Learning about money and financial literacy needs jokes and games say children

Only a quarter (27%) of children in the UK enjoy learning about money at school, according to a new survey. The survey of 1,600 children, undertaken by Beano Studios, comes as the Bank of England, Tes Global and Beano launch Money and Me a new primary school teaching resource to help teachers to engage children in money and financial wellbeing.

The survey found that the top three things that children believe would make learning about money more fun are jokes and funny stuff, games, and using “real” money in “real” situations.

Money and Me features Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx and the Beano gang who help to bring to life everything to do with financial literacy in 12 step-by-step lessons, with presentations, activities and games linked to the curriculum in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Lesson topics cover questions and topics such as What is Money?, Managing My Money, Ethical Spending and What is Debt?.

Children can puzzle over how Minnie should spend her £10 Birthday money, help Dennis avoid a charity fundraise scam, and advise Smiffy on the importance of making secure online payments.

Money and Me will be launched at 12.15pm by Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, during a live webinar hosted by Schools North East entitled Everyday Economics: the importance of financial education post-Covid.

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, said:

“The current economic situation has demonstrated the importance of financial education. However, this research shows how much further we have to go to embed it into the lives of young people. Our Money and Me resource, developed in conjunction with Beano and Tes Global, will help to fill that gap and support primary school teachers to engage pupils in these vital issues from an early age.”

The survey found that girls were less likely to enjoy learning about money with only 19% of girls, compared to 34% of boys saying they enjoyed the subject. Money and Me was produced by Beano for Schools, Beano Studios’ educational programme, in partnership with Tes Global and features a host of female Beano characters including Minnie, JJ and Rubi and a broad range of topics to appeal to girls as well as boys. Regionally, children living in the East Midlands are most likely to enjoy learning about money (36%) compared to those in Wales who are least likely to enjoy learning about money (17%).

Fiona Hickley, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Learning, Beano Studios said:

“Our Beano for Schools lesson plans are every teacher’s secret weapon, translating complicated topics into fun and engaging teaching programmes. Creating these financial literacy lessons with our much-loved characters has been brilliant and we know kids are not only going to really enjoy them but learn essential life skills.”

Money and Me will be hosted on Tes Global’s resource sharing platform. More than 13m teachers are part of the online community.

Lord Jim Knight, Chief Education and External Officer at Tes Global said:

“Beano is an icon of childhood and it continues to have an amazing connection with children. This initiative has combined the power of the Beano brand with the expertise of the Bank of England and Tes Global’s resource authors to create a really engaging set of financial literacy resources that will be available to the nation’s teachers on our highly regarded resource sharing platform.”

Press release