Description of the programme
A 2016 Inquiry into Financial Education Delivery in Schools concluded that there was a need to start financial education at a younger age. MyBnk’s three-year Primary Money Twist programme, supported by KickStart Money (KSM), sought to address this by raising children’s awareness of the effects of money habits and their ability to develop positive habits. The programme was also designed to give children confidence when discussing money with peers and parents.
The programme aimed to reach 18,000 primary school children across 100 schools over 3 years. MyBnk’s expert trainers delivered three 75 minute workshops in primary schools.
In March 2019, MyBnk extended its reach in primary schools to the younger age groups in Key Stage 1 (KS1) via a pilot teacher-trainer offer. The teacher training aimed to explore and evaluate different ways to upskill teachers to deliver school-based financial education lessons to their KS1 pupils. The pilot phase was aimed at exploring the use of online platforms and lowering its target age group to 5-year-olds.
This report is an evaluation of the third year of the programme.
The study
The evaluation, conducted by Substance, followed the baseline survey conducted in 2018. It assessed the extent to which the intervention achieved the following outcomes:
- Young people build capacity to defer gratification.
- Young people can understand, discuss and articulate new knowledge of money habits.
- Young people have an improved understanding of the concept of ‘future’, ‘plans’ and ‘consequences’
These outcomes were consistent for the third year of the evaluation.
Data collection took place between April 2019 and March 2020 and included surveys with KS1 pupils and their teachers for the first time. MyBnk intended to collect data into July 2020. However, the lockdown that occurred as a result of Covid-19 curtailed delivery and the amount of data collected – notably KS1 endlines and KS2 follow ups.
KS1 (pupils aged 5 and 6)
- Quantitative pre- and post-delivery surveys of pupils (152 baseline and 26 endline responses)
- Surveys with teachers who had implemented the new KS1 programme (23 baseline and 12 endline responses)
- Information about delivery was gathered through interviews and email correspondence with MyBnk trainers.
KS2 (pupils aged 7-11)
- Quantitative pre- and post-delivery surveys of pupils (372 matched pre- and post-surveys)
- Quantitative pre- and three-month post-delivery follow-up surveys of pupils (205 matched pre- and follow-up surveys)
Key findings
The programme exceeded its target to work with 18000 young people over 3 years (18,909).
KS2 (pupil) results
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Across the three outcomes there were overall improvements.
- The combined scores reported by all pupils rose by 6.8 points. Furthermore, of pupils who reported low scores before starting their sessions, their overall scores rose by 56 points.
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Some improvement was reported by all pupils in their capacity to delay gratification
- Where 68 per cent demonstrated they could before, this proportion rose to 78 per cent after delivery. Of those pupils who reported low scores before delivery, 68 per cent showed improvement by the end.
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Understanding habits improved
- They rose from 59% before starting Money Twist to 65 per cent by the end.
- Of pupils who did not understand habits before Money Twist, 51 per cent said they came to understand by the end.
- Furthermore, three months after completing their Money Twist sessions, 47 per cent of all pupils said they had started a new ‘good’ habit.
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Understanding of needs and wants improved
- Before starting Money Twist, 83 per cent of all pupils reported high levels of understanding of needs and wants. This proportion rose to 90 per cent by the end of their sessions, and continued on to 92 per cent three months after delivery.
- Furthermore, of the pupils who could not distinguish needs and wants correctly before delivery, 75 per cent reported they could when they completed the sessions.
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Pupils were better able to understand, discuss and articulate financial concepts. Before starting their sessions.
- 42 per cent of all pupils could correctly identify the definition of salary/wage. This proportion rose to 67 per cent when the delivery was completed, and rose further to 72 per cent three months after delivery.
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Some young people improved their understanding of financial planning and consequences.
- Before MyBnk delivery, 62 per cent of all pupils said they sometimes save money. By the end of their sessions, this proportion rose to 70 per cent. Furthermore, three months after their sessions, most pupils (69 per cent) said they had started working towards a savings target.
KS1 (teacher) findings
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Teachers became more understanding of the suitability of financial education for the KS1 age group.
- Before delivery, only 22 per cent stated this, whereas at the end of the training this proportion rose to 92 per cent.
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Teachers felt more able to understand the core components required to build good financial capability for KS1 pupils.
- Only 26 per cent reported this before starting their training, whereas this proportion rose to 83 after completing the training.
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Understanding of good practice for teaching financial capability also increased. Before the training only 17 per cent agreed, whereas 83 per cent agreed at the end of the training.
- Due to lower than expected numbers completing baseline and endline surveys, and with the impact of Covid-19, these results are not statistically robust but do provide a good early indication of the new KS1 model.
Points to consider
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Methodological strengths/weaknesses: The methodology for year 3 of the evaluation has been streamlined. Reference to earlier years may be helpful in building up a picture of the approach and key findings across the programme.
- KS1 outcome findings are not summarised above as they are not statistically robust, due to challenges around the delivery of this new element during Covid-19 when many pupils were not taught in person.
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Generalisability/ transferability: These findings represent interventions within several regions of England and Scotland, and are not necessarily representative of other nations.
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Relevance: The evaluation is of significant interest to people interested in enabling or evaluating financial capability interventions, and particularly to those targeting interventions at young children.
