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What teachers think – exploring financial literacy in primary schools

Picture of Amelia Ernest-Jones
Amelia Ernest-Jones

Research shows that money habits are mostly shaped at home between the ages of 4 and 7, particularly around core skills such as counting and choice making. By adapting our existing Maths and English resources, we believe that we can have a significant impact on the financial literacy skills of the primary-school pupils we work with.

Teacher focus groups

The first stage in developing our new Financial Literacy programme has involved collecting teacher and parent voice. Before creating the activities and videos, we felt it was essential to hear from families as well as get guidance from schools and teachers. 

In October, we held two online focus groups with teachers from six of our partner schools across the UK including London, rural Sheffield, Norfolk and the Midlands. The families these schools serve face some of the greatest barriers to engaging in learning at home and so the input teachers gave us was invaluable. 

In these sessions, we discussed what schools are currently doing to support pupils to build positive money habits, what the structure of the programme could look like and how a home-learning financial literacy programme should be launched to families.

A parent and child play a game with loose change
a child plays a game to learn coin values

What are schools currently doing to support pupils to build positive money habits?

It was exciting to hear from schools on how much they would welcome a programme that supports pupils to build positive money habits. The general feeling from the schools we spoke to was that they want to be doing more but it is hard to find the time to do this in school and they currently do not have the resources to support parents with this. Most schools had organised visits from banks to talk to pupils about budgeting and saving and whilst these were beneficial these were usually on an annual basis and were mainly focused on KS2 pupils.

Teachers agreed on the importance of starting earlier (many were surprised that children should be supported before the age of 7!) and would welcome resources that would allow them to support families throughout the year.

What would an impactful Financial Literacy programme for primary schools look like?

There was a discussion around having termly themes with six activities throughout the year for families to do with their children. Schools mentioned the benefits of having a coordinated programme which would mean siblings were working on similar themes at the same time, making it easier for families to engage with them. They also highlighted the importance of having activities that were adaptable to pupil’s current understanding of money which can vary a huge amount across a year group. 

When discussing how this programme might support those families who face the greatest barriers, teachers discussed how often the biggest challenge for families is having the confidence to practise money skills in their communities. A teacher also spoke about how they are seeing children becoming increasingly less confident in having general interactions with people in their communities – it was agreed that this has become more of an issue since the pandemic and that activities should support families around this. 

We were also given lots of ideas around the materials that would be needed to launch the programme with pupils, parents and teachers in our partner schools! 

We are looking forward to including the teachers we spoke to as we develop the activities and supporting resources over the next year – they have already given us lots to think about!



 

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We know that supporting children’s learning at home is not always easy for families and we are currently working with your child’s school to gather insights into the barriers parents face to engaging in their child’s learning. These insights will help us develop our programme so that we can support all parents.

We are running parent voice workshops to gather feedback from parents and carers. The insights provided will be used by Learning with Parents to make improvements to our platform and shared with other organisations working in education to strengthen practices. A publication written based on the insights from these discussions will be available on the Learning with Parents website.

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PARTIES


(1) LEARNING WITH PARENTS a registered charity (CIO) in England and Wales with charity number 1189812 whose registered office is Newminster House, Bristol, BS1 1LT (Company);


(2) Your school or setting (School);


WHEREAS


(A) The Company has developed a programme to motivate and empower parents to engage in their child’s learning.


(B) The School wishes to use the Company’s programme to help their children and families.


(C) The Company has agreed to grant access to sections of its website to the relevant school staff and families.


(D) The Company has agreed to provide and the School has agreed to pay for access to the Company’s website on the terms and conditions of this Agreement.


IT IS HEREBY AGREED AS FOLLOWS


1. Definitions


The definitions and rules of interpretation in this clause apply in this Agreement:


    

  • “Initial Price” is the price for the Initial Subscription Term. This is calculated by the “Price Calculation”.
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3.2 work with the School to support increased parental engagement


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Nienke Alberts

Evaluation Manager

Nienke worked as a university lecturer for several years before moving into evaluation and mixed‑methods research in the education sector. She has led research at the University of Bristol on how best to support students and developed the evaluation framework for the London NCOP (now UniConnect). Nienke is passionate about using evidence to highlight and address educational inequalities, and has worked with organisations such as AccessHE and the Sutton Trust to identify biases and barriers within the education system.

Amie MacNab-Jack

Early Years Curriculum Lead

Amie began her career in education through the Teach First programme, but her passion for teaching started much earlier — in a makeshift childhood classroom, leading lessons for her teddies! Since then, her career has been shaped by a commitment to addressing educational inequality. She has worked across early years settings, supported disadvantaged families through her work with a charity and developed early years curriculum as a freelance writer. Her work is grounded in the belief that the early years lay the foundation for lifelong learning — and that lasting change in education starts with equity, compassion and a deep commitment to nurturing every child’s potential.

Aimee Christodoulou-Dunn

Marketing and Sales Lead

Aimee has worked in marketing and communications across the arts and charity sectors for several years, most recently for a music education charity before joining the Learning with Parents team. She is passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion, and strives to champion these values in all of her work.

Libby Taylor

Fundraising Manager

Libby has spent the last five years in fundraising across universities and the not-for-profit sector in Australia. She’s passionate about education as a force for real social change and absolutely loves connecting with people and building partnerships that genuinely matter. Libby is driven by a commitment to tackling educational inequality and ensuring every child gets the chance to thrive.

Jo Seymour

School Partnership Manager

Jo spent 24 years as a dedicated primary school teacher, mainly in Key Stage 1, and held leadership roles in both KS1 and EYFS. Throughout her career, she was passionate about developing children’s love for reading and writing, serving as English Subject Leader for many years. She led a range of inclusive initiatives to promote reading for pleasure, both in school and at home, with a strong focus on engaging all families. Jo is now excited to be part of the Learning with Parents team, where she supports schools in strengthening parental engagement and helping to close the achievement gap for disadvantaged children.

Y'aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Cap'n Chris Jarman

Technology and Systems Lead

Chris began his career as a software engineer, before transitioning to a leadership role during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he discovered how much he enjoys navigating chaos and uncertainty. He is passionate about mentorship and strives to help people develop and hone new skills.