School Bank / Financial Education
Financial Education
At Great Kimble, we are committed to preparing our children for the real world. As part of this, we teach financial literacy from an early age, helping children understand money, savings, spending, and decision-making in a safe and practical way.
All children in our Trust now have access to digital bank accounts, giving them hands on experience with modern banking in a controlled, classroom setting. This allows them to:
- check balances and track spending digitally
- set savings goals and work towards achieving them
- understand the value of money through real life scenarios
- make responsible choices about earning, saving, and spending
How We Learn About Money
Our financial literacy curriculum is carefully structured to grow with your child:
- EYFS & Key Stage 1: Children explore jobs and earning money, learn to identify wants and needs, and practise using digital balances through role play activities.
- Intended learning for KS2 - to be implemented
- Key Stage 2: Children develop budgeting skills, track digital transactions, plan for saving, and explore career pathways. They also participate in scenarios like “Job for a Day” and create personal digital budgets.
- Year Six: Pupils consolidate their knowledge through mock interviews, career planning, and real life digital banking tasks, preparing them for financial independence in the future.
Why Digital Banking?
Using digital bank accounts allows children to experience real life financial situations safely: they can tap to check balances, manage their money, and make thoughtful spending decisions. It also supports our wider goal of equipping children with 21st century skills, including financial responsibility, decision making, and problem solving.
Our Vision
We want our children to grow up confident, responsible, and prepared for the financial world. By introducing these concepts early, we help them develop the skills and confidence to manage money wisely, set goals, and make informed choices.
It is reported that children's spending habits are ingrained in them by the age of 7; the Trust, alongside EduThing, have therefore designed a concept called School Bank which aims to improve this and support pupils understanding of having to "do things" in order to earn money.
At Kimble, we have linked School Bank with homework - the more frequent homework is complete, the more Kimble Coins are earnt and the more money there is to save or spend in the "shop".
Each pupil has school a bank card which they keep in school and every month / half term they are able to check their balances using the scanner. When homework is collected in, teachers then input the pupils credits online which turns to Kimble Coins.
The aim is to improve homework uptake and also show pupils that they can either spend money instantly or save for something they really want.
Years 1-6 have successfully been using the school bank for a year now and it is pleasing to see the positive impact it had. We also saw an increase in homework uptake which is hugely positive.
