When year 10 student Adam-Jasper Yousef Lewis got his first payslip, he had no idea what he was looking at.
But as he started to learn about financial literacy skills in school, he began to understand money in a way he hadn’t before.
“I come from a family where they just don’t know how to save,” Adam-Jasper said.
“Once I was paid and I had the money in my hand, I’d always have an urge to spend,” he said.
Adam-Jasper started at Hunter Christian School this year, and he has found the Business Academy classes incredibly helpful to how he thinks about money.
“Now I’ve had more of an urge to save the majority and be careful what I’m spending on,” he said.
Hunter Christian School is among several high schools in the region that are trying to ready students to enter an economically insecure world with high cost of living and geopolitical pressures.
Students learn how to save
Business Studies teacher and the director of Career Pathways, Kristen Clulow, said the school embedded a financial and entrepreneurial mindset from kindergarten all the way through to year 12 through their Business Academy.
As part of this framework, year 9 and 10 students take fortnightly “life classes” where they learn the basics of financial literacy such as how to read a payslip, superannuation and how to budget.
“The students enjoy them because it means something to them, they are living and breathing it,” Mrs Clulow said.
My Financial Future founder Yasmin Turner ran two workshops with year 10 students as part of their class on financial literacy.
“It takes 10 years for an individual to have their first home deposit, and so if young people don’t understand money early, they are behind,” she said.
Ms Turner, a former student of Ms Clulow, taught the class about how to practically plan for their financial goals as well as how to understand debt and how to save their first $1000.
Adam-Jasper said he found the 50-30-20 rule, where 50 per cent of a person’s pay is kept for needs, 30 per cent for wants and 20 per cent for savings, really helpful.
His classmate, Laura Livingstone, said the classes had been “eye-opening” for most students.
“I found compound interest really interesting and I learned that you’ll probably lose money if you don’t understand it,” she said.
“Cost of living is a big, scary thing, and I think it is something we all need to be aware of.”
Students Micah Dunstall and Elijah Lewis said they liked learning about investing and how interest works.
“Having this class, it’s going to help keep us stable after leaving school and during school,” Elijah said.
Not enough financial literacy
In NSW, high school students can learn some financial literacy concepts within mandatory courses such as mathematics and in electives including commerce in year 9 and 10, and business studies or economics in year 11 and 12.
Trinity Catholic College, Adamstown business studies teachers Casey Kirkup and Amy Eccleston said important finance life skills were not adequately built into the curriculum.
Ms Eccleston said while students were taught how to calculate compound interest in mandatory maths classes, they were not taught how to make decisions or understand their interest options.
Mr Kirkup said they were trying to convince students take up commerce in year 9 as an elective, so they could understand finance literacy early.
“We have definitely seen a big uptick in our commerce numbers and I think students are recognising that this is an important life skill,” he said.
Both teachers said they were stoked to see more girls picking up the commerce elective as well.
The school has also started a program in year 8 to provide 30 minute lectures for about eight weeks to teach students financial literacy and get them interested in the subject before the later high school years.
“The earlier you can start making sound financial decisions, the better it is going to be later in life,” Ms Eccleston said.
Going beyond the curriculum
Public schools were also taking financial literacy beyond the NSW curriculum.
Hunter School of the Performing Arts teacher Cassandra Portelli said the school partnered with a government program called Money Smart to make sure students were prepared for life after they leave.
Students were also involved in several finance competitions such as Global Money Week in year 9 and 10, Tax, Super and You competition and Cashed Up, where students learn how to be prepared for work and how to set up a side hustle.
“This is super important because to be a productive member of society, you need to be able to balance your cheque books at the end of the day,” she said.
Whitebridge High School students engage with money through year 11 and year 12 Life Ready program and go beyond the mandated 25-hour schedule for the class, principal Nadene Harvey said.
Students in year 10 and 11 have the option to be a part of vocational education courses in financial services.
“We look around us and the challenges of being able to afford groceries or pay your electricity bill or put petrol in your car,” Ms Harvey said.
“We want to take our kids from being very dependent little people out of primary school to learning to be independent adults in the world.”
