Author: Mrs Graham

On Wednesday at Parents night Keir Hardie held an art exhibition of all the artwork created from the pupils in the School and Nursery. The event was a great success and the children were all very proud seeing their creations all framed and displayed. The classes all had an opportunity to visit the gallery during the day to view their own and everybody elses work and then in the evening they were able to show them to their parents who had the opportunity to purchase them.

The artwork is still available to buy or to order extra copies of until 31st March from the office.

Keir Hardie Memorial Primary School and Nursery Class recently learned all about Financial Education during our focus week. All of the classes had a different financial focus and learned some fantastic life long skills to help them handle and manage their own money.

We were very lucky to have had some visitors in the school who extended our learning and taught us lots of interesting things.

First we had a visit from the ladies from Newarthill Credit Union who told us how the Credit Union operates and explained what happens with the money that we save in their accounts. They explained that the Credit Union gives you back more interest on your savings than what you would get from a bank. You can also borrow some money from the Credit Union when you are an adult, as long as you can afford to pay them back. The Credit Union is run by volunteer members of the community and has some paid members of staff too.

The community team from ASDA came to speak to the children about how money can be used to buy products in their store. The boys and girls had to add up the total of some items and then work out how much change they would get from £10. The senior pupils learned about Fairtrade and discovered how the money is split between all of the different people involved in selling bananas. We learned that the money needs to be split between the worker who picks the bananas, the owner of the land, the exporter, the importer and the supermarket. For a bunch of fairtrade bananas that cost 90p only 3p goes to the worker who picks the bananas and 39p goes to the supermarket who sells them. We couldn’t believe the difference in how much each gets!!  This however is an improvement for workers who usually earn only 1p per bunch for picking bananas that aren’t fair trade. Worth bearing in mind the next time we are choosing which bananas to buy at the shops!

Clydesdale Bank came to visit us on Wednesday and told us all about how the bank operates and what happens with your money that is saved in the bank. We learned about how they make and print bank notes and money and were able to look at and hold a real £50 note! If that wasn’t exciting enough we also got to see the new bank notes that are made of plastic. These special notes won’t even be in circulation until Monday! The bank have started making notes using special polymer paper so that it is harder people to make fake notes and so that the notes last longer to try and help the environment.

The children in the Nursery set up their very own shop in the role-play area, priced their own items and made price tags, they all had a great time practicing using money to pay for items. The boys and girls looked carefully at what coins and money looks like and made some coin rubbings and paintings using metallic paint to make them realistic.

Primary 1 learned all about shops and have started to make their own shop too. They have been making signs and posters to create a pound shop in the classroom.

Primary 2 have been investigating how people get money. They learned that children can earn money by doing some jobs around the house for their family and that adults can earn money by getting a job. The class looked at different machines that handle money – cashline machines, self-service checkouts and arcade machines. The children made their own vending machine that they used to role-play counting out coins and putting the correct amount into the machine. The class also looked into charities and found out why we need them and how money can be raised to donate to them. A sponsored silence was held to raise money to help sick animals.

Primary 2/3 completed a ‘Guess the money in the jar’ challenge. They had to estimate how much money was in the jar. They then emptied the jar and sorted the coins into the different types and counted them. Ryan and Hassan had the closest guess to correct amount. The class have also set up their own enterprise project called ‘Easter Express’ which shall be opening soon and selling Easter baskets and pencils. This will help the children learn about how businesses are run and to teach them about profit and loss.

Primary 3/4 have been looking at different ways to save their money. They compared whether it was better to save their pocket money in a piggy bank or in a bank account where they can earn interest on their money. The children researched and compared the prices of buying a bike, they had to find a bike that fitted into one of three categories – expensive, mid-range and cheap. They learned about best value for money and that the most expensive bike wasn’t always the best one.

Primary 4/5 have been learning about bank statements and how to read a bank statement. They  looking at account numbers, sort codes and reading what was coming out of our bank and what was coming in. In three different groups the children looked at three different banks (HSBC, Barclays and Bank of Scotland) and found information about when they were founded, who founded them, which countries they were working within and when the first credit card and cash machine was used. Then the three groups designed posters on each of the banks. After the class had learned about tax, they used the laptops to create power points in pairs about the information  learned. They found out that people get taxed differently depending on their wages (20%, 40% and 45%). The children looked at the NHS and the education system and realised that these were here due to tax payers paying their money.

Primary 5/6 have been learning about the cost of living. They all chose a job they would like to have in the future and found out how much they would typically earn in a year. The children then calculated how much money would be deducted for Income Tax, National Insurance and Pension. This allowed them to see how much Net Pay they would have at the end of every month. The class were then given the challenge to work within the budget of their net pay to ‘live for a month’. They had to find out how much it would cost to pay rent on a property, council tax, gas and electricity, insurances, travel, TV license and other personal bills. The children had to apply their learning about Needs and Wants to help them budget their money and ensure they didn’t overspend.

Primary 5/6 and Primary 6/7 worked together this week to learn about Financial Profiling by investigating the bank statements of the imaginary Christie family. The groups had to look at each member of the families bank statements and learn about how each person managed their money. We all learned about the different abbreviations on a bank statement and found out how different transactions appear on statements. The boys and girls also joined together again later in the week to learn about the different ways the government spend the money they gather in from the taxes we pay. The groups all had to predict how much money they thought the government would spend on different services. Then they compared this to how much money the government are planning to spend on each area which had just been announced in this years Budget.

Primary 6/7 have been using their maths skills to help them solve financial problems. They spent lots of time researching researching products like the iPhone 5s to find out what companies were selling them at the most competitive price. They had to compare the contract and the benefits each provider was offering.

All in all it was a great week packed full of learning that will provide the children with life long skills that they will be able to transfer and apply to their lives just now and in the future.

On Friday 13th March the pupils and staff from Keir Hardie dressed up in red to raise funds for Comic Relief. The children also had their faces painted and took part in some funny faces photoshoots in our very own Photo Booth! We all had a great day raising money for such a worthwhile cause. Our final total raised was £225!!!

Comic Relief spends the money raised by Red Nose Day to help people living tough lives across the UK and Africa. Have a look at the Comic Relief website to see where some your donations will go! www.comicrelief.com

Have a look at our gallery below to see the some of the fun we got up to!