Standard Life helps Gaelic primary schools to teach children about financial responsibility

Standard Life, in partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland and Scottish Book Trust, is delighted to announce that On the Money is now available in Gaelic.

Launched in English in June 2007, On the Money is a progressive and innovative financial capability project aimed at helping children, between 8 and 12, become financially informed and aware, aiding their development into financially capable and responsible adults.

Combining numeracy with literacy and drama in an pioneering way that hasn't previously been implemented in Scotland, the project goes beyond knowledge and skills to encourage crucial attitudes, values and dispositions relevant to responsible and enterprising financial behaviour.

In what is believed to be a first, On the Money uses storytelling to explore issues of financial responsibility for children and introduces financial topics and dilemmas via a book of fictional stories.

The project involves four well known Scottish children's writers - Carnegie Medal-winning author Theresa Breslin, former stand-up comic Jonathan Meres, rising star Nicola Morgan and Alison Prince, the well-loved author of over 40 children's books for all ages.

They were commissioned to write four stories that incorporated or touched on areas such as the moral dilemmas relating to finance, debt, wants and needs together with entrepreneurship and money management.

Each of the four stories that make up the book has its own particular financial theme.

No Change by Jonny Meres highlights issues around learning to save and earning interest; Alison Prince's story Funny Money is about managing money and getting out of debt; Down the Pan by Theresa Breslin deals with fundraising and enterprise; and Charlie Fly and the Nice Dream by Nicola Morgan looks at the financial implications of running a business.

The Gaelic version of the book was launched at Condorrat Primary School, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire on 11 November 2008.

The event featured a performance from Funny Money in Gaelic performed by pupils.

Commenting on the Gaelic launch, Jim Lally, director of The Scottish Centre for Financial Education, part of Learning and Teaching Scotland, said: "As a key part of the development of the project and to broaden its inclusive reach, we are delighted to have launched the Gaelic print edition of On the Money.

Produced to match the same high standards and accessibility of the original English edition, On the Money will be distributed free to every Gaelic medium school in Scotland.

Combined with the resources already available in the support materials and online this will ensure that pupils at Gaelic medium schools can engage with On the Money as fully as possible.

Jim continued, "The Gaelic version of the book maintains the innovation of the On the Money project, bringing opportunities for developing literacy in both Gaelic and English ensuring that Gaelic speaking young people receive the same entitlement to develop their financial capability as their English speaking counterparts.

The publication of the Gaelic version of On the Money is the first stage of the Scottish Centre for Financial Education's (SCFE) support for the Gaelic speaking community.

As part of Learning and Teaching Scotland the SCFE will: provide support for Gaelic pupils and teachers in the area of financial education provide resources for Gaelic education adding value to the current resources produced by SCFE work in partnership with the financial services sector and cultural organisations to improve educational provision.

engage with parents, grandparents and carers to assist their childrens' learning in the Gaelic medium.

Anne Gunther, Chief Executive of Standard Life Bank Limited, said, "In the current economic climate it is more important than ever to help young people develop positive attitudes and behaviours towards money, and to us there was no better place to start than in primary schools.

We have worked with schools for over 15 years in the area of financial education but this is definitely one of the most interesting and creative projects we have been involved with to date and the first time we have supported a Gaelic initiative.

At the onset of the project we had the challenge of how to make financial education a compelling topic for this age group.

For us the key was storytelling.

The On the Money stories are very entertaining and, as you can imagine, bring fun and humour to a dry and serious subject so learning is all the easier.

Philippa Cochrane of Scottish Book Trust, project manager for On The Money, said: "The idea of this project was to deliver some very important messages in a fun and interesting way and there is no better medium than short stories to achieve that.

Stories enable children to engage empathetically with issues.

Kids become involved with characters and events in stories in a way that's simply not possible when they are being taught about a concept such as financial awareness by parents and teachers.

All this has been made possible by the quality, commitment and experience of the authors involved and our partners Standard Life and Learning and Teaching Scotland.

Scotland has an incredibly deep and talented pool of children's writers currently and the four authors involved in On The Money are among the very best.

Our authors are a fantastic national resource and part of our remit is to encourage children to engage with those authors at every opportunity.

The launch of the Gaelic edition of On the Money ensures that even more children can read these great authors and can use the literature to develop their financial awareness in an enjoyable and accessible way" To make the stories truly accessible to as many children as possible, a DVD has been produced which includes a talking book for the visually impaired; British Sign Language for those who are deaf and hard of hearing.

The DVD also contains a audio version in Gaelic and forms part of a teacher resource which has been developed to support the book.

Teachers will be able to use the stories and the support materials in a way that stretches right across the curriculum - from maths to drama to reading.

5,000 copies of the Gaelic edition of the book have been printed and will be distributed, free of charge, to every Gaelic-medium primary school in Scotland, via local authorities.

The project is sponsored by Standard Life and has been developed in partnership with Scottish Book Trust and Learning and Teaching Scotland.

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