Life insurer helps primary school children get On the Money

Standard Life, in partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland and Scottish Book Trust, has launched On the Money, a progressive and innovative new financial capability project aimed at helping children become financially responsible adults.

 

The emphasis of this unique initiative is to introduce financial topics to primary aged children through storytelling. Combining literacy, numeracy and drama, On the Money aims to bring financial education to children aged between eight and 12 to help them become financially informed and aware and to aid their development into financially capable adults.

 

On the Money introduces financial topics and dilemmas via a book of fictional stories.

 

The project involves four well known Scottish children's writers - Carnegie Medal-winning author Theresa Breslin, former stand-up comic Jonathan Meres, rising star Nicola Morgan and Alison Prince, the author of over 40 children’s books. They were commissioned to write four stories that incorporated or touched on areas such as the moral dilemmas relating to finance, debt, wants and needs together with entrepreneurship and money management. Drafts of the stories were piloted at the end of last year, in 10 primary schools in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Renfrewshire. Following excellent feedback from pupils and teachers the stories were edited and have now been printed and bound in one book called On the Money.

 

Each of the four stories that make up the book has its own particular financial theme. No Change by Jonny Meres highlights issues around learning to save and earning interest; Alison Prince’s story Funny Money is about managing money and getting out of debt; Down the Pan by Theresa Breslin deals with fundraising and enterprise; and Charlie Fly and the Nice Dream by Nicola Morgan looks at the financial implications of running a business.

 

To make the stories truly accessible to as many children as possible, a DVD has been produced which includes a talking book for the visually impaired; British Sign Language for those who are deaf and hard of hearing; and also a talking book in Gaelic

60000 copies of the book have been printed and will be distributed this year to every primary school in Scotland. Copies of the books and DVDs are also to be made available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.