Blackburn pupils among thousand benefiting from financial education lessons this month

Students in Blackburn are among 2,000 school children being supported with financial education this month, as part of a building society’s drive to improve financial literacy.

Colleagues from the town’s Yorkshire Building Society branch delivered sessions from the mutual’s innovative Money Minds programme, made up of a series of activities and projects designed to promote discussion and learning about money for ages five to 19.

The Society offers the programme year-round but has recorded a spike in activity throughout May – the month of National Numeracy Day – as colleagues across the country increased the number of sessions delivered to help more children.

St Thomas’ were one of the schools to benefit, with year five and six pupils taking part in the interactive ‘Project Party’ and ‘Vacation Venture’ lessons to learn about budgeting.

Carley Houghton, customer consultant at the Blackburn branch of Yorkshire Building Society who delivered the Money Minds session, said: “We’re passionate about helping people of all ages to learn about money and deliver our sessions in a way that’s fun, engaging and relatable to helping with real life.

“It was fantastic to see pupils really taking advantage of the programme, expanding their vocabulary and understanding how and why we need to budget.”

Money Minds lessons are delivered by Yorkshire Building Society colleagues as part of its award-winning corporate volunteering scheme, which allocates each employee 31 hours paid leave every year to volunteer in local communities.

Topics range from introducing money for younger children up to calculating interest and responsibilities to repay loans for older children.

Yusra Arshad, headteacher at St Thomas’ said: “It was refreshing to have colleagues from Yorkshire Building Society come in to deliver the session to our students – all of whom showed real interest in learning and engaged with the activities to improve their understanding of money and budgeting, which will always prove useful. Furthermore, staff and Yorkshire Building Society have inspired our children in wanting to work in industries linked to finance.”