/budgets

Videos/internet

The Real Game

Role playing

Regular classes

Fund raising

Pricing items for sale 51%

27%

6%

4%

2%

12%

12%

15%

6%

11%

16%

10%

8%

SecondaryPrimary

Figure 4: Ways of teaching personal finance (unprompted)


Implications: role for the financial services industry

The research shows that there is a role for the financial services industry in contributing to personalfinance education and that this would be welcomed by teachers. The FSA is keen to support thefinancial services industry in work in schools and can offer advice. It is essential that any work inschools ( such as visiting speakers, help with mini-enterprise schemes, resources for teachers andpupils) is effective. All activities must support teaching and learning and fit with the curriculum. Inaddition work with schools should be a positive experience both for the school and the organisationcarrying it out. The pfeg quality mark is very helpful as it ensures that resources are fit for purposeand allows teachers to use such resources with confidence.

6.1 Although a large proportion of primary and secondary schools are teaching aspects of personal finance,it is useful to assess their overall support for the teaching of the subject generally. We therefore askedschools about the importance of personal financial education and the priority they gave to its teaching.

Importance of personal financial education

6.2 The next figure shows that six in ten primary schools and almost nine in ten secondary schools considerpersonal finance teaching to be important. Secondary schools are more likely than primary schools tosee this as “very” or “fairly important”. This may be because schools think that the topic is morerelevant to older children. Very few schools attach no importance to the subject at all. There were nodifferences in level of importance attached to the teaching of personal finance by area or size of school.

Not at all important

Not very important

Fairly important

Very important22%

32%

43%

55%

33%

12%

2%

1%

SecondaryPrimary

Figure 5: Importance of personal financial education

Value of personal financialeducation

6


Priority given to personal financial education

6.3 The following figure shows a similar story when we asked about priority:

What priority does your school give personal financial education compared to other non-statutory PSHE topics on the National Curriculum?

6.4 Overall, secondary schools were more likely than primary schools to give personal finance teachingpriority in their schools compared with other non-compulsory PSHE topics. The majority of bothprimary and secondary schools said that they gave the subject little or no priority at all. Comparingfigures 5 and 6 we see that a lower proportion of schools actually give personal financial educationpriority than attach importance to it. Again, there were no differences by size of school or type of area.

Not a priority at all

Not very high

Fairly high

Very high

SecondaryPrimary

4%

4%

17%

40%

45%

41%

35%

13%

Figure 6: Priority given to personal financial education


7.1 Various organisations have produced materials to facilitate the teaching of personal finance. We wereinterested in assessing how useful schools found these. To do this, we needed first to establish whetherthey were aware of the materials, before filtering the relevant groups through to the assessmentquestions.

Awareness of materials

7.2 Often awareness questions draw false positives as people are loathed to admit ignorance of something.Therefore when looking at the following answers, it should be remembered that the level of reportedawareness shown here is probably higher than the actual level of awareness.

7.3 Around four in ten primary and secondary schools who taught personal finance said that they knewthere was DfES Guidance on best practice in teaching personal finance. There was also no differencebetween primary and secondary schools in their level of recognition of the Personal Financial EducationGroup (pfeg), an independent charity which promotes the teaching of personal finance - only one in tenschools said they had heard of it.

7.4 Primary schools were asked about two resources for teachers produced by the FSA - ‘Money Counts’and ‘Mega Money’. All primary schools had been sent one copy of the resource ‘Money Counts’ inSeptember 2000. ‘Mega Money’ is a set of giant cardboard coins with Teacher’s Notes available at costprice from a primary school mathematics supplier. Three in ten primary schools in the survey whotaught personal finance knew of the ‘Money Counts’ book, which was a relatively high level ofrecognition given that the Headteacher rather than classroom teacher was responding.

7.5 Finally, secondary schools were asked whether they had heard about a Channel 4 series of programmescalled ‘Looking after the Penneys’ designed to help teach about personal finance, the first episodes ofwhich were broadcast in the weeks leading up to fieldwork. A quarter of schools knew of thisprogramme.

7.6 Interestingly there were similar levels of recognition of the DfES Guidance and ‘Money Counts’ amongthose not teaching personal finance as among those who were.

