NatWest MoneySense: continuing to adapt money lessons in a changeable educational climate
NatWest MoneySense, our free financial education programme, has continued to evolve its offering throughout the changing educational landscape in 2020. Following school closures back in March, we adapted the programme to deliver money lessons in the home, launching a new home learning hub to support parents and offering distance learning bundles for teachers. Similarly, we utilised our social media platforms to deliver live MoneySense lessons; our volunteers took to Facebook and YouTube to teach KS1 and KS2 students all about money with the support of schoolteachers, delivering interactive teaching directly into the home. With the re-opening of schools, we’ve recognised the need to continue adapting our programme in line with the latest Covid-19 guidance. Our newest developments have made MoneySense more flexible, including virtual workshops and new content.
Virtual MoneySense workshops
Our MoneySense workshops are usually delivered in schools with the support of bank volunteers, and we wanted to keep this staff presence within the workshops upon the return of schools. So, we modified the workshops to digital delivery, allowing us to retain the essence of our workshops whilst ensuring we follow Covid-19 guidance. Each workshop now includes a virtual volunteer video which can be played in class, allowing pupils to continue to receive top-tips, expertise and knowledge from a volunteer while they complete the workshop activities.
New Climate themed workshop
As part of our ambition to become a leading bank addressing the climate challenge, NatWest MoneySense has launched a new workshop all about choosing environmentally friendly and cost-effective behaviours in the home. ‘Save our pennies, save our planet’ for 8-12 year-olds explores climate change from a money-saving angle, with pupils tasked to think about everyday activities that use a lot of energy, the role they play in climate change and how to reduce energy costs for a household.
New ‘Ways to Pay’ content
With increasing ways to pay digitally, and as we use cash even less as a result of Covid, we launched a new classroom topic all about the different ways to pay for things. Created for 8-12-year-olds, ‘How are payments changing?’ explores all the newest methods of conducting transactions, including using mobile phones and smart watches. The topic includes activity sheets exploring the positives and negatives of online shopping vs in-store shopping, and asks students to look at different shopping scenarios and map them against the most suitable payment method.
Island Saver – now on mobile!
After a successful launch on console and PC in May 2020, our financial education video game Island Saver is now available to download for free on iOS and Android devices! This fun and educational game was created as an extension of our existing learning resources for teachers and parents, allowing students to immerse themselves in a series of money missions as they rescue a group of islands from the impact of climate change. We’re excited that Island Saver is now accessible to an even wider audience, and thrilled to announce that as of November, Island Saver hit 2 million downloads worldwide.
