Money lessons on the curriculum

Birmingham to become a Centre of Excellence in financial education.

Students at St Paul’s School for Girls will soon be taught about money and personal finance, after it was announced that the school has been chosen to become a Centre of Excellence in financial education as part of a ground-breaking partnership between the UK’s leading financial education charity pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group) and Santander.

The announcement means that the school, on Vernon Road, Edgbaston, will work with pfeg’s educational specialists to create a detailed programme of financial education for their students and integrate the teaching of personal finance into the school curriculum. Teachers will be supported in the delivery of effective personal finance lessons and learning activities, drawing on the charity’s 14 years’ experience of supporting educators in the schools across the UK.

Santander is supporting the development of St Paul’s School for Girls to achieve pfeg Centre of Excellence* status in the next year, turning it into a beacon of best practice in teaching children and young people about money. The school, one of 40 across the country set to benefit from the programme, will also be supported in sharing its new expertise with other schools in the local area to benefit the wider educational community.

Dawn Casserly, Headteacher at St Paul’s School for Girls, said: “Managing money and making decisions about your personal finances are skills that our girls will need throughout their entire lives. We are pleased to be working with pfeg to embed financial education into the curriculum so that all of our girls benefit from high quality teaching in this area – and we look forward to seeing the results.”

Steve Stillwell, pfeg’s Director of Education, added: “We are delighted that St Paul’s School for Girls has joined our Centre of Excellence programme through our partnership with Santander. The work that staff will be doing with our educational specialists over the coming months will be of enormous benefit to students, with financial education set to be firmly embedded into the curriculum. Our aim is to ensure that all students enter adult life with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to manage money well.”

Lee Leonard, Branch Director at Santander said: “At Santander we believe it is important for everyone to have good basic money management skills, but particularly young people who are encountering money earlier than ever. We recognise that teaching young people requires specialist delivery and the Centres of Excellence programme offers a tailored programme using materials that have been designed by education experts that complement the existing curriculum.”