Table 9 Awareness of personal finance teaching materials in schools teaching personal finance

% aware of the following: Primary Secondary

DfES Guidance on best practice in teaching personal finance 39 44Personal Financial Education Group (pfeg) 12 11‘Money Counts’ book 30‘Mega Money’ pack 14‘Looking after the Penneys’ television programme 25

Base 148 303

Assessment of materials forteaching personal finance

7


Assessment of materials

7.7 As there was low recognition of many of the materials, we could only ask the follow-up assessmentquestions of a small number of schools. There are therefore small base numbers for the followingresults.

7.8 Those who were aware of the DfES Guidance were asked how often they used it. Table 10 shows thathalf of primary schools and a third of secondary schools made no use of this information at all. Nine inten primary schools and eight in ten secondary schools used it either “just a little” or “not at all”indicating that this was rarely used as a source of guidance.

7.9 Turning to the assessment of pfeg materials, we are clearly working on much smaller bases since onlyone in ten schools had heard of this organisation. Of these, a quarter (27% ) of the secondary schoolshad used the pfeg website but only a tiny minority of the primary schools had. Most of the secondaryschools had found the website “fairly useful”.

7.10 A third of secondary schools familiar with pfeg had used other pfeg materials besides their website butvery few primary schools had. Again the majority of secondary schools who had used the other pfegmaterials found them “fairly useful”.

7.11 Amongst the resources specifically designed for primary schools, we found that four in ten of those whohad heard of the ‘Money Counts’ book had used it for teaching. Most of these found it a usefulresource. Although there was a positive view of the book from those using it, the majority of thoseresponding on behalf of primary schools were not using it. When asked what were the most useful partsof the ‘Money Counts’ book, the most popular answers were the specific topics for different ages andkeys stages. The practical exercises and suggestions for lessons were also well-received. There were fewsuggestions for the book’s improvement.

7.12 The other primary school-specific material was the ‘Mega Money’ pack. Half of primary schools awareof this resource had bought it and most of these had then used it in their teaching. Those using it foundit useful with the giant cardboard coins being regarded as the most useful part of the pack. It was feltthat it could be improved by making stronger links between it and the numeracy and maths curriculum.

7.13 Finally, we found that about half (44%) of those who had heard of the ‘Looking after the Penneys’programme were using or planning to use the programme in their teaching. All who expressed anopinion thought that the programme was useful. A third of secondary schools (35%) said that they hadused other television programmes in their teaching of personal finance.

Table 10 Use of DfES guidance

% who used the DfES guidance … Primary Secondary

A great deal 5 3Quite a lot 5 13Just a little 40 50Not at all 50 29

Base 58 133


8.1 We saw in Section 5.7 that there were a large number of teachers from a wide range of disciplinesteaching personal finance to pupils in their lessons and the following section investigates what trainingthey had received.

In-service training for staff

8.2 When asked whether any staff teaching personal finance in their school had received in-service training,we found that secondary school teachers were more likely to have received this than primary schoolteachers. However, it was still only a minority who had received any training - one in five (22%)secondary school teachers and one in twenty (5%) primary school teachers. There were no differencesby the size of the school or the area in which it was located.

8.3 We asked schools to specify what types of in-service training their teachers had received (without beingprompted with examples). The results for secondary schools are shown in the table 11. The mostcommon form of training was through discussion groups with other members of staff to think aboutwhat could be done and the best ways to do it. Two specific types of training mentioned were careersadvice training and training for ‘The Real Game’ pilot scheme mentioned earlier. One in eight secondaryschools based their training around what was outlined for personal finance teaching in the nationalcurriculum and on materials they received. External training sources were also mentioned.

8.4 As only eight primary schools had provided in-service training for their staff, we cannot presentpercentage results for these. However, types of training mentioned included maths and numeracytraining, discussions, careers service training and from materials from external sources.

Table 11 Types of in-service training for personal finance education received

% receiving the following type of training: Secondary

Discussions 25Careers service training 21‘The Real Game’ 16Material/ syllabus based 13Education Business Banking/ local banks 11External – other 13

Base 67

Training for staff8


Assessment of in-service training

8.5 The majority of both primary and secondary schools thought the training teachers had received waseither “very” or “fairly useful”. They were asked what the most useful parts of the training had been.Again, because of the small bases more descriptive than analytic results follow. Secondary schoolsmentioned that the material-related parts of the training were best as these helped teach how to usethose provide and how to access more materials. Both primary and secondary schools were pleased thatthe training had raised their awareness of the subject. It was thought that training which taught staffhow to focus children’s attention on this topic was very helpful such as

“angles of putting it to youngsters using examples of the outside world” [Secondary].

