Pupils with lesson for teachers on money

But pupils from a primary school in the region have gone step a further by delivering a class for teachers at a national conference on financial education in the City of London.

The youngsters from Waltham Leas School, near Grimsby, ran a workshop on how personal finance education can be built into their curriculum at the What Money Means event.

The school is involved in an initiative to educate youngsters of all ages on the importance of being able to manage money, which was launched in 2007.

There are 36 education authorities taking part in the programme including three in the region: Calderdale, North Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire.

Waltham Leas pupils told their audience how they worked on a project called a Nation of Shopkeepers where children aged nine to 11 were given 20 and asked to develop money-making schemes. To achieve this they set up a market selling plants, cakes and second-hand toys, while learning about costs, investment and profits.

The school was also able to allow pupils to develop their practical maths skills by managing the money they had made.

What Money Means was launched in October 2007 by education training charity pfeg and HSBC.

It is a five-year "financial capability education" programme, supported by 3.4m of funding, which will work with more than 17,000 primary schools across the country.