Economic Education

Managing my Money

During our first lesson we discussed the differences between different savings accounts; regular savings accounts, easy-access savings accounts, fixed savings accounts and online savings account.

Key terms we learnt this lesson were;

Income – money you receive through things like pocket money, doing chores or wages from a job.

Expenditure – money going out – this is the money you are spending.

Budgeting – when we measure our income (money coming in) against our expenditure (money going out).

We worked through different activities to help a group of friends budget their money and balance their money according to their wants and needs.

Keeping my money safe

This lesson we learnt about scams and fraud. We are able to describe the different ways our money can be at risk online and offline and how we can protect our money in a variety of different situations.

Key terms we learnt this lesson were;

Scam – A dishonest scheme or fraud designed to trick people, especially into giving their money away.

Mrs Crowther pretended to be six different characters and gave us different bits of information, we then had the chance to find out if she was trying to scam us or being genuine. It was really interesting to see how different words were designed to trick us but useful to find out what we could look for to help us in the future.

What is debt?

We spent some time learning about the term debt and how it can sometimes be a good or a bad thing.

Key terms we learnt this lesson;

Debt - Money that is owed - and is expected to be paid back - by an individual, business or country. When you borrow money, it is called debt.

We read different case studies and decided if we think the debt in that scenario was something we should be concerned about.

In groups we were given a set of cards, we had to decide whether the cards were a logical loan or a dodgy debt.

Ethical Spending

We learnt how we can all choose to spend more ethically and the different reasons why this is a good idea.

Key terms we learnt this lesson;

Ethical spending - Choosing products which cause the least harm to the environment, other people or animals in how they are made, used or transported.

Exploitation - The action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work.

We thought about the option above and voted on which we would prefer to buy. Mrs Crowther then gave us the following questions to see if it changed our mind.

What if you knew the green sweets were made ethically and the pink sweets were made using child labour?

Would you buy the £1.50 sweets? Why, or why not?