RedSTART Educate

Now the tube strikes are off (phew), a quick plug for our event next Tuesday 12 November with RedSTART Educate: https://lnkd.in/e6yT-B4r For anyone interested in financial education, preparing people for the future, or how education policy gets made and changed, with a stellar panel of thinkers (and me).

Today our CEO, Sarah Marks, is discussing the importance of financial education in the Icelandic publication Viðskiptablaðið (English translation: the Business Paper). The Icelandic equivalent of the Financial Times. The article is titled First Steps in British Finance. Sarah is talking to Helgi Steinar Gunnlaugsson about financial education as a life skill, the impact of an increasingly cashless society on the ability of children to learn by seeing physical money changing hands in day to day life, and the failure of a UK financial education policy that relied solely on a change in the curriculum to secure consistent delivery of financial education in secondary schools. RedSTART Educate provides copies of the book First Steps in Finance (written by Gunnar Baldvinsson) to Year 6 children as a gift when they have completed the #ChangetheGame programme and are leaving primary school.

Today our CEO, Sarah Marks, is discussing the importance of financial education in the Icelandic publication Viðskiptablaðið (English translation: the Business Paper). The Icelandic equivalent of the Financial Times. The article is titled First Steps in British Finance. Sarah is talking to Helgi Steinar Gunnlaugsson about financial education as a life skill, the impact of an increasingly cashless society on the ability of children to learn by seeing physical money changing hands in day to day life, and the failure of a UK financial education policy that relied solely on a change in the curriculum to secure consistent delivery of financial education in secondary schools. RedSTART Educate provides copies of the book First Steps in Finance (written by Gunnar Baldvinsson) to Year 6 children as a gift when they have completed the #ChangetheGame programme and are leaving primary school.

I have done loads of interviews and focus groups with public participants about their understanding of the economy & finances, as part of my Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) and Office for National Statistics research programme. One of the things I hear most often is: "I wish I had learned about it in school" or "I wish my kids were taught it properly in school". And everyone agrees! - Schools are keen. In our research, 98% of school staff agreed it is important to deliver financial education in primary schools. - Policymakers are keen. The APPG on Financial Education for Young People, run by Young Enterprise UK, is one of the largest APPGs in Parliament. - And there are so many great companies and charities out there who are doing amazing things, and trying to fill the current gaps in the curriculum. But there is limited robust evidence on what is effective, especially in primary schools. This is why we are incredibly excited to be doing this randomised controlled trial of RedSTART Educate's Change the Game programme. I cannot praise Sarah Marks and RedSTART's funders enough for prioritising robust, experimental evaluation in their funding model. See my colleague Jack Lawton-Summers's blog below about the results of the first year of the trial (with many more years to come). Spoiler: the programme seems to be working already, with a positive impact on pupils' financial knowledge. PS: we are also doing a The Policy Institute event on 12 November at King's: https://lnkd.in/daYQqQbD

Today the whole team spent the day together with our funding partners, Wellington Management at their offices near Victoria. Huge thanks to Ted Duffy, Saskia Bennett, CFA and the team who were such fabulous hosts and so generous in letting us use a room for the day, and for taking the time to join us for a lunchtime catch up on volunteering opportunities and our programme across the UK. Our day was brilliantly chaired by Cherakee Bradley with sessions on Safeguarding, a SWAT analysis, a review by region of our planning for the rest of this academic year and some actions we need to take on automation and efficiencies. We also discussed how we can use the outcomes of the work we did with & become in September. Thank you to Kate Jones who facilitated this really helpful team work for us. We are now working to harness our unused team strengths for greater impact and effectiveness. Here we all are with Elaine Mclean on the screen, in our cosy RedSTART hoodies ready for winter and with our super cool #ChangingtheGame mugs, which are thank you gifts for our teachers this year.

Today the whole team spent the day together with our funding partners, Wellington Management at their offices near Victoria. Huge thanks to Ted Duffy, Saskia Bennett, CFA and the team who were such fabulous hosts and so generous in letting us use a room for the day, and for taking the time to join us for a lunchtime catch up on volunteering opportunities and our programme across the UK. Our day was brilliantly chaired by Cherakee Bradley with sessions on Safeguarding, a SWAT analysis, a review by region of our planning for the rest of this academic year and some actions we need to take on automation and efficiencies. We also discussed how we can use the outcomes of the work we did with & become in September. Thank you to Kate Jones who facilitated this really helpful team work for us. We are now working to harness our unused team strengths for greater impact and effectiveness. Here we all are with Elaine Mclean on the screen, in our cosy RedSTART hoodies ready for winter and with our super cool #ChangingtheGame mugs, which are thank you gifts for our teachers this year.

It's been a busy week at RedSTART Educate in South Wales, planning the 24/25 delivery of our Change the Game Programme with all our member primary schools. We're continuing to work with our schools in Cardiff, Caerphilly & Treorchy and are super excited to have expanded our reach to areas of Barry, Blaenau Gwent & Torfaen! 📢 If you or anyone you know would like to volunteer and support us with our workshop delivery across South Wales then please do get in touch with me: Nia.Morgan@Redstarteducate.org #FinancialLiteracy #SocialMobility #SouthWales #Volunteering

🚨 Do you work / live in the Edinburgh/lothians area? ❓would you or your organisation like to inspire the next generation by supporting the delivery of financial education in schools across Edinburgh ? If so please get in touch . With the addition of 4 fantastic new schools in Edinburgh this year to the RedSTART Educate programme we are in need of your support now more than ever . Volunteering with us is not only rewarding , it’s also a lot of fun 🤩. I would be happy to tell you more if you would like to arrange an informal chat. You can sign up to volunteer via this link 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eJHa3c5D Or contact me at elaine.mclean@Redstarteducate.org Or just pass this along to anyone you know might be interested 🙏🏼😊 #financialeducation #changethegame #corporatevolunteering

We have over 30 new member schools across the country joining the RedSTART Educate programme this year, with new applications arriving every day. They will become part of our community, alongside the 57 schools who already know the value of teaching primary school children about how money works. Some of our Year 6 children will start to make significant money based decisions in as little as 4 or 5 years time. From that point, their attitude to money will result in consequences that can be life changing. Tracey, the Head at St John’s school in Newcastle, has run the programme there for the last two years. She told our Regional Manager for the North East, Cherakee Bradley, today, “I love this programme. I have seen a noticeable difference in the students in the way they talk about money and their attitude to money. They are now talking about money at a higher level than you would expect for their age group”.

We have had to say “goodbye and good luck!” to all of our Year 6 children in the last few weeks, as they graduate from primary school and move up into secondary school in the Autumn. The children have been earning RedSTART£ by taking part in quizzes about applied maths and money in the RedSTART Educate Money Management App. They had the option to save their money in an interest bearing savings account and were able to spend their money in the RedSTART shop. There were 6,079 children from Year 2 to Year 6 in 24 schools using the App this academic year and the Year 6 children bought 1,166 items at varying price points. As you can see the LEGO Group is a firm favourite! Below are the children from St Michael’s primary school in Bath and Compass Point primary school in Bristol with their chosen items, and with the First Steps in Finance book which they are all given when they graduate from the programme at the end of Year 6. It’s been so exciting to see the positive connection the children are making between earning, saving and spending. These pictures arrived in the last week and brought a huge smile to our faces. We hope they have that effect on you, too. Farewell, Year 6!