Getting started with Banqer High made easy
If you are new to Banqer High and are considering time periods and the order in which you should activate each module, this article is a great starting point!
Jump to section:
- How often should I do a full Banqer High lesson?
- A full year with Banqer High
- One term with Banqer High
- Banqer High class wrap-up
- Banqer High over other time periods
Easy to implement a curriculum-aligned program
Implementing a new tool in the classroom can be both exciting and overwhelming. We often get questions about how Banqer High fits into the curriculum, how much time you should devote to it, or how often you need to teach a full lesson.
In this article, we hope to answer those questions and perhaps some others you didn’t know to ask!
Banqer High is aligned with the national curriculum in both New Zealand and Australia, as well as certain state curricula. Taking time to plan your expansion activation and your lesson timeline will ensure you and your students get the most out of Banqer High.
When planning your lessons, we recommend starting with one of our Banqer High Unit Plans. Check out our NZ Example or our AU Example. All Unit Plans include links to complete lesson plans, worksheets and other supporting resources to streamline the planning process.
There are three options created with different use cases in mind.
- The Full Unit Plan (NZ)/ Teaching Sequence (AU) offers a comprehensive overview of each Banqer High expansion. This is a general-use plan for a variety of subjects such as financial literacy, commerce, economics and pastoral care
- The Social Studies Unit Plan (NZ) / Humanities and Social Sciences Teaching Sequence (AU) is designed for use within a Social Studies classroom and details relating Banqer High to the Social Sciences curriculum
- The Maths Unit Plan (NZ) / Teaching Sequence (AU) outlines the use of Banqer High within a Maths classroom and details relevant to the Maths curriculum
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How often should I do a full Banqer High lesson?
As each class is unique, how often you should teach a Banqer lesson varies based on factors such as how much time you have and how many Banqer resources you build into your lessons. Our lesson plans provide you with a comprehensive framework for introducing the expansions, so check out our NZ Example or our AU Example.
Each expansion is designed to be introduced over one or more lessons, depending on how you want to teach. You have options to supplement and expand topics between expansions with our worksheets and supporting resources, creating rich class discussions and learning. We also see many of our Banqer teachers designing their own exercises and resources to supplement our platform in new and creative ways.
We don’t recommend enabling more than one expansion at a time, and once an expansion has been enabled, it cannot be disabled again. The content becomes visible for students and prompts them to complete the accompanying quiz - whether you’re ready to teach them about the topic covered in that expansion or not!
We do recommend you create a separate test classroom for yourself to play around with all the expansions and features without impacting your students or undermining your planning.
A full year with Banqer High
This option gives you and your students the most time to explore Banqer concepts and is our recommendation if time allows. Ideally, you should allocate two to three lessons per expansion to allow for an in-depth exploration of the topics.
The Unit Plan suggests an order of activation based on how each expansion flows into the next within the platform. However, this is completely flexible based on the time available and the topics you want to prioritise.
Introducing the expansions across the first half of the year and then using the second half of the year to revise is a great way to keep student engagement high and reinforce student learning.
Banqer High is designed to be flexible in supporting a range of learning contexts. Banqer teachers typically find success introducing expansions at a consistent pace over a block of time rather than using Banqer intermittently over their chosen time period. This works well to keep students focused and engaged. If you decide to shift the focus to content outside Banqer, we recommend encouraging students to check in for ten minutes each lesson to ensure they continue to progress and remain engaged with the program.
We recommend enabling the Banking expansion first, followed by the Careers expansion. Enabling those two expansions within the first week or two of using Banqer will have your students engaging right away, earning Banqer money as they become familiar with the platform.
Once you’re ready to move on, you may choose to enable the Property expansion next, or you may wish to bring forward the Stock Exchange expansion to give your students as much time as possible to experience the highs and lows of investing.
One term with Banqer High
A ten-week term provides a solid introduction to the core concepts introduced in Banqer. What you teach will vary based on how much time you allocate to Banqer lessons, what you’re comfortable teaching, what is most relevant to your school’s local curriculum, and what you think will be most engaging.
If time allows, we recommend dedicating one to two weeks per expansion to support retention and comprehension of the content covered. Introducing the Stock Exchange expansion early is also encouraged in the 10-week timeframe to ensure students have enough time to see how their stock portfolio performs over the course of several weeks.
We’ve provided an example of how you could structure your program below:
- Enable the Banking expansion and introduce your students to the concepts of credit, debit, interest and loans
- Enable the Careers expansion. Your students will learn about student loans, creating CVs, applying for jobs, and KiwiSaver / Superannuation. You can discuss long-term saving and planning for retirement
- Enable the Renting expansion. In addition to the concepts covered in this expansion, you may also choose to enable Stage 2, Home-ownership, which allows for discussions around topics such as deposits, responsibilities and liabilities.
- Enable the Stock Exchange expansion. You may choose to teach this lesson a week after the expansion has been enabled, so your students can experience the impact of engaging in the Stock Market without proper comprehension (a great life lesson!).
Banqer High class wrap-up
What happens once all the expansions have been completed? Banqer doesn’t just end once you’ve taught all the expansion content! Your Banqer class will have a wrap-up date, which is automatically set based on your timeframe and the date of your class kick-off.
Wrap-up is the final lesson in Banqer and is a great way to reflect on what your students have learned. As the wrap-up approaches, your students will be prompted to complete any outstanding tasks. This is a good time to revisit any of the concepts for the final time.
On the wrap-up date, each student will receive an overview of their Banqer High highlights.
Based on their actions throughout their time with Banqer High, they will be given a money personality, a rundown of all the achievements they earned, their final leaderboard rankings and a downloadable certificate of achievement.
You will have the ability to download all student certificates and student CVs on your dashboard. We’ve heard from our Banqer teachers that holding an awards ceremony with these certificates is a fun and memorable way to round out the Banqer experience. As a class, you get to celebrate your students’ success and newfound financial literacy skills.
Banqer High over other time periods
Banqer High also allows you to select a twenty-week period for use across two to three terms. From the teacher dashboard, you are able to extend or bring forward your wrap-up date to ensure that you can make Banqer High work for your particular class context!
Do you have a different time period to work with? Or maybe you’ve heard about and jumped on Banqer later in the year? Our team would be happy to support you with a PD session!
We can work with you to custom-tailor a progression plan that works for your class and the time you have available.
If you’re new to Banqer and want to check out what it’s all about, our team would love to show you under the hood. You can book a brief 15-minute demo with our financial education experts.
For New Zealand educators: Book a 15-minute demo For Australian educators: Book a 15-minute demo
