Painsley Catholic College

Money talks for students at Painsley Catholic College, Cheadle, after volunteers from Britannia - part of The Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) - became teachers for the day, bringing experience of the financial sector into the classroom and helping students make sense of money matters. On Wednesday (14 December), a team of eight volunteers swapped the banking-hall for the classroom to deliver its award winning Fit4Finance programme to the school's fifteen and sixteen year olds. Interactive sessions and financially-themed board-games engaged more than 170 students on the day, using real-life examples to simplify the financial issues that young people face.        Jenny Kinson, education manager at CFS, said: "We are delighted to have helped the students at Painsley Catholic College develop a greater understanding of financial matters. The Year 11 students are at an important age when attitudes to money and saving are being formed.” "By co-operating with education providers we can build skills, knowledge and confidence in money matters, giving young people a head-start in planning their financial future. Fostering positive attitudes to money management has lasting benefits, raising levels of financial capability that will serve them well in the years to come.” Mr Clifford Challinor and Mrs Vicky Allen, Work Related Learning, Enterprise and Careers Co-ordinators at Painsley Catholic College, added: "Britannia's support has played an important part in our planned programme of personal financial education. The creative and engaging ways of teaching financial matters encourages a motivation for money management, helping ensure our students leave school with the…

Behjat Omer Abdulla, an artist and asylum seeker from Iraq worked with Year 9 students, who have chosen art as an option, at Painsley recently. They spent 2 days drawing portraits of themselves and others in the group, investigating the theme of identity. They were each given a number and experienced what it must have been like to be considered, not as a person with his or her own identity and personality, but purely as a statistic. The students thoroughly enjoyed the 2 days and made exceptional progress with drawing using graphite powder, producing amazing results.