GoHenry - the money app helping kids learn to earn, save, spend and invest - has welcomed the outcome of the Curriculum & Assessment Review, which today concluded that financial education should be made compulsory in primary schools in England as part of Citizenship. 

Today’s positive result - which has already been accepted by the Department of Education - follows five years of campaigning by GoHenry and education charities for financial education to be prioritised for all children in England from primary school age. It also supports a recent report by GoHenry - based on feedback from over 2,000 6-18-year-olds* - which found that 84% of kids wanted to see financial education on the new national curriculum and 9 in 10 (91%) agreed it’s a key life skill that will help them in adult life and work. Over half (52%) of 6-to-10-year-olds specifically wanted to learn about financial education in primary school. 

Commenting on the Curriculum Review Recommendations, GoHenry founder and financial education campaigner, Louise Hill, said: “After five years of campaigning, two Governments, four Prime Ministers, and a lot of positive noise but no action, today’s news that financial education will finally be added to primary school curriculums in England is music to our ears. It’s