LEO Academy Trust
'LEO coins for students'
Embedded Files
'We deliver the objectives within the financial education planning framework, and our offer goes above and beyond what we would be expected to do in the curriculum. When we found out that we could lead a school bank development that was a perfect opportunity to actually enhance our current offer and bring experiences that children will have or may not have yet when they visit banks into the school so they can actually have those first-hand real-life experiences in a controlled, safe environment.'
Faye Gibney
Trust Vice Principal
LEO Academy Trust
'Financial education is incredibly important, and starting young is exactly what we need to do, because by the time children reach about four or five, they actually have already interacted with money. They've had experiences of financial situations at home, and it's really important that we set the standard right from when they first join us.'
Faye Gibney
Trust Vice Principal
LEO Academy Trust
What is the centres of financial excellence scheme for schools and what has LEO achieved? LEO Bank 1
What is the centres of financial excellence scheme for schools and what has LEO achieved? LEO Bank 1
'Cheam Park Farm Primary School was the first school in the Leo Academy Trust to get the Centre of Excellence award for financial education. We are now currently working on a trust wide Centre of Excellence accreditation, and we would be the first school in the country to get it if we are successful'
Faye Gibney
Trust Vice Principal
LEO Academy Trust
'We're also really interested in providing a well-rounded education to our children so that they can thrive and Excel in the future. And financial literacy is a really good example of that. This is where we go above and beyond the national curriculum to provide our children with the knowledge and the skills that they need in the future'
Graham Macaulay
Head of Strategic Partnerships
LEO Academy Trust
'We asked our people voice leaders what they would like to see, what would they want to spend their money on. We also have items within our shop that aren't physical, and they are things like a Mufti Day or having hot chocolate with the principal which lots of our pupils are saving up for because that's something that they know that they want to be able to save up each week, and as they're accruing their interest, that that's something then that they want to spend their amount on in the future.'
Faye Gibney
Trust Vice Principal
LEO Academy Trust
'As part of the EdTech Hubs programme, we were able to visit Danesfield Primary School in Marlow and we got so much out of that visit. But one thing that really stuck with me was how they use a really innovative school bank solution to really help deliver so many different things in their school. And I left thinking, this is something that we should really be looking at to implement in our LEO schools'
Graham Macaulay
Head of Strategic Partnerships
LEO Academy Trust
'One of the things I really love about School Bank is the flexibility that it provides. So we off as a resource to support our financial literacy curriculum, bringing alive some of those abstract concepts that for some children are quite difficult to understand, but showing that and teaching that in a really practical, authentic way'
Graham Macaulay
Head of Strategic Partnerships
LEO Academy Trust
'It's important that when you are delivering the bank, that it's not focused on the reward system that they get, because usually we want children in our school to behave and to put effort in without having that reward or that transaction that they can buy an item that they can buy in the shop.'
Faye Gibney
Trust Vice Principal
LEO Academy Trust
'We had a debate internally around, should we allow children to go into debt? Should we allow them to go overdrawn? What are the implications for that? And we ultimately decided that what we want to do is give children the skills that they need for the future. And we decided that children can go overdrawn and that they'll do that. They do get debited interest when they're in their overdraft, because for us, that was a huge part of our curriculum. Actually, we want children to learn that.'
Graham Macaulay
Head of Strategic Partnerships
LEO Academy Trust
'There's the online technical bit, the wizardry in the background that makes it all happen but I think what's even more important than that is the lesson content, the lesson plans, and the materials that enable us to integrate this into our curriculum.'
Graham Macaulay
Head of Strategic Partnerships
LEO Academy Trust
'Spending time thinking about how do we translate children's actions into income, trying to equate what does that mean for our school, and then thinking, well, okay, so children have generated, generated wealth, they've generated points, coins, etc, on the platform. But what does that mean in terms of output? What does that mean in terms of wealth that they're creating in their account? And doing that in a really meaningful way, because what you're not trying to do is just eradicate your existing behaviour management systems, policies, processes, and replace that with school bank.'
Graham Macaulay
Head of Strategic Partnerships
LEO Academy Trust
'There are three strands to the school bank. The first is the school bank, which is about really bringing alive our financial literacy curriculum, giving children a really authentic and real approach to income, expenditure, credit, debit, overdraft, withdrawals, spending, and bringing alive those abstract concepts. Linked to that, I think, is the approach of School Shop, which is a tweak on that and is about gaining that knowledge, but then also having the ability to spend some of that income, to take their knowledge and apply that in a context. And then the third area is rewards management, a behaviour management system. Schools need to be really careful that they don't allow the school bank to become a reward system unless that's the intention. It's very easy for that you to start redesigning your behaviour management systems around School Bank'
Graham Macaulay
Head of Strategic Partnerships
LEO Academy Trust
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