8.6 Another key benefit was gaining a knowledge of best practice in other schools:

“the videos to see what other people do in other schools... a different way of teachingmaths now” [Primary].

8.7 Other useful parts of their training mentioned were planning and organising, discussing issues andsetting syllabus-specific objectives.

8.8 Suggestions for improvements to the training were providing more time, more money or resources.Secondary schools also wanted more comprehensive curriculum advice. A group of both primary andsecondary schools felt that the training was not in need of improvement and was “fine as it is”.

Training and advice from LEAs and other sources

8.9 We asked schools about help from LEAs and others. Only about one in twelve primary schools and onein ten secondary schools had received help or advice from their LEA for teaching personal finance. ThisLEA training was received as part of training for other related subjects - PSHE, citizenship andnumeracy. There were no significant differences between the types of advice or help received by primaryand secondary schools because of the small bases but the indication was that primary schools were morelikely than secondary schools to receive it as part of numeracy training.

8.10 A fifth of secondary schools said that they found the LEA help and advice “very helpful” and a furtherhalf found it “fairly helpful”. All primary schools assessed it as being helpful.

8.11 Four in ten (43%) secondary schools and about one in eight (13%) primary schools had received advicefrom other sources about the teaching of personal finance. Some of the sources of this advice were localbusinesses, bank staff, the Inland Revenue, universities and colleges.

Further help and advice required

8.12 In terms of training and advice, the final question we asked schools was whether they required anyfurther help or advice which would aid their school in teaching personal finance. Half of primaryschools and two-thirds of secondary schools felt that they needed more help. Examples of what wasrequested are shown in the following figure.


8.13 Around four in ten primary and secondary schools mentioned more materials as something that wouldhelp them further. One request was for “units of work that could be prepared that are age-related”[Secondary]. Many schools requested more advice and information from banks and other financialcompanies, the DfES and the LEA. Other points mentioned were more training, more external speakersand more money. Another idea mentioned was advice on how to integrate personal finance into otherlessons - “clear guidance from DfES on how to fit it in the existing curriculum” [Primary].

Implications: help for schools

There is much in place already or planned which will help schools. This includes:

• FSA resources for teaching and learning in a variety of media covering all key stages

• FSA audit/curriculum planning tool

• FSA annual education conference

• resources from the industry

• pfeg quality mark

• pfeg Excellence & Access Project for in-service training

• case studies and resource directory on the pfeg website

• DfES ‘Teachernet’ website with lesson plans, schemes of work, links to resources

More needs to be done and the FSA would like to encourage the industry itself to play a key role inhelping schools to develop financial capability. The FSA can offer information and advice onfinancial education to those wishing to make a quality contribution to the work of schools. Schoolsneed to receive a consistent message and the FSA is uniquely placed to take a leading role in co-ordination so that a national strategy for financial capability in the curriculum is developed.

Information on how to integrate

More money

Best practice/exemplar lessons

More advice from LEA

More training

More external speakers

More advice from DfES

More information from banks

More materials 41%45%

18%27%

30%21%

3%18%

13%16%

23%14%

10%12%

7%11%

10%9%

SecondaryPrimary

Figure 7: Further help or advice requested by schools


9.1 In this section we look at the future plans of individual schools in their teaching of personal finance andalso what they think the future of personal finance overall should be - to be made statutory or not.

Plans to change teaching of personal finance

9.2 A fifth of primary schools and almost a half of secondary schools (45%) said that they had plans tochange the way they taught personal finance. The next table shows the range of their plans.

9.3 Over half of primary schools mentioned a review of the way they teach PSHE was planned and alsomentioned was a review of the curriculum generally. The introduction of Citizenship was seen as a pointat which to adapt the teaching of personal finance. Some secondary schools were considering extendingthe teaching of personal finance to more age groups. Some of the examples of practical ideas that wouldbe adopted were

“setting up a school bank” and “buying and finance on the internet - the pros and consthere and privacy” [Both Primary].

9.4 There were also future hopes of raising the profile of the subject, some prompting of which came aboutfrom taking part in the survey -

“through your phone call and any subsequent written material, the school can raise itsprofile” [Primary].

Should personal financial education be statutory?

