At Loreto Kirribilli, Banqer High Junior has transformed Year 9 Commerce lessons into a space for curiosity and competition. Teacher Rob Magner shares how the platform has encouraged students to think beyond the syllabus, ask deeper financial questions, and connect what they learn to real-life money decisions and conversations at home.
Introducing Banqer High Junior to Year 9 Commerce
Loreto Kirribilli, a Catholic independent girls’ school on Sydney’s North Shore, has introduced Banqer High Junior into its Year 9 Commerce classes. Social Sciences teacher and House Patron, Rob Magner, reflects on how the platform has created new opportunities for students to extend themselves, ask questions, and see financial literacy as more than just a set of syllabus points.
“We’ve got about a hundred Year 9 students using it across five Commerce classes this year,” Rob explains. “We started midway through the Consumer and Financial decisions unit and will carry it through to the end of the year. It’s been an extension to the program, a way of opening things up a bit more for the students.”
Gamifying Commerce at Scale
The rollout quickly took on a competitive edge.
“We created a bit of a gamification activity where the five classes compete against each other,” Rob says. “Some teachers opened everything up at once, others staged it, so we kind of lost a level playing field. But there’s still that competition between classes and individuals, and the girls are engaged.”
For some, engagement comes from routine. “They know that if they log on each day, they’re getting employment income. Some are right into it: logging in, building their money, trying to get ahead.”
Opening Conversations Beyond the Syllabus
Rob had used Banqer Primary several years earlier and saw its potential to spark curiosity.
“I thought it’d be nice to have that gamification, that extra extension activity. Students of all abilities are stretching themselves and starting to think beyond the basics. Suddenly they’re asking about the share market or superannuation, which we don’t really cover until Year 10. It opens thoughts up for them and they can take it where they wish.”
He sees Banqer as a complement to the traditional approach. “Normally we’d just go through the syllabus, take notes, and do a few exercises. With Banqer running alongside that, it all fits together."
You end up having conversations that don’t come up when you’re just ticking off the syllabus.
"Like, ‘Why are you leaving all your money in your everyday account? You’re not earning any interest.’ It prompts them to think differently.”
When the Penny Drops
Standout moments have come when students confront real-world scenarios.
“The penny-drop moment is when they stop and ask, ‘Hang on, how does that work?’” Rob says. “Like realising you don’t just have a house, you’re renting it, or you need a deposit before you can get a mortgage. Or they’re asking about the share market: ‘Can I buy more than one share? Can I build a portfolio?’ Those are the moments when you know they’re engaged.”
Rob recalls surveying his class early on. “Most of them rated Banqer pretty highly - sevens, eights, nines, and 10s, and they said they’d learned something, that they understood things a bit more. Some even commented what they’d like to explore in more detail. That tells me they’re curious and wanting to know more.”
Involving Parents and the Wider Community
Rob sees strong potential to involve families more directly. “We haven’t used the parent emails feature yet, but I’d like to. Parents here are pretty engaged. Some parents work in financial institutions, so there’s a prime opportunity to bring them into it. The girls have already heard some of these concepts at home, so Banqer gives them a way to actually play around with it.”
That link to home life is already starting to show. “You kind of take it as given that students know Mum and Dad have a mortgage,” Rob reflects. “But then they’re asking, ‘How does that work? Where do you get the money from?’ That’s been a bit of a realisation for some of them, just making that connection to what’s happening at home.”
A Natural Fit in Commerce
At Loreto Kirribilli, Banqer sits within Commerce rather than Pastoral Care. Rob explains that in New South Wales, pastoral programs carry a wide range of priorities, whilst including some small components of financial literacy, but the wide scope of pastoral care makes it difficult to give financial literacy the sustained attention it needs.
“It just comes down to the busyness of time,” he says. “For us, wellbeing is more about mental health, consent education, or drugs and alcohol. Those are often covered by bringing in a guest speaker for a one-off session.
Financial literacy needs more than just an hour before lunch, it needs end-to-end teaching.
"So for us, it fits better in Commerce, where we can actually wrap it into the subject.”
Building on a Strong Start
Rob sees this first year as a valuable learning experience. “I’d like to embed it more, to align it more closely with the program. There’s an opportunity to say, ‘Okay, it’s April, now we open the superannuation module,’ and build it directly into the sequence.”
He’s also made use of some of the worksheets and resources along the way, though he sees even greater potential if they were used more consistently.
For Rob, Banqer’s value is clear. “It provides that extra option to extend students. You teach the content, they take notes, but then when they’re in the simulation managing money, building a portfolio, it encourages them to ask more questions. It adds excitement to Commerce in a structured way.”
