Money lessons in school

From next year, children in secondary school will be taught about debt, insurance, savings and taking risks with their money, according to the new curriculum for England published today.

There's been increasing concern that young people are ill-equipped to deal with financial challenges they are are coming up against out of school.

The new emphasis on Personal Finance in the English curriculum is the result of a long-running campaign to improve financial skills - a need which has looked even more acute since the onset of the financial crisis.

There was already a plan to include the instruction in Citizenship lessons, but the curriculum published for consultation today goes into more detail.

From September next year 11 to 14 year-olds in Key Stage 3, as well a learning about budgeting, will be taught about managing risk - for instance which places are safest to keep their cash.

14 to 16 year-olds, Key Stage 4, will explore income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance and savings and pensions.

Kids will learn about money

School children will start learning about tax, debt and money management in school from September, 2014.

Compulsory education about personal finance issues has been included in the draft National Curriculum for England for the first time.

The topics, including wages, budgeting, credit and financial risk will form part of Citizenship classes for 11 to 16 year-olds.

They will also learn about interest rates and other financial issues in their maths lessons.

The change comes after a campaign by money experts and MPs who argued that children were leaving school ill-equipped to deal with financial problems and debt.

It will be up to schools to decide how long they will spend teaching children about money, but the quality of the instruction will be checked by OFSTED inspectors.

So when personal finance hits the National Curriculum - what young people will learn in Maths and Citizenship classes.

Citizenship for Key Stage 3 and 4

The National Curriculum for citizenship aims to ensure that all pupils:

*are equipped with the financial skills to enable them to manage their money on a day-to-day basis as well as to plan for future financial needs.

(that’s as well as learning about government, law, volunteering)

Key stage 3, age 11-14 years

*the functions and uses of money, the importance of personal budgeting, money management and a range of financial products and services.

Key stage 4, age 14-16 years

*wages, taxes, credit, debt, financial risk and a range of more sophisticated financial products and services.

Mathematics Key stage 3

Solve problems

*develop their use of formal mathematical knowledge to solve and devise problems within and outside mathematics, including financial mathematics

*solve problems involving percentage change, including: percentage increase and decrease and original value problems, simple interest in financial mathematics and repeated growth 

Campaigners including the Personal Finance Education Group are celebrating the fact that learning about everyday money will be "embedded" in the school curriculum.