9.5 The last thing we asked schools about was whether they thought personal financial education should bemade a statutory part of the national curriculum. The overwhelming majority of schools thought itshould not be statutory, with primary schools being more adamant in their disagreement than secondaryschools. 74% of primary schools disagreed with making the subject statutory compared with 60% of

Table 12 How schools plan to change their way of teaching personal finance

% planning the following: Primary Secondary

PSHE review 57 56Citizenship 3 27Curriculum audit 10 12Extend to different age groups 0 8Adopt practical and relevant ideas 13 4Raise profile 10 2

Base 30 137

The future of personalfinancial education

9


secondary schools. Only a quarter (24%) of primary schools and almost a third (30%) of secondaryschools supported statutory status for personal financial education.

9.6 Secondary schools in big cities or their suburbs were more likely to want personal financial education tobe statutory than were those secondary schools in smaller cities, towns and villages (37% of big cityschools compared with 25% of secondary schools in less populated areas).

Reasons why personal financial education should be statutory

9.7 The most commonly given reason why personal finance education should be made statutory was toprepare pupils for life after school or to prepare them for the world of work. It was also seen as a wayof making pupils aware of what others experienced:

“The children live in a favoured area and don’t realise that money has to beearned”[Primary].

9.8 Staff were also concerned about teaching the children how to avoid debt and manage their moneysensibly:

“Because of the enormous amount of debt which young people can very quicklyaccumulate” [Secondary].

9.9 Issues connected with being a responsible citizen and using money ethically were also raised by schools:

“Money is central to our whole existence and to the concept of citizenship” [Secondary].

9.10 Learning about pensions was seen as important by some schools and the general importance of personalfinance in comparison to other subjects was also mentioned. A slightly different type of reason givenwas about the impact that making the subject statutory would have on schools by forcing them toprioritise the teaching of the subject and develop their methods of teaching it:

“It would make it obligatory to fund it and staff it properly” [Secondary].

Table 13 Schools who thought personal financial education should be statutory - their reasons

% who gave following reasons: Primary Secondary

Prepare for life after school/work 69 78Learn to manage money/avoid debt 64 56Responsible citizen/ ethical issues 11 6Important to learn about pensions 0 6Equally as or more important than other curriculum subjects 3 3Force school to prioritise it 3 3Make other subjects relevant 3 2

Base 36 91


Reasons why personal financial education should not be statutory

9.11 The reasons given by the three-quarters of primary schools and six in ten secondary schools who feltpersonal financial education should not be statutory are shown in the following table.

9.12 The main reason for not making personal financial education statutory was the same one given byschools not teaching the topic in explanation of their decision. Schools felt that there was already toomuch on the curriculum and there was not enough time to cover it all.

“We have enough problems with citizenship in key stage 4 when that becomes statutory in2002.” [Secondary]

“Because I’m fed up being told what to teach when we don’t have enough time to do itall.” [Secondary]

9.13 Not surprisingly, primary schools were more likely than secondary schools to think that the subjectshould not be statutory as it was not appropriate for children of that age. Both primary and secondaryschools thought that there were other priorities more important than personal finance teaching.

9.14 Some schools thought that it did not need to be statutory as it was already covered in other lessons or itcould be incorporated into other lessons in the future:

“Unless it’s incorporated in something like numeracy, it’s going to be very difficult.”[Primary]

9.15 Schools also felt that they did not have enough resources and that it was parents’ responsibility to teachthis. It was also mentioned that schools needed flexibility in their teaching :

“Because education is not helped by a prescriptive straight-jacket-like curriculum”.[Secondary]

This criticism is, of course, of the national curriculum generally, not personal finance teaching per se.

Implications: the place of personal finance education in the curriculum

The research shows that there is little support for personal finance education to be made statutorywithin the national curriculum - although teachers do recognise the importance of the topic. The FSAwould like to see personal finance education strengthened within the curriculum and there are waysin which this could be achieved without it becoming statutory. For example, schools could beinspected within the existing OFSTED frameworks for PSHE, Citizenship and numeracy andinspectors could report on the extent to which pupils have opportunities for personal financeeducation within these aspects of the curriculum.

Table 14 Reasons why schools said personal financial education should not be statutory

% who gave following reasons: Primary Secondary

Too much on curriculum already/no time 62 83Too young to learn about finance 32 5Other priorities 12 10Already covered in other lessons/should be incorporated into other lessons 16 7Not enough resources 1 6Parental responsibility 3 2Schools need flexibility 1 2

Base 109 183


10.1 The majority of primary and secondary schools are teaching some aspects of personal finance eventhough few of them have an explicit policy on the teaching of this subject.

