Fantastic resources, an easy-to-use platform, and a proactive community supporting Year 8 teacher Natasha de Soden.
Harnessing real-life financial experiences with Banqer Primary
Banqer Primary is fully integrated into Natasha de Soden’s Year 8 class at Northcross Intermediate, Auckland. On Day 1, Natasha’s students log in, organise their jobs and by the time she opens module 2, “it pretty much runs itself.” By year-end students have all benefitted from a wealth of real-life experiences. They have opened bank accounts, earned money, spent money, bought houses, had them burn down, and crashed cars without insurance. Thanks to their Banqer lessons, they can all identify where they went wrong, and what their options are to get themselves out of the hole. Natasha’s students graduate intermediate with a whole new world of financial potential.
Multidisciplinary lessons with Banqer's teacher resources
Natasha uses the Banqer teacher resources for inspiration and, combined with her own passion and creativity, her lessons cut across multiple subject areas. For literacy, her students keep a reflective journal on their Banqer journey, writing about their experiences, how they felt and what they learnt. One student had their car was written off with no insurance, and that lesson is certainly sure to stay with them!
When I apply our maths focus to Banqer they think because it is ‘real’ and fun, it can’t be maths!
Financial education through class auctions and parent conversations
A highlight for Natasha was an auction where students used their Banqer dollars to bid on items. Students wrote creative descriptions for the items and a real estate agent brought in his auction paddles. One student bid too much for an envelope of Banqer notes with a misleading description. Natasha says, “He consulted his lawyer uncle and charged me with giving misleading information and took me to a classroom court with a judge and jury.” Natasha even ended up having to pay compensation!
Natasha uses the Banqer parent homework assignments to spark rich conversations at home. She finds parents can be reluctant to help with algebra but are comfortable talking about opening their first bank account or getting their first mortgage, and frequently offer advice to their children. Natasha says “Lots of the students emulate their parents’ suggestions such as the importance of saving to buy their first house.” Last year one girl’s parents opened current and savings accounts for her on the basis of the conversations she was having around Banqer.
It demonstrated to them that she had the life skills to manage her own money and they wanted to support her with that.
Embracing remote learning with Banqer's interactive features
When Auckland was plunged into lockdown, it had no impact on Banqer, “We would have an online video chat when I launched a module, I would set their homework targets, and away they went.” She found the additional resources and activities that Banqer provided during lockdown very helpful. To make sure that everyone was checking into Banqer regularly, Natasha made use of the teacher’s ability to debit money from students' accounts, “When they spotted it and wanted to dispute a withdrawal, they had to follow real-life processes and email me a request to investigate the incorrect debit with a snapshot of the transaction. It was yet another fantastic learning opportunity, and I could see students were discussing it with each other outside of our online class time.”
Empowering all students with real-life financial literacy through Banqer
Natasha is impressed how every child, no matter their ability, learns and engages with Banqer. “Interestingly it seems to be my lower level maths learners who are savvier. This year I have a lower level student who owns twenty-seven houses. He understands that the best way of making money is by buying property as a rental investment. A top maths student didn’t apply the maths to the real-life scenario and only bought one, preferring to save at a low-interest rate.” For the lower-level student, this was very empowering and the class discussion around these choices was insightful for all. Natasha’s advice to other teachers is to embed Banqer into your planning for the year.
Read the Banqer teacher resources, and tap into the Banqer Community, an online forum where teachers and the Banqer team share all their amazing ideas and go for it. Use the interactive videos to introduce the modules to the students and they can take it from there.
Her favourite feature? “There’s a wonderful little button you can click on to open a chat and a real person answers! A pregnant colleague had to suddenly go on extended leave and the Banqer team instantly transferred everything to me so I could run her class. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on Banqer, everything you need is there and in no time at all it will be part and parcel of what you and your students do.”
Banqer encourages positive financial decision-making in Year 6 students
Prescott Primary Northern is a multicultural, economically diverse primary school in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. Sam Blackeby, Upper Primary Coordinator & Year 6 Teacher, introduced Banqer five years ago to support the Economics programme in the new Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) curriculum.
Banqer helps students learn the value of money
Banqer is integrated into Term 4 for 90 minutes a week with daily check-ins to allow students to keep an eye on their finances.
“Banqer fits perfectly with the HASS curriculum. We want students to understand the value of money and that their life decisions can cause them to lose or gain money. So we set up our classes so that they have money coming in and going out using real-world scenarios such as wages, police fines, school fees and excursion costs. Then we work our way through all the Banqer expansions.”
The teachers run in-class and class-versus-class competitions, comparing who has the most savings or net worth. “I can honestly say that every year all our students have been engaged and highly motivated to understand why some students or classes are making more money.”
Engaging and fun financial education
The students find Banqer fun, and they are also learning essential life skills. “Kids like the interactivity and being on a screen doing something they consider very mature and grown up, but it is more than that. Every kid wants to make money, and once they have control of their own bank accounts and are making decisions, they start discussing what to do with their friends. If someone is making lots of money, they all want to know how they are doing it.”
Banqer helps bring home the importance of choosing the right bank and using the appropriate bank accounts for everyday transactions and savings.
They think the bank is just somewhere to keep money safe. Once they understand interest rates, they become quite excited about making their money work for them. Many will be getting part-time jobs in a few years and opening their own bank accounts. I see Banqer as preparing them to make informed decisions.
The students are also surprised that loans cost money, and that you have to pay taxes. “They get quite upset that they have to give their hard-earned money away. If they decide not to pay, we remove all the new stuff in the classroom and let them use broken crayons! It makes them think about who is paying for their education, and again stimulates great conversation.”
The broader impact of financial education – at home and in real life
Sam and the three other Year 6 teachers encourage the students to apply what they learn in class to their home life and foster parental involvement.
They go home and ask questions such as why did you choose your bank, what interest rates are you getting, and how often do you pay your mortgage? The students love being able to have these mature discussions using grown-up language. We’ve had really positive feedback from parents, especially those who never had access to financial education themselves.
The flexibility of Banqer also empowers teachers to bring in real-life events. “We can easily change pay rates, tax rates and interest rates. We try and reflect what is happening around us, so if the news is about interest rate hikes, we put ours up and discuss the likely impact – on the students themselves and also on their parents or the wider economy.”
Sam and his students even put on a feast using the interest they gained from maintaining their savings accounts.
For a free programme, I feel Banqer is just way bigger than it should be. It covers so much of what the students need to prepare them for their futures. Today’s kids don’t see physical money changing hands and how these decisions lead to gains or losses. Banqer lets them experience that in a safe environment.
Bringing financial literacy to your primary school is easy.
Banqer Primary is available to all primary schools throughout Australia at no cost, thanks to our Champion Partner Netwealth.
Click the button below, and our team will take you through a short demo to help you get started.
