Gold star for finance-savvy Scots pupils as primary school gains top status

A primary school in East Kilbride has become the first in Scotland to be named as a centre of excellence for teaching pupils about their finances.

Crosshouse Primary School has been accredited under an HSBC-backed scheme to encourage financial education among young people.

There are now over 150 Centres of Excellence in Financial Education in England and Wales but Crosshouse has become the scheme’s first north of the Border.

Jackie Noon, a teacher at the school and its financial education champion, said: “We feel it is vitally important for our children to develop a broad range of skills, knowledge and attitudes to thrive in a financially evolving society and to prepare them for the responsibility of having to manage their own money.

Pupils from Crosshouse Primary School, East Kilbride, celebrate accreditation for good financial education. Picture: Iain McLean

“We’ve loved how the children have embraced the programme and we are thrilled to be a Centre of Excellence for Financial Education.”

The school has been supported through the accreditation process by Young Enterprise (YE) Scotland.

The Centres of Excellence programme provides a set of professional standards to support schools to deliver practical, effective and sustainable financial education.

Crosshouse has now committed to sharing the good practice it has developed with other local schools whilst continuing to receive support from YE Scotland over the next three years.

Stuart Haire, head of wealth and personal banking at HSBC UK, said: “Financial education gives young people a great start to achieving financial wellbeing in later life and the teaching staff at Crosshouse have implemented a highly creative lesson plan that is clearly having an impact within the classroom and beyond.”

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