10.2 The results reveal that the subject is being approached by schools in a wide range of ways. It is beingcovered in many different lessons and taught by different subject teachers using various approaches.These include real-life experiences of money such as running school banks and mini-enterprise schemes,to more classroom-based approaches such as role-playing and debating the ethical considerationsinvolved in using money.

10.3 Although several organisations have produced materials to help with the teaching of personal finance,relatively few staff were aware of them as yet. However, teachers did stress that more materials wouldhelp in their training and in teaching the subject. It would seem that making staff responsible for co-ordinating personal finance teaching aware of what is already available would be a useful step.

10.4 Personal finance teaching did receive a strong endorsement with the majority of schools, secondaryschools in particular, considering it to be an important topic. However, it is not a priority comparedwith other non-statutory PSHE topics in most schools. Indeed, when questioned as to whether it shouldbe made statutory, few schools supported this. Although the negative reaction was predominantly aimedagainst the curriculum and the pressures of teaching generally rather than at the content of personalfinance education itself.

Conclusion 10


Appendix


Serial number

We would very much appreciate your help with this important study looking at the teaching ofpersonal finance in schools. Even if your school is not teaching personal finance, we would stilllike to hear your views.

The questionnaire should be completed by the person who is responsible for co-ordinating theteaching of personal finance or someone else able to answer questions about the school’s policy inthis area.

Completing the questionnaire:

Most of the questions can be answered simply by placing a tick (¸) in one or more of the boxes.Not all questions apply to every school. It always tells you by the box which question you shouldanswer next. Please note that primary and secondary schools are often routed to differentquestions. There are instructions at each point where this is the case. For the purpose of thisstudy, middle “deemed primary” schools are treated as primary schools and middle “deemedsecondary” schools are treated as secondary schools.

All schools should complete Section A. You will then be routed to either Section B, C or D.

The questionnaire should not take very long to complete, and we hope you will find it interesting.The answers you give will be treated as confidential and anonymous.

Returning the questionnaire:

Please complete the questionnaire and post it back in the pre-paid, addressed envelope, AS SOONAS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP.

______________________________________________________________________________________

P2080 March/April 2001

PERSONAL FINANCE TEACHING IN SCHOOLS

Head Office

35 Northampton Square

London EC1V 0AX

Telephone 020 7250 1866

Fax 020 7250 1524

Operations Department

100 Kings Road, Brentwood

Essex CM14 4LX

Telephone 01277 200 600

Fax 01277 214 117

Charity No. 258538

SECTION A

ALL SCHOOLS

A1. As you may know, personal financial education was introduced as a non-statutorypart of the National Curriculum in September 2000.Since then, some schools have introduced new policies on teaching thistopic. Some schools have continued with their existing policy on teaching this.And others have chosen not to introduce any policy on teaching about personalfinance. What about your school?

PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY

Since September 2000, has it … (¸)

… introduced a new policy on the teaching of this topic, 1

continued with its existing policy on the teaching of this topic, 2

or, does it have no policy on the teaching of personal financialeducation? 3

Don’t know 8

A2. Are you teaching some aspects ofpersonal financial education now?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1 ‡ Go to Section B(page 3)

No 2 ‡ Go to Section D(page 19)

A3. Although there is no explicit policy on teaching personalfinancial education, does your school teach some aspectsof personal finance such as the ability to manage money,the value of money, or understanding about saving andbudgeting?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1 Go to Section B(page 3)

No 2

Don’t know 8

Go to Question A2

Go to Question A3

Go to Section C

(page 16)


SECTION B

SCHOOLS TEACHING SOME ASPECT OF PERSONAL FINANCE

B1. Approximately how many teachers work at yourschool (including part-time teachers)?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

1-10 1

11-20 2

21-40 3

41-60 4 Go to Question B2

61-80 5

More than 80 6

Don’t know 8

B2. Where is your school?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

A big city 1

The suburbs or outskirts of a big city 2

A small city or town 3 Go to Question B3

A country village 4

Don’t know 8

B3. Are you …PLEASE TICK AS MANY BOXES AS APPLY (¸)

