Ahead of tonight’s Times Education School Awards, where St Swithun’s has been short-listed for the Best Use of Technology award, Ben Walker, head of marketing and communications, caught up with our Headmistress, Jane Gandee, Jane Portas, creator of 6 Moments That Matter and founder of THINKMONEY THINKLIFE online financial education, and Nick Fyfe, head of sixth form.
Q: Jane, in your role as headmistress, why is financial education important at St Swithun’s?
We are committed to the wellbeing of all of our students, supporting them to be physically and mentally healthy whilst recognising that wellbeing can also be connected to financial life.
We know that there is a national financial education gap in the UK, alongside longstanding gender issues including the well-publicised gender pay gap. We aim to provide meaningful education to support financial wellbeing as an integral part of our school curriculum.
Life is becoming increasingly complex for young people to navigate. It Is essential to prepare students for independent life, with the confidence to take risks, the skills to be resilient, to respect others and making a positive contribution to society.
Q: So, Jane [Gandee], why did you want to be involved with 6 Moments That Matter online financial education and what has been the outcome?
We were introduced to Jane Portas via a parent and realised how engaging and important the 6 Moments That Matter approach could be for our students.
As a school, we want to embrace change and wanted to extend our technology offering by incorporating edtech into our curriculum. This both augments our PSHE provision and equips our students for real-world online learning.
The ability to provide a comprehensive financial life and fairness education with measured results and personalised feedback has had a real positive impact on our pupils. A four-fold increase in the number of girls with strong financial life skills is game-changing for them as they start their adult lives.
Q: Jane [Portas], why did you decide to develop a financial education online learning platform for school age students?
My research on financial lives identifies three key points about people’s financial wellbeing:
- There are 6 Moments That Matter - six life stages - in all our lives where we can take control of our financial future.
- The decisions we make about our life are as important as the decisions we make about our money - even more so when we are young.
- Financial education is essential to securing equal opportunity and fair financial futures for everyone.
Low financial capability combined with social influences contribute to financial and fairness gaps opening from a young age leading to financial vulnerabilities in adulthood. An example is the 31% projected lifetime earnings gap for young female graduates compared to their male counterparts.
Lack of financial education means young people are finding out financial information through often untrustworthy sources, for example via social media posts. So, I wanted to build a solution to provide them with reliable, consistent, accessible content supported by a clear, systematic framework, giving them the knowledge and skills to identify what they need to know when they need to know.
Q: Tell us about the platform Jane [Portas] and why you worked with St Swithun’s
Many people don’t feel confident about money, and so the platform allows students to have a personal learning experience where they practise real-life situations, build financial product awareness, and learn about financial decision-making and fairness gaps in a safe environment.
By engaging through the 6 Moments That Matter framework, students learn how to make informed, holistic, risk-based choices about their money and their life consistent with their aspirations. The edtech means we can provide real-time individualised feedback and guidance.
It was important to innovate the platform with a school, staff and students who are open to new possibilities, committed to financial education and to participating in a development process with a social purpose to help all young people. The students’ results are testament to their efforts, and I am grateful for their engagement. I’m delighted that the students led by Nick Fyfe, and the school under Jane Gandee’s leadership, have been recognised in the Tes School Awards 2024.
Q: Nick, what has introducing the online financial education meant for the sixth form?
As head of sixth form, my role is to ensure our students leave St Swithun’s having made robust education choices and are ready for adult life.
Implementing the course helps us to prepare our students for their adult lives beyond the school gates. It compliments our career guidance by making them aware of the financial wellbeing implications of study, skills and career choices. In considering future life, students particularly enjoyed learning about their rights as young people, relationships, and money and financial products at different life stages.
I’m proud of our students whose knowledge and skills significantly improved by the end of the course, and with the data to quantify their progress. The notable shift in behaviour, in both financial confidence and saving, is really encouraging for their future wellbeing, and the personal dashboards meant students could see their strengths and developmental focus areas.
Q: What is your experience, Nick, of implementing edtech and how easy has it been to embed the online course in your curriculum?
In a world increasingly shaped by technology, it is vital our students can effectively engage with online learning.
One aspect that has been interesting for our staff is how the technology enables us to see in real-time how our students are getting along and provide support. The supervisor dashboards and the prompts enable us to nudge the students when they need it in much the same way that would happen in class with a teacher. The personal learning approach means students can access the course material at their own pace and can catch up if they are away from school.
Implementing online financial education required us to do some PSHE planning. The fact that the content is so broad means we can integrate the course within the current timetable to support multiple aspects of PSHE, and we can measure the impact.
Financial education really matters and should be essential learning for all young people. I am delighted that St Swithun’s offers this comprehensively, in a personalised and meaningful way to prepare our students for an independent future.
