When the 2013 school year was winding down, Year 10 students at Aorere College were ramping up their money skills by taking part in a four-day financial literacy programme, run by the school’s Business Department.
Head of Department, Mary Kerrigan, came up with the idea to develop the programme following a workshop she’d attended run by the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income.
“From the workshop it was clear there are issues with schools picking up and running with financial literacy in their classrooms. Teachers didn’t feel confident to teach the content meaning students were missing out on learning these essential life skills.
“Once the seniors go on study leave, most schools are relatively quiet and I thought this could be the ideal time to run a financial literacy programme for Year 10 students.”
Working with Clem Ludlow from the Commission, they developed the programme containing modules on income, spending and budgeting. Mornings focused on theory-based content and afternoons were filled with guest speakers and money-related games.
“We had 320 students rotate through the different modules over four days. The mix of theory, games and speakers kept the students interested and engaged, and 87% of students surveyed had very positive feedback and recommended the programme ran again this year.
“We had a number of partners involved during the four days which really added to the programme. Rabena Tanielu from the YWCA delivered the spending module, Change Labs facilitators delivered presentations from ASB’s GetWise programme, the students played Bamzonia and Gumption and Money Pacific provided a free calendar to all the students.”
Mary says another great outcome from the programme was that teachers who were nervous to teach the material to start with, found they did have skills and knowledge in the area and could usually answer any questions students had.
“Sixty teachers took part and their feedback was really positive about how the programme was put together and the ease in which they could deliver it.”
Following the success of the programme Aorere College has committed to running it every year near the end of term. Mary and Clem are developing the programme further to make a template that other schools can pick up and drop into their own classes.
“We want to share the resource with other schools via the TKI website and hope to have it online by the end of February, so keep an eye out for it,” Mary says.
Watch the Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GVTCBueRYeU