… the head or the deputy or assistant head, 1

the PSHE or personal finance co-ordinator, 2

the teacher of another subject 3

(PLEASE WRITE IN SUBJECT(S)_______________________ Go to Question B4

_____________________________________________________)

or, a non-teaching member of staff? 4

(PLEASE WRITE IN JOB TITLE ________________________

_____________________________________________________)

B4. Thinking about personal finance teaching, doesyour school know that there is DfEE guidance on bestpractice in teaching this subject?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1 Go to Question B5

No 2

Don’t know 8

Go to Question B6


B5. In teaching personal financial education, how much does yourschool use the DfEE guidance?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

A great deal 1

Quite a lot 2

Just a little 3 Go to Question B6

Not at all 4

Don’t know 8

B6. Is your school aware of the Personal Financial EducationGroup, pfeg, an independent charity which promotes theteaching of personal finance?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B7. Has your school used the pfeg website?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B8. How useful was this website?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very useful 1 1

Fairly useful 2 2

Not very useful 3 3 Go to Question B9

Not at all useful 4 4

Don’t know 8 8

B9. Has your school used any other pfeg materials or information on teaching methods?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B10. How useful were these materials?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very useful 1 1

Fairly useful 2 2

Not very useful 3 3 Go to Question B11

Not at all useful 4 4

Don’t know 8 8

Go to Question B11

Go to Question B9

Go to Question B11


B11. If your school is a primary (or middle deemed primary) school, please go to Question B12

If your school is a secondary (or middle deemed secondary) school, please go to Question B23(page 7)

B12. Some materials have been produced to help with theteaching of personal finance. Has your school heard aboutthe Money Counts book produced by the FSA?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B13. Has your school used this book in its teaching?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B14. How useful is the book?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very useful 1

Fairly useful 2

Not very useful 3

Not at all useful 4

Don’t know 8 Go to Question B17

B15. What were the most useful parts of the book?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________ Go to Question B16

B16. In what ways could the book be improved?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________ Go to Question B17

Go to Question B15

Go to Question B17

Go to Question B17

Go to Question B16


B17. What about the Mega Money pack produced by the FSA?Has your school heard of this?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B18. Has your school bought or been given this pack?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B19. Has your school used this pack in its teaching?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B20. How useful is the pack?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very useful 1

Fairly useful 2

Not very useful 3

Not at all useful 4

Don’t know 8 Go to Question B27(page 8)

B21. What were the most useful parts of the pack?PLEASE TICK AS MANY AS APPLY (¸)

Giant cardboard coins 1

Posters 2

Teachers’ notes 3

Go to Question B21

Go to Question B22

Go to Question B27(page 8)



Go to QuestionB22


B22. In what ways could the pack be improved?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________ Go to Question B27(page 8)

B23. Has your school heard about a Channel 4 series of programmescalled ‘Looking after the Penneys’designed to help teach aboutpersonal finance?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B24. Is your school using or planning to use this programme in its teaching?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B25. How useful is the programme?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very useful 1

Fairly useful 2

Not very useful 3

Not at all useful 4

Don’t know 8

B26. Has your school used any other TV programmes in its teachingof personal finance?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1

No 2

Don’t know 8

Go to Question B26

Go to Question B26

Go to Question B26



B27. How important does your school think the teaching ofpersonal finance is?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very important 1

Fairly important 2

Not very important 3 Go to Question B28

Not at all important 4

Don’t know 8

B28. What priority does your school give personal financial educationcompared to other non-statutory PSHE topics on theNational Curriculum?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very high priority 1

Fairly high priority 2

Not very high priority 3 Go to Question B29

Not at a priority at all 4

Don’t know 8


If your school is a secondary (or middle deemed secondary) school, please go to Question B31


B30. I’d like to ask you about a range of topics that might be coveredin personal financial education lessons or as some other part of thecurriculum in your school. Some of these will, of course, only be taughtto particular age groups. But please tell me if any childrenin your school are taught these topics.PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ON EACH LINE

Does your school teach pupils … Yes No Don’t know

a. … to recognise different coins and notes?

b. … to recognise that there are regular andunpredictable sources of money?

c. … the importance of keeping financial records?

d. … to understand the relative value of differentamounts of money?

e. … that there are different forms of money includingcheque books, credit and debit cards?

f. … that people may need to save in order to buy certain goods?

g. … to begin to understand the principles of probabilityin relation to insurance?

h. … about borrowing money and the problems of gettinginto debt?

i. … that there are ethical considerations in choosing howto use money?

