Full integration drives total class engagement and learning outcomes
Lindsay Hall is a Year 5 teacher and STEM Specialist at Dale Christian School in Perth, Western Australia. He has seen the benefits of using Banqer Primary throughout the year, resulting in total class engagement.
By fully integrating Banqer Primary into the classroom over the year, Lindsay noticed something awesome. “From the start, I had my three or four capable students who were checking in every day as I would expect. By the end of the year, I had students who would not normally embrace financial literacy hooked. They are now inspired to start their own business, sell products or stream content for money.”
Lindsay found student outcomes benefitted from incorporating Banqer across the year, “Continuous learning has had much more impact than a two-week intense block, especially for students who might not pick up all the concepts in a short space of time. It has allowed some kids to fly who wouldn’t normally. That’s where Banqer Primary and the wide range of real-life scenarios can make a real difference.”
Prior to discovering Banqer, Lindsay spent hours creating his own paper-based financial literacy activity, supplemented by a virtual banking tool that taught banking basics.
When my colleague mentioned Banqer Primary to me, my first thought was how much time it would save me. Then I saw how much more it could do too.
Integration of Banqer Primary with Western Australian Curriculum
Lindsay quickly identified how comprehensively Banqer Primary integrated with the Western Australian state curriculum. “It certainly covered financial planning and thinking strategically about money, but it also brought so many mathematical concepts to life such as fractions, percentages, statistics and interpreting data, graphs, bar charts and pie charts. It ticks a lot of boxes.”
Lindsay used Banqer Primary as a behaviour management tool soon after launch. In exchange for completing classroom jobs, students were paid ‘wages’ with a few students assigned as bank managers to arrange this. The students also set up auto-payments to pay their Banqer bills (decided by Lindsay) like desk rent.
They were immediately motivated to earn money. In fact, I underestimated how much they would earn and ended up having to buy a lot more prizes!
Flexible across a range of subjects
Lindsay spaced the modules out throughout the year so they could be integrated across different subject areas. “We sometimes integrated Banqer Primary into our maths sessions, or students could access it last thing on a Friday or as a reward for completing work or getting a good score. I loved that straight away students could see the real-life application.”
Class engagement rocketed, “They weren’t just motivated by the rewards I had on offer, but by the leader board. I signed myself up too and that added another level to the competition.” The students frequently asked other classmates who were doing well for tips and tried to mimic their success. The higher ability kids were teaching the lower ability ones. I often had to stop the students talking about Banqer when they should have been focused on something else!”
The harsh lessons of risky decisions
There were many lightbulb moments for the students. Like when Lindsay changed settings to reduce term deposit interest or hiked property prices, helping students appreciate real-world events. Or when students were left bankrupt due to risky decisions, “One girl bought an expensive car with no car insurance. Disaster struck and she ended up having to sell her property and file for bankruptcy. It had significant repercussions for the class party as we had to deduct the debt from our ‘spending money’. All the students learned an important lesson about the value of insurance in the safe environment of a Year 5 classroom, rather than in the real world.”
For Lindsay and his class, Banqer Primary has been transformational, and parents are coming on board for the next step, providing pocket money and opening bank accounts for the children. The question on everyone’s lips is who will be the first successful entrepreneur?
Banqer Primary is available to primary schools throughout Australia at no cost, thanks to our Champion Partner Netwealth. Teachers can sign up via our site or book an online demo to help them get started and set up.
