Billanook College is an independent ELP to Year 12 school in Victoria. At Billanook, Year 9 finance integrates Banqer High across the semester. Students explore earning, spending, credit and long-term planning in ways that feel immediate and relevant. The subject has developed a strong reputation within the school, with students choosing it, talking about it at home and genuinely looking forward to each lesson.
Building a practical Year 9 finance program
Banqer High Junior first came to Billanook as a possible fit for Year 12 life-skills learning. It didn't suit that cohort, but as the school looked at where it might work across different year levels, Year 9 turned out to be the right home for it, alongside Banqer High Senior with older students. The fit speaks to how deliberately Billanook structures its curriculum, with clear consideration given to what students will need as they move through their schooling years.
Former business studies teacher Gayle Mackenzie shared her experience with the program: We tried Banqer High Junior with our Year 9 class and our kids absolutely eat it alive. They’re aspirational, so they like the idea of getting a job and earning some money and buying a house and doing all of that stuff.
Following that early experience, Banqer High Senior was later introduced with Vocational Major students. The enthusiasm in Year 9 has endured, with past students returning to ask if they can still access Banqer.
Banqer was layered into a course that Gayle and the Billanook team have been refining for years. It draws on university coursework reshaped for the school's own students, and runs almost entirely project-based, with different entry points for different learners. “Some students are happy to answer the questions and do a PowerPoint, while more advanced students will do a podcast and blow your mind away.” One student even created “a version of Monopoly about composting, with 3D-printed garbage bins and game pieces.”
Across each project, economic thinking is embedded. “Even with ASX we talk about interest rates and why dividends are paid and why sometimes they’re not, and profits and losses so it’s all blended in together.”
Curriculum expectations, without losing the hands-on focus
As an independent school, Billanook is not required to follow the Victorian Curriculum as strictly as others, but it still aligns its programs closely. Each faculty works from a master curriculum document, developed to map subject content against the standards set by government, with faculty heads responsible for checking that classroom teaching covers what's required. A key structural shift has been the way Year 9 Humanities is organised: They do one term of history, one term of geography, one term of civics and one term of finance.
Banqer fits within that structure, supporting the high standard the school holds its programs to.
We try to make the courses as hands-on as possible, while still linking them to the curriculum and giving students practical takeaway skills that will make them better people.
How Banqer runs at Billanook
Within that structure, Banqer sits alongside the core curriculum and runs across the semester. The term begins with foundational money concepts before students sign in and begin exploring the platform.
From there, it reinforces classroom learning. When students are learning about credit, the teachers talk to them about using credit cards, or if they choose a career in Banqer that has a student loan, what’s the financial impact of that?
Platform resources are adapted to suit the classroom, with each lesson following a clear sequence: direct instruction, introduction, open the expansion, practical application in Banqer, worksheet, and finally discussion. Keen to encourage more handwriting, the school is also looking at printing the resources into a workbook students can fill in as the lesson unfolds and sign off weekly, designed to support students who struggle to complete work at home.
Banqer isn't graded in the traditional sense, but completion still matters. Certificates are printed and included in reports, making the learning visible beyond the classroom.
A class that stays with them
Student engagement is one of the clearest markers of impact. Every lesson prompts different discussions, ‘Why did you pick to buy that house?’ or ‘Why did you choose to rent with those people?’ Before the new cohort even begins, the year nine students are asking ‘When do we sign up for Banqer?’
The onboarding is kept simple, with the teacher signing up and learning alongside the class. “The first lesson is completely exploratory,” Gayle explains. She says the response has been near-universal: “I’ve never had a kid say I don’t want to do this.”
Students would come to Gayle and say things like, I found this term deposit
or I've found this bank account. Do you think this one's a good one? Which superannuation should I get when I start working?
She keeps her response consistent. I'm not ever going to recommend a product.
Instead, she sends them back to their learning: What are the things that we talked about? Are they there?
The strongest evidence of student engagement came during an unexpected absence. A supervising teacher questioned what the class was doing, telling them, “You’re not supposed to be playing games.” The students pushed back, sending a message to their regular teacher asking her to advise that they were allowed to be on Banqer High.
Soon, the supervising teacher was on board, commenting “Oh my god, this is amazing.”
Support around the program, and what comes next
Students have a running list of ideas for the platform. Home and health insurance top the list, alongside transport options students have suggested themselves. Those deeper layers are already available in Banqer High Senior, creating a natural next step as students move beyond Year 9.
The impact reaches home too. Parents are often grateful, noting that teenagers who might usually answer How was school today?
with barely a word, are now sitting at the table saying, We talked about this at school today.
Some parents have even asked, I wish I could have done that. Can you sign me up?
Although Gayle is now semi-retired, her advocacy hasn’t stopped. She’s spoken to colleagues overseas and even raised it with her own financial advisor.
I can’t keep my mouth closed about it. If I had had the time, energy, and resources, it’s something I would have tried to design myself because it’s exactly what I’ve tried to do. I just believe so much in it.
The program has kept growing well beyond its first year, expanding into new year levels and subjects along the way as part of Billanook's strategic commitment to continually strengthen its curriculum.