1 2 8

Go to Question B32


B31. I’d like to ask you about a range of topics that might be coveredin personal financial education lessons or as some other part of thecurriculum in your school. Some of these will, of course, only be taughtto particular age groups. But please tell me if any childrenin your school are taught these topics.PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ON EACH LINE

Does your school teach pupils … Yes No Don’t know

a. … that there are different forms of payment methods includingcheques, credit and debit cards?

b. … how to budget and how to use these to plan and controlpersonal spending?

c. … an understanding of the principles of probability in relationto insurance?

d. … about earnings and benefits specific to school leaversincluding student finance?

e. … how to read and interpret bank statements and bills?

f. … the advantages and disadvantages associated with savingsand investments?

g. … that consumers have rights and responsibilities?

h. … that there are ethical considerations in choosing how touse money?

1 2 8

Go to Question B32

B32. As personal finance can be taught in a number ofways in schools, does your school teach this as part ofany of the following lessons?PLEASE TICK AS MANY BOXES AS APPLY (¸)

PSHE lessons 1

Maths lessons 2

ICT lessons 3

As part of other lessons (PLEASE WRITE IN 4

______________________________________________________)

Don’t know 8

Go to Question B33




B34. When personal financial education is taught,is it by teachers in their role as …PLEASE TICK AS MANY BOXES AS APPLY (¸)

… PSHE teachers, 1

maths teachers, 2

form teachers, 3

head of year, 4

or, as teachers of other subjects (PLEASE WRITE IN 5

_____________________________________________________)

Don’t know 8

B35. Approximately how many staff teach personalfinancial education in your school?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

1 1

2-5 2

6-10 3 Go to Question B36

More than 10 4

Don’t know 8

B36. There are many ways in which pupils can be taughthow to manage money. Can you tell me whether thefollowing have been used at your school.PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ON EACH LINE Don’t

Yes No know

a. Project-based work?

b. Running a school bank?

c. Visitors giving talks?

d. As part of careers advice? (SECONDARY SCHOOLS ONLY)

e. Pupils participating in investment competitions such as Pro-share?

f. Pupils setting up mini-businesses (sometimes known asenterprise education)?

g. Bank-run schemes where their employees come into the schoolor provide materials?

h. Any other methods? (PLEASE WRITE IN _______________________

_____________________________________________________________ 1 2 8

_____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________ Go to Question B37

Go to Question B35




B38. How often on average does a pupil at key stage 2 receive personal financial education in this school?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

At least once a week 1

At least once or twice a month 2

At least once or twice a term 3 Go to Question B40

Less often than this 4

Don’t know 8

B39. How often on average does a pupil at key stage 4 receive personal financial education in this school?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

At least once a week 1

At least once or twice a month 2

At least once or twice a term 3 Go to Question B40

Less often than this 4

Don’t know 8

B40. Does your school teach personal financial educationto children of all ages?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2 Go to Question B41


B41. Which year groups do you teach it to?

_______________________________________________________________ Go to Question B42

B42. Have any staff teaching personal finance in your schoolreceived any in-service training?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B43. What form was this training?

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________ Go to Question B44

Go to Question B47


B44. How useful was this training?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very useful 1

Fairly useful 2

Not very useful 3

Not at all useful 4


B45. What were the most useful parts of this training?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question B46

B46. In what ways could the training have been improved?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question B47

B47. Has your school received any advice or help from the LEA forteaching personal financial education?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B48. What advice or help was given?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question B49

B49. How useful was this advice or help?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very useful 1

Fairly useful 2

Not very useful 3

Not at all useful 4

Don’t know 8

B50. Has your school received any advice from other sources about teaching personal financial education?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

Go to Question B45

Go to Question B46

Go to Question B50

Go to Question B52

Go to Question B50


B51. Who was this advice from?

_____________________________________________________________ Go to Question B52

B52. Is there any further help or advice which would aidyour school in teaching this subject?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B53. What sort of help would your school like?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________ Go to Question B54

B54. Has your school any plans to change the way itteaches personal finance?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)


No 2

Don’t know 8

B55. What are these plans?

