After the Australian Curriculum changed, Lourdes Hill College saw an opportunity to evolve its financial literacy education. After integrating Banqer into its Business and Economics curriculum, the school saw student engagement improve, deeper learning accelerate, and teaching become easier. Not only that, but students began applying their lessons to the real world, opening bank accounts or applying for part-time jobs.
Meeting new curriculum requirements for financial education
Before implementing Banqer, financial education was limited, and students were only briefly introduced to basic concepts in a Year 8 marketing topic. But when the Australian Curriculum changed, Lourdes Hill needed to meet new standards under Economics and Business. This required students to understand the tax system, effectively budget for long-term goals and demonstrate financial decision-making.
Typically, traditional learning approaches struggle to facilitate a deep understanding of financial concepts. Part of the issue is modern financial systems are highly digital and increasingly complex. Seemingly separate concepts, like budgeting and risk management, are intrinsically linked. Illustrating how different concepts are interwoven can be a challenge.
Implementing Banqer at Lourdes Hill
The school looked to Banqer to provide an interactive, hands-on approach to financial literacy education. The platform simulates real-life experiences, making the subject matter more relevant and accessible for students.
At Lourdes Hill, the Year 8 cohort uses Banqer for one term as part of their Financial Fitness topic. Twice a week for 50 minutes, students log in and explore the platform under their teacher’s guidance. Banqer’s content frames rich discussions around tax, budgeting, banking and more. And the platform's dashboard allows teachers to monitor student progress and then tailor lessons and support.
Seeing immediate impacts
Yingnan Zhang, a business and economics teacher at Lourdes Hill, notes that Banqer significantly boosts student engagement and understanding of financial concepts. Students' enthusiasm levels remained high across the program, often revisiting quizzes to earn virtual rewards. The platform's gamified elements, such as earning pretend dollars and changing avatars, added a competitive edge that kept students motivated.
I see high engagement in the students and everyone's loving it because it is so different from notetaking.
Banqer’s impact isn’t confined to the classroom either. Ms Zhang reports that students began applying what they learned, opening bank accounts, creating personal budgets and began saving. Some even applied for their first part-time job using the resumes they had created in Banqer!
Improving student learning outcomes
Banqer’s integration into the school’s curriculum has led to impressive improvements in learning outcomes. Ms Zhang feels her students learn economic concepts faster than ever because they’re having fun and the content is relevant. “Using Banqer, they can connect their learning to real life rather than just look at the theory.”
At the beginning of their Financial Fitness subject, Ms Zhang says that a handful of students could correctly identify or explain concepts like tax or budgeting. But after using Banqer, nearly all can speak confidently about various topics, from credit and debit and income to investments.
Making teaching easier
Ms Zhang notes that she finds Banqer incredibly easy to use and appreciates the holistic view of her student’s journeys. “With the dashboard, you can monitor student usage. We know when they've completed each task. One screen will show red, green, and yellow colours against different students, and we know right away where they are tracking. It's really helpful.”
On top of improving student monitoring, Ms Zhang says she appreciates the teaching and learning resources and cheat sheets Banqer provides. Plus, the videos, quizzes, and simulated events, made learning fun and engaging.
Ms Zhang says the platform's different features helped create timely interventions and personalised support for her class. Parents also noticed the positive impact, with some reporting that younger students had surpassed older siblings in financial knowledge.
Banqer has made such a difference at Lourdes Hill College that Ms Zhang recommends it to other teachers,
I would encourage all teachers to use it if they are introducing financial literacy.
Banqer has become a valuable teaching and learning tool at Lourdes Hill College. By making financial education interactive and relatable, the College can meet curriculum requirements while inspiring its students to take control of their financial futures.
If you want to introduce or evolve financial literacy at your school, get in touch. Our passionate team can help smoothly integrate Banqer into your curriculum and provide personalised support throughout.
