My Money is a £10 million investment by the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) to deliver joined up lessons on personal finance in schools until 2011. As you may be aware, one of the key outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda is for young people to achieve Economic Wellbeing. A major contributor to this is their ability to have the skills, knowledge and attitudes to manage their personal finances successfully.
The My Money Mathematics Resources were launched recently and comprises six themes built around different practical aspects of money. They are:
Money…
- what is it? – local trading schemes leading to currency exchange
- earning it – the world of work and take home pays
- spending it – buying and running a car
- investing it – savings accounts and investing in shares
- risking it – gambling and fruit machines
- being enterprising with it – setting up an ice-cream business (geometric investigation)
Mathematical demand increases throughout each theme, from National Curriculum Level 1 (Entry Level 1) to National Curriculum Level 8 (GCSE Grade B+) but can be easily extended to challenge the brightest pupils. The activities have been designed to give teachers the freedom to create their own units of work, as recommended by National Strategies, but individual activities can also be used within discrete starter–main–plenary lessons.