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________ Go to Question B56

B56. Does your school think personal financial educationshould be made a statutory part of the National Curriculum?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY

(¸)


No 2 Go to Question B58


B57. Why?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question B59B58. Why not?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question B59

Go to Question B54

Go to Question B56


B59. Sometime in the next year, we may be doing a follow-upsurvey and may wish to contact you again. Would it beall right to contact you again?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1

No 2

Don’t know 8

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME IN COMPLETING THIS QUESTIONNAIRE.

ALL INFORMATION COLLECTED WILL BE TREATED IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE.PLEASE POST BACK THE QUESTIONNAIRE IN THE ENVELOPE PROVIDED.

END OFQUESTIONNAIRE


SECTION C

SCHOOLS NOT TEACHING PERSONAL FINANCIAL EDUCATION IN ANY FORM

C1. Why has your school chosen not to include teachingabout personal finance in its lessons?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question C2

C2. Does your school have plans to introduce the teaching ofpersonal finance in the future?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1 Go to Question C3

No 2

Don’t know 8

C3. When is this likely to be introduced?

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question C4

C4. What things would help your school be ableto introduce the teaching of personal finance?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question C5

C5. Does your school know that there is DfEE guidance onbest practice in teaching this subject?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1

No 2 Go to Question C6

Don’t know 8

C6. If your school is a primary (or middle deemed primary) school, please go to Question C7

If your school is a secondary (or middle deemed secondary) school, please go to Question C8

C7. Has your school heard of the Money Counts bookproduced by the FSA?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1


Don’t know 8

Go to Question C4


C8. How important does your school think the teaching ofpersonal finance is?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very important 1

Fairly important 2

Not very important 3 Go to Question C9


Don’t know 8

C9. Does your school think personal financial educationshould be made a statutory part of the National Curriculum?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1 Go to Question C10


Don’t know 8 Go to Question C12

C10. Why?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question C12

C11. Why not?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question C12

C12. Approximately how many teachers work at yourschool (including part-time teachers)?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

1-10 1

11-20 2

21-40 3

41-60 4 Go to Question C13

61-80 5

More than 80 6

Don’t know 8

C13. Where is your school?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

A big city 1


A small city or town 3 Go to Question C14

A country village 4

Don’t know 8


C14. Sometime in the next year, we may be doing a follow-up survey and may wishto contact you again. Would it be all right to contact you again?

Yes 1

No 2

Don’t know 8

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME IN COMPLETING THIS QUESTIONNAIRE.ALL INFORMATION COLLECTED WILL BE TREATED IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE.PLEASE POST BACK THE QUESTIONNAIRE IN THE ENVELOPE PROVIDED.

END OFQUESTIONNAIRE


SECTION D

SCHOOLS WHICH HAVE A POLICY ON TEACHING PERSONAL FINANCIALEDUCATION BUT HAVE NOT STARTED TEACHING THIS YET

D1. When is your school likely to introduce personal financial education lessons?

_________________________________________________________________ Go to Question D2

D2. Does your school know that there is DfEE guidance onbest practice in teaching this subject?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1

No 2 Go to Question D3

Don’t know 8

D3. If your school is a primary (or middle deemed primary) school, please go to Question D4

If your school is a secondary (or middle deemed secondary) school, please go to Question D5

D4. Has your school heard of the Money Counts bookproduced by the FSA?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1


Don’t know 8

D5. How important does your school think the teaching ofpersonal finance is?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Very important 1

Fairly important 2

Not very important 3 Go to Question D6


Don’t know 8

D6. Does your school think personal financial educationshould be made a statutory part of the National Curriculum?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

Yes 1 Go to Question D7


Don’t know 8 Go to Question D9


D7. Why?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question D9

D8. Why not?____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________Go to Question D9

D9. Approximately how many teachers work at yourschool (including part-time teachers)?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

1-10 1

11-20 2

21-40 3

41-60 4 Go to Question D10

61-80 5

More than 80 6

Don’t know 8

D10. Where is your school?PLEASE TICK ONE BOX ONLY (¸)

A big city 1


A small city or town, 3 Go to Question D11

A country village 4

Don’t know 8

D11. Sometime in the next year, we may be doing a follow-up survey and may wishto contact you again. Would it be all right to contact you again?

Yes 1

No 2

Don’t know 8

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME IN COMPLETING THIS QUESTIONNAIRE.

ALL INFORMATION COLLECTED WILL BE TREATED IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE.PLEASE POST BACK THE QUESTIONNAIRE IN THE ENVELOPE PROVIDED.

END OFQUESTIONNAIRE
