Teaching consumer and financial literacy

Languages

• Explore foreign currency and exchange rates.
• Plan and cost an overseas trip.

Health

• Research the costs associated with preparing nutritious meals for a week.
• Understand the short-term and long-term costs associated with poor eating habits.

Media

• Study how marketing and advertising impacts consumer choices.
• Create and drive a fundraising campaign.

Technologies

• Investigate ways to minimise costs when developing a project plan.
• Develop a virtual supermarket, including product prices and specials.

Performing Arts

• Work out the costs and create a budget for a school production.
• Manage and report on ticket sales for an event.

Sustainability

• Plan and cost a school garden.
• Explore the savings related to reusing and recycling.

Managing money day to day

• What kind of money decisions are your students making every day?
• Do they participate in money decisions at home? For example, food shopping, making plans for family activities or holidays.
• Do they purchase gifts for friends or family?
• Do they get pocket money, an allowance, or have they been gifted money?
• Do they have a part-time job or earn money from activities like babysitting?

Saving and spending

• Do your students have a bank account?
• Do they purchase things online?
• Do they understand the difference between 'needs' and 'wants'? Does this understanding inform their money choices?
• Are they saving up for something special?
• Do they understand what it means to shop around and how to compare prices?
• Do they have longer term money goals? 

Depending on their age and grade level, you may want to test your students' understanding of key money concepts, vocabulary and jargon. 

Most young children understand a range of concepts related to money. Generally, they have the capacity to:

• recognise numbers and coins
• know that things cost different amounts of money
• appreciate that money needs to be kept safe.

Older children understand, or are learning about, a range of concepts related to money including:

• the difference between needs and wants
• payment methods that don’t involve cash (e.g., debit cards and online payments)
• keeping track of spending, savings and borrowing.

Teenagers understand a range of concepts related to money, including:

• setting spending and saving priorities
• shopping online and using digital money
• the importance of protecting their personal information
• the importance of long-term planning
• the idea that money must be earned and is not an unlimited resource.

Discussing positive and negative money experiences with students is a way for them to learn about good choices and what can be done differently. 

You could start by sharing some of your own money stories with your students.

• Did you get pocket money growing up? If so, how did you use it?
• What was your first experience earning money? How much did you make?
• Have your interactions with money changed over time? For example, are you making fewer cash payments?
• Do you have a money regret? For example, have you paid more than you should have for something?

Or formalise the financial learning through events already happening in the school community, such as a fund-raising activity or fete.

For example, by the end of the lesson your students will have learnt how to calculate costs, do a budget, or understand how to compare data.

Using the example of a fete, you could discuss how the money from last year's fete was used. Or what changes you could make this time to make the fete more successful or profitable.

Using the fete example, this could include: 

• developing a budget for stalls at the fete
• creating a table or spreadsheet to compare the costs of setting up various stalls
• determining which stalls are more profitable and which ones contribute in other ways. For example, a jumping castle might profit little, but it brings people to the fete. 

After a lesson, it is good practice to talk about what was discovered and learned. Even if the lesson didn't go to plan, you can still establish what the objective was and share why the lesson changed its pathway, especially when the whole class is involved.