Trainee teachers ‘to be prepared for financial education’

Financial education charity pfeg( Personal Finance Education Group) is to launch a major new Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme in partnership with NatWest.

From September, ‘financial mathematics’ will be taught in all maintained secondary schools in England as part of the new mathematics curriculum, with ‘financial capability’ also included in citizenship education for 11 to 16 year olds.

The move follows years of campaigning by pfeg, MPs and Peers in the All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People and MoneySavingExpert.com’s Martin Lewis.

Tracey Bleakley, chief executive of pfeg, said:

“Initial Teacher Training is a critical component of our work to ensure that young people gain the maximum benefit from financial education’s new place in the National Curriculum. As well as providing free support, advice and resources to existing teachers, our aim is to make financial education an integral part of the training that future generations of teachers go through at the beginning of their professional lives.

“Our new partnership with NatWest will ensure that thousands of new secondary mathematics teachers are given the skills they need to hit the ground running in the teaching of financial mathematics in the classroom This will benefit tens of thousands of students over the next few years and countless more throughout these new teachers’ careers.”

As part of the new programme, expert pfeg education consultants will work with 10 Initial Teacher Training (ITT) institutions in England to embed the teaching of this new ‘financial mathematics’ content into their existing courses.

The programme will benefit 400 student teachers during the first two years and a further 2,000 in the following three years, creating a generation of secondary mathematics teachers confident in the delivery of high quality financial education.

Les Matheson, NatWest UK Retail CEO, said:

"We're delighted to work with pfeg to launch the new ITT programme to help equip future generations of secondary school mathematics teachers to deliver financial education to their students.

We've been delivering free, impartial, financial education in schools for over 20 years. It's important to teach a new generation of children to be smarter and more informed about banking and money, which is something we're fully committed to at NatWest."

In October, pfegand NatWest launched a new joint resource to guide secondary mathematics teachers through the financial education content in the new National Curriculum. More than 500 teachers have already ordered Introducing Financial Mathematics – A practical guide for Key Stage 3 and 4, which provides practical help in teaching pupils financial mathematics and clear links showing how to extend and develop learning using NatWest’s MoneySense for Schools resource.