Bath Building Society pilots financial education programme for primary schools
Bath Building Society has launched a pilot programme to deliver financial education in two primary schools in Bath.
To provide these workshops, the building society has partnered with WizeUp Financial Education, a charity dedicated to equipping young people with essential financial skills for adult life.
The first school to receive the programme was Oldfield Park Junior School where year 5’s and 6’s have received sessions on Budgeting and Saving, What happens in the future and Interview Skills; all skills that will help them heading into senior school in the future. The second primary school in the pilot is St. John’s Catholic Primary School, which will be having its sessions towards the end of the academic year.
The Budgeting and Saving session included what the children spend money on, what do their parents have to spend money on, how do we budget and what is interest from a Building Society/Bank. Pupils also had a mini project to complete within the session to create a card and they had to work out a budget for their materials, stickers, glitter, glue etc and to work out how much they could sell the card for and what profit they would get from it.
The Society is driven to help people achieve greater financial wellbeing and delivering financial education to young people in the community is a key part of this. With the cost of-living crisis, it has never been more important to help young people gain a better understanding of how to manage their money and avoid debt, while also improving life skills and employability.
A spokesperson for Bath Building Society said, “We’re proud to support the local community delivering financial education workshops to local schools and sixth forms, with thousands of local students benefiting from the programme each year. We work with the schools to tailor content to individual needs including separate sessions for parents to help them navigate University finance. Our schools need more support to deliver financial education which isn’t currently adequately provided through the national curriculum.”
In 2024 through its programme to sixth form students in state schools in BANES, the building society taught 1,524 students over 55 workshop hours. All of these sessions are given to the schools for free, supported by Bath Building Society. This also includes a specially tailored programme for Threeways School in Bath.
For more information, visit:bathbuildingsociety.co.uk/your-society/supporting-our-community/financial-education/
Pictured above: A pupil takes part in one of the workshops
