At this stage, pupils need to learn about what influences how we spend or save money and how to become competent at managing personal money in a range of situations including those beyond their immediate experience. They learn how local and central government is financed. They learn about insurance and risk and about making safer choices about healthy lifestyles. They learn about social and moral dilemmas and about the use of money including how the choices they make as consumers affect other people’s economies and environments. They learn to solve complex numerical problems involving money including calculating percentages, ratio and proportion.

Opportunities for the teaching and learning of financial capability occur across the curriculum and also through young people’s everyday experiences inside and outside school. Many schools and teachers have found that personal finance provides a motivating and meaningful context to enrich many aspects of the formal curriculum as well as the informal curriculum, for example, work experience or planning school trips/events.

The foundation of good financial management does indeed require the acquisition of certain mathematical knowledge, understanding and skills, for example calculating numbers, interrogating tables, reading graphs, using percentages and even rounding up. However, the development of these skills should not start and stop within the mathematics lessons. Remember, through the key elements, for example economic awareness and media awareness, and the cross-curricular skill Using Mathematics, other areas of learning will be required to develop the young person’s financial capability/economic awareness.

The aims of Financial Capability are infused throughout the whole curriculum and all Areas of Learning are required to explore issues related to Economic Awareness.