INTERACTIVE INVESTOR IS ON A MISSION TO FIND BRITAIN’S BEST MONEY TEACHERS – WITH A £25,000 PRIZE POT FOR WINNING SCHOOLS

• To nominate a teacher, email teacher@ii.co.uk by 11 September
• Teachers can nominate themselves: email teacher@ii.co.uk with lesson plan and supporting statement by 29 September
• New category in 2023 to also celebrate Teaching Assistants

 

Interactive investor, the UK’s second largest investment platform for private investors, is once again on a mission to find Britain’s best money teachers for its Personal Finance Teacher of the Year Awards 2023. Awards are open to teachers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

 

This is one of the most prestigious awards to recognise creative money education, with a prize of £25,000 to be shared among the winning teachers’ schools across the UK.

 

Covering both primary and secondary schools, past winners have come from a diverse range of schools, including special educational needs schools. This is something ii is keen to point out, given young people with SEND are more at risk from escalating online financial scams, according to Young Enterprise.

 

This year interactive investor is also supporting entries for a new category to honour the most inspirational support teacher/teaching assistant who has gone above and beyond to support pupils to become more confident in money management skills, perhaps to cement maths concepts. 

 

The challenge of encouraging confidence in mathematics was highlighted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement that pupils in England should study maths up to the age of 18 to better equip them for the modern workplace.

 

Whether learning Pythagoras up to 18 is useful for more than just engineers or budding snooker players is up for debate.  interactive investor believes that real world money skills to help the next generation build financial resilience could be far more appealing. And with a continuing cost-of-living crisis affecting so many families, learning to manage money and handle a budget is a vitally important skill young people will need.

Richard Wilson, Chief Executive, interactive investor says: “In a world of buy now pay later, increasingly sophisticated scams, and where young people are more aware of cryptocurrency than any other investment*, good money skills are essential.

“Young people are navigating a far more complex set of financial rules than their parents and grandparents ever did, but while the provision of money lessons in schools remains patchy, there is some fantastic work being done. Please help us find the best money teachers of 2023.

“We want to recognise the amazing, but all too often uncelebrated, contributions that our teachers and support staff make to help young people go out into the world with an understanding of how to manage their money.”

 

How to enter

 

To nominate a teacher or teaching assistant, parents, carers, or pupils should email teacher@ii.co.uk with the teacher’s name along with the name and address of the school, by 11 September 2023. We will then approach the teacher and ask them to submit their lesson plan and brief supporting statement by 29 September 2023.

 

Topics might include budgeting, investment, cash savings, interest rates, credit, and much more, from reception right the way up to sixth form.

 

Teachers can also nominate themselves, by emailing teacher@ii.co.uk with a lesson plan and supporting statement by 29 September 2023. Teaching assistants are also asked to submit evidence of how they have helped communicate money concepts to pupils, and they may also share lesson plans.

 

Personal finance is still a relatively small part of curriculums across the UK, but the skills taught are vital. Through this award, ii is on the lookout for teachers who are designing lessons with imagination and skill.