MSE News: Government gives green light to school savings clubs

Former_MSE_Paloma

"The Government's announced it will fund £150,000 for a pilot scheme to set up savings clubs in primary schools ..."

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Government gives green light to school savings clubs




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jimjames

Good idea to increase financial education for kids. I'm not sure savings clubs will help although it could raise awareness. I seem to recall banks offering something similar in the 1980s with savings being done at school.

atush

I explained tax, stocks and shares and the like to my kids when they were young. Will be good to see the schools start doing this.

Sounds a good idea.

JohnRo

I wonder if they'll be explaining that what they're saving and what's called money is nothing but someone else's debt, and that it all ultimately belongs to, is owned by and profits the crooks running the fiat pyramid scheme.

atush

I hope not

Sanne

When I went to primary school (not in the UK!) one bank - a public bank - gave each child a savings account, a piggy bank and a small gift. Every year on a set day it's "savings day" where children go to their bank, pay in their savings and get a gift in return (a cuddly toy or similar).
There's a "club" with regular magazines/comics, calendars, a summer party etc., again encouraging kids to go to their bank and save.

We had paper money (provided for free by all banks) which was used in maths to learn about money management. Later on, we learnt how to fill out bank transfer forms, how the financial systems work and were generally educated about finances.

All apprenticeships and most university courses (I studied Computer Science) have modules on business studies - bookkeeping etc. etc. to give everyone awareness on that level which also comes in handy for personal budgeting.

A lot of schools have "school shops" run by kids, selling stationery, school t-shirts etc. helping kids to learn further.

It's great - and necessary - that children are educated about money but I think there's more pillars than just school. Banks should do their part, too - and parents at home, too.

Ken68

Better to teach self reliance and self sufficiency and economy and moneysaving expert stuff.

deecusally

This is great news and like others on here I am of an age when we had similar school schemes - mine was with post offfice savigs stamps!. This has been a passion of mine for years having being involved in credit unions in one way or another since 1990 and in Dundee we set up school based savings in the mid nineties, supported by the Local authority, and now have the majority of primary schools in Dundee using the scheme with P6/7 pupils actings as volunteers learning several transferable skills in the process. The potential for this enhancing educational acheivement is also underestimated. Many of our pupil volunteers are also involved in helping the staff and adult volunteers to publicise the savings clubs as well as their invovlement i handling and recording cash transactions. The Save By the Bell project also delivers financial education sessions to school pupils throughout the school year. I wish this new initiative all success.

Glitterbaby

At our primary school (in the early 1990's) we had a school bank, which was provided by Midland Bank. It was open once a week after school and was staffed by year 6's. I still have an HSBC savings account because of this.

Archi_Bald

Glitterbaby wrote: »

I still have an HSBC savings account because of this.

Oh dear. Hope you haven't got much in it as the HSBC interest rates are rarely if ever any good, and are definitely dreadful at present. So dreadful that your money loses value every day you keep it in this account.

Glitterbaby

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Oh dear. Hope you haven't got much in it as the HSBC interest rates are rarely if ever any good, and are definitely dreadful at present. So dreadful that your money loses value every day you keep it in this account.

No, they quite regularly send me statements with a £0.00 balance. It makes me feel quite nostalgic though . I did have my current account with them for a long while, but have since moved to Santander.

I was just trying to highlight what a good opportunity for banks/building societies it is. A captive audience who wont shop around.