A Shildon school has won a national award for Centre of Excellence in financial education. Sunnydale Community College joined forces with Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg), the UK’s leading financial education charity, and the high street banking giant Santander. Working with industry experts the school has integrated a programme of financial education into the college, which is already a specialist maths and computing school curriculum.
As a Centre of Excellence, Sunnydale will share its new expertise with other local schools.
Headteacher Sue Byrne commented, “It’s our job to prepare our students for life and this new work to embed financial education into our curriculum will play a big part in that. Managing your personal finances is one of those skills we all need.
“The whole team here at Sunnydale has worked extremely hard, with pfeg’s help, to embed financial education in our curriculum and I’m pleased that their efforts have been rewarded with a Centre of Excellence award.
“We are already seeing the results of the high quality financial education we are now providing, which is bringing significant benefits to our students as they take their next step in life.”
Steve Stillwell, pfeg’s director of education, said, “Our aim is to ensure that all students enter adult life with skills, knowledge and confidence they need to manage money well and Sunnydale Community College is doing excellent work to make this goal a reality.”
Stephen Irish, regional manager from Santander, added, “We believe it is important for everyone to have to have good basic money management skills, particularly young people. We recognise that teaching young people requires specialist delivery and we’re pleased to be funding the Centres of Excellence programme.”
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
