Managing money: Financial education in primary and secondary schools in Wales

The report evaluates the quality and provision of financial education in schools and how teaching and learning in this area have developed since Estyn’s previous report published in 2011 (Estyn, 2011). It considers how well recent changes and revisions to curriculum orders, in particular the Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) and new mathematics programme of study, have affected the quality of financial education.

Recommendations

Schools should:

• R1 Plan and deliver meaningful opportunities for pupils to develop and apply their financial skills across the curriculum
• R2 Monitor and evaluate the quality of learning and teaching for financial education
• R3 Provide staff with appropriate training to improve provision for financial education

Local authorities / Consortia should:

• R4 Facilitate effective arrangements for schools to share best practice and resources for financial education
• R5 Review their training programmes for numeracy to ensure that they enable teachers to develop a sound knowledge and understanding of financial education

The Welsh Government should:

• R6 Review and promote its guidance material for the effective delivery of financial education, to include a database of useful resources and organisations for schools
• R7 Support the development of bilingual digital financial education resources
• R8 Ensure that financial education is included in the development of the new area of learning and experience for health and wellbeing as well as mathematics and numeracy