RedSTART Educate

So proud that our Cherakee Bradley was invited to participate in the Child Poverty Summit at the Beacon of Light Sunderland! A really diverse group of around 350 people, all connected by the desire to end child poverty in the North East. A core objective of North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness. Cherakee participated in a really engaging round table discussion examining the role that education has in preventing poverty, breaking poverty cycles in families and supporting social mobility. The group also discussed how having even a basic understanding of money helps people make informed choices and avoid unmanageable debt and the downward spiral that can create, with both physical and mental implications. Great work, Cherakee!! We can’t wait to hear more about what comes next. 👏🏻🤩👏🏻

Thank you to everyone who came to the “Financial Education Fit for the Future: The Case for Policy Change” event, at The Policy Institute at King's College London on Tuesday evening. It was amazing to have support from so many people, across so many different sectors. A great job done by Susannah Hume presenting the second year findings from the research being carried out in partnership with our #ChangetheGame primary schools, huge thanks to Sally Morgan who was our fabulous and effective Chair, and to Jonathan Slater, Ruston Smith MBA, FPMI, FCMI, FRSA and Bernice Warwick, Head Teacher at Beulah Junior school in Thornton Heath, for talking openly and with vigour about their different perspectives on the subject. Everyone contributed to what was a lively and engaging discussion that could have continued for a lot longer. Thanks also to Johnny Runge, George May and the rest of the team at King’s for all their hard work pulling the event together and for ensuring everything ran smoothly on the night. The livestream recording is now available here.You can start watching at about 8 minutes, as we were a little late starting!: https://lnkd.in/eW3xxxrZ

Great to see an article published today by the Institute for Financial Wellbeing written by our CEO, Sarah Marks, about the difference between Icelandic and British attitudes to financial education in schools, and retirement saving. Huge thanks to our friends at https://www.sff.is/en, and particularly to Gunnar Baldvinsson and Kristín Lúðvíksdóttir for arranging and hosting such an informative trip. We are also working closely with Alexandra Miles, FIA to highlight the later in life consequences of poor financial education and planning early on. Some of her data is shared in this article. https://lnkd.in/eNpvmH-A

Now the tube strikes are off (phew), a quick plug for our event next Tuesday 12 November with RedSTART Educate: https://lnkd.in/e6yT-B4r For anyone interested in financial education, preparing people for the future, or how education policy gets made and changed, with a stellar panel of thinkers (and me).

Now the tube strikes are off (phew), a quick plug for our event next Tuesday 12 November with RedSTART Educate: https://lnkd.in/e6yT-B4r For anyone interested in financial education, preparing people for the future, or how education policy gets made and changed, with a stellar panel of thinkers (and me).

Today our CEO, Sarah Marks, is discussing the importance of financial education in the Icelandic publication Viðskiptablaðið (English translation: the Business Paper). The Icelandic equivalent of the Financial Times. The article is titled First Steps in British Finance. Sarah is talking to Helgi Steinar Gunnlaugsson about financial education as a life skill, the impact of an increasingly cashless society on the ability of children to learn by seeing physical money changing hands in day to day life, and the failure of a UK financial education policy that relied solely on a change in the curriculum to secure consistent delivery of financial education in secondary schools. RedSTART Educate provides copies of the book First Steps in Finance (written by Gunnar Baldvinsson) to Year 6 children as a gift when they have completed the #ChangetheGame programme and are leaving primary school.

Today our CEO, Sarah Marks, is discussing the importance of financial education in the Icelandic publication Viðskiptablaðið (English translation: the Business Paper). The Icelandic equivalent of the Financial Times. The article is titled First Steps in British Finance. Sarah is talking to Helgi Steinar Gunnlaugsson about financial education as a life skill, the impact of an increasingly cashless society on the ability of children to learn by seeing physical money changing hands in day to day life, and the failure of a UK financial education policy that relied solely on a change in the curriculum to secure consistent delivery of financial education in secondary schools. RedSTART Educate provides copies of the book First Steps in Finance (written by Gunnar Baldvinsson) to Year 6 children as a gift when they have completed the #ChangetheGame programme and are leaving primary school.

I have done loads of interviews and focus groups with public participants about their understanding of the economy & finances, as part of my Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) and Office for National Statistics research programme. One of the things I hear most often is: "I wish I had learned about it in school" or "I wish my kids were taught it properly in school". And everyone agrees! - Schools are keen. In our research, 98% of school staff agreed it is important to deliver financial education in primary schools. - Policymakers are keen. The APPG on Financial Education for Young People, run by Young Enterprise UK, is one of the largest APPGs in Parliament. - And there are so many great companies and charities out there who are doing amazing things, and trying to fill the current gaps in the curriculum. But there is limited robust evidence on what is effective, especially in primary schools. This is why we are incredibly excited to be doing this randomised controlled trial of RedSTART Educate's Change the Game programme. I cannot praise Sarah Marks and RedSTART's funders enough for prioritising robust, experimental evaluation in their funding model. See my colleague Jack Lawton-Summers's blog below about the results of the first year of the trial (with many more years to come). Spoiler: the programme seems to be working already, with a positive impact on pupils' financial knowledge. PS: we are also doing a The Policy Institute event on 12 November at King's: https://lnkd.in/daYQqQbD

Today the whole team spent the day together with our funding partners, Wellington Management at their offices near Victoria. Huge thanks to Ted Duffy, Saskia Bennett, CFA and the team who were such fabulous hosts and so generous in letting us use a room for the day, and for taking the time to join us for a lunchtime catch up on volunteering opportunities and our programme across the UK. Our day was brilliantly chaired by Cherakee Bradley with sessions on Safeguarding, a SWAT analysis, a review by region of our planning for the rest of this academic year and some actions we need to take on automation and efficiencies. We also discussed how we can use the outcomes of the work we did with & become in September. Thank you to Kate Jones who facilitated this really helpful team work for us. We are now working to harness our unused team strengths for greater impact and effectiveness. Here we all are with Elaine Mclean on the screen, in our cosy RedSTART hoodies ready for winter and with our super cool #ChangingtheGame mugs, which are thank you gifts for our teachers this year.

Today the whole team spent the day together with our funding partners, Wellington Management at their offices near Victoria. Huge thanks to Ted Duffy, Saskia Bennett, CFA and the team who were such fabulous hosts and so generous in letting us use a room for the day, and for taking the time to join us for a lunchtime catch up on volunteering opportunities and our programme across the UK. Our day was brilliantly chaired by Cherakee Bradley with sessions on Safeguarding, a SWAT analysis, a review by region of our planning for the rest of this academic year and some actions we need to take on automation and efficiencies. We also discussed how we can use the outcomes of the work we did with & become in September. Thank you to Kate Jones who facilitated this really helpful team work for us. We are now working to harness our unused team strengths for greater impact and effectiveness. Here we all are with Elaine Mclean on the screen, in our cosy RedSTART hoodies ready for winter and with our super cool #ChangingtheGame mugs, which are thank you gifts for our teachers this year.