Ant and Dec surprised students of St Mary’s primary school in Southfields this month as part of an educational campaign to teach children healthy money habits.
The TV celebrities crashed the school’s assembly, delivered breakfast to the staff and visited a year-five class during a financial education lesson to mark a one-year anniversary of a Financial Education Recognition Scheme that supports financial education in schools.
The whole thing was filmed and highlights, including Ant and Dec taking questions and starting a debate about who in the class was the best saver, have been in a video online. The visit ended with in a giant selfie of the two and St Mary’s 400 pupils.
The financial scheme is run by online educational course company Twinkl, supported by Santander Bank, with Ant & Dec serving as Santander “ambassadors”. The goal is to give young people practical knowledge and understanding of finances to help grasp issues like saving, budgeting, banking, debt and so on.
By teaching children these lessons early on that as adults they will be properly equipped to deal with the real world by learning how to manage and cope with financial pressures. You can see some of the online resources here.
If schools commit to teaching the course to students for at least six hours a year, they get recognised under the scheme, plus get a free toolkit of lessons, a range of resources and access to videos made by Ant & Dec to drive interest and engagement.
St Michael’s was one of the first of over 200 schools across the UK to sign up to the scheme, plus it probably helped that the TV celebrities live nearby in South West London.
Ant was quoted afterwards as saying: “Today was a lot of fun. Seeing the kids so engaged in their financial education lessons really brought home how important this learning is. The enthusiasm and smart questions from the pupils made our day.” The visit came just a few days before Ant became a father for the first time.
And Dec: “Engaging with the kids and teachers at St Michael’s, answering their curious questions, and seeing the impact of an early financial education was all so rewarding.”
