Thames High School is a semi-rural secondary school of around 400 students, at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. Jen Fletcher is head of social sciences and Year 13 dean, and has taught at the school since 2008. Banqer has been used with the school's Year 10 students this year, and Jen has led the shift to full adoption.
A financial literacy resource built for non-specialist teachers
Before Banqer, Thames used the Real Game, a printed kit where students drew a job at random, built a wish list of everything they wanted, then discovered their new job wouldn't cover any of it.
It went into things like tax and PAYE, all that really good robust stuff in the background, but not as hands-on and engaging for students.
Jen discovered Banqer at SocCon in Christchurch, where she and a colleague were representing the school. Trials followed, then full rollout this year across 100 Year 10 students. With no economics specialist on staff, Jen needed a platform her own department could run.
We're history and geography experts, and because we’re a small school, we don't have an economics expert. Having Banqer’s unit plans and being able to see how it fits into the curriculum works really well, because we can see how those links are made.
Banqer sits within Thames' Year 10 social studies unit, covering employment, taxation, personal financial management, employment contracts and KiwiSaver. Jen expects that could shift down a year once the social sciences curriculum refresh settles, since Year 9 already carries its own unit on financial decisions, needs, wants and goals.
Setting it up, she says, was never the hard part. It's pretty much click and play, add a class, send an invite. Sometimes our kids become the teachers and we become the learners, which is actually really cool because it creates better connections with us.
To keep students engaged across a full year, the faculty built the platform into a house points competition. Thames is one of the oldest secondary schools in the country, founded in 1880, and its four houses carry the names of the school's first four principals: Adams, Dorrington, Hoult and Rudman.
We looked at different aspects, the house with the most savings got points, we also looked at net worth, and about four or five different things they pulled out that they got points for, and they were so competitive.
The rivalry carried through to senior years too. Year 11 students who trialled Banqer last year still check it first thing in their weekly wellbeing class. Jen describes one student's running scoreboard rivalry with her directly: I've had one of the girls go, I've got more money than everybody else. I'm like, ‘not me’. So she and I are in a little competition.
The real world impact of teaching financial literacy at Thames High School
One local primary school, Moanataiari, had already introduced Banqer's junior programme, so a handful of students arrived at Thames with some exposure. Most hadn't. As Year 13 dean, Jen saw the same pattern each year: seniors leaving without a bank account. That number has shifted fast. Looking across my Year 10s, instead of about 20% having a bank account, there's probably 85% that do now, just because they've gone, actually I need a bank account, everything these days goes by electronic transaction.
Jen runs an 'exit pass' for seniors before they leave school: two forms of ID, a bank account, and knowing their IRD number.
One story stuck with Jen. A student told her mum, I've got money in my account, I'm going to buy these shoes,
then did exactly that, buying a pair online with her own money. It captured what Jen wanted students to grasp. That stuff that just comes to your house comes from somewhere, there's been a transaction for it, rather than, ‘oh, it's just turned up at my house’.
Banqer also builds problem solving skills the school develops elsewhere, including through ePro8, a technology challenge where students design their own solutions. Jen brings the same thinking into how she talks through Banqer scenarios, comparing a drop in income to being on ACC, where a payout only covers 80% of a wage. She wants students to reason through the consequences themselves. What else could I do to top up my pay. If this happens then this might happen, the bank's going to sell your house because you haven't paid your mortgage. It's quite good how it all ties together.
The change Jen finds most rewarding is in students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
It's been eye opening to watch our students that have a lower socioeconomic outlook, because sometimes they have very low aspirations about what life's all about.
Jen sees that shift happen inside Banqer, when a student lands a job in the platform and starts picturing it as real.
Following a job in Banqer, going, ‘actually this is really cool, I could do this,’ that realisation that it's not just the space they're in, the world is way bigger than that.
The next step is turning that realisation into something to work towards. Being able to do it virtually and go, ‘how cool would this be?’ Well, make it a reality, you've learned all these good skills, now make it a reality. Those are real good conversations with students who wouldn't necessarily have that readily available, now they can see there's a possibility, what do I need to do to get there. That's really special, showing them a different part of the world.
Advice for schools ahead of compulsory financial literacy
Her advice to other schools considering it is unambiguous. Go for it. Jump in there, because it's only going to benefit your students. No matter which student, what background, it will benefit students.
That comes back to what she sees as the school's purpose. We want our students to be amazing adults when they leave here, that's our thing, to prepare them for the world. What better way to do it than with Banqer, prepare them for that financial world, it just opens their eyes to so many different possibilities.
Her closing point is practical. It's going to help your students and it's definitely something they'll remember, it's a memorable experience. 100% get in there, and if you can't afford it, find some funding. It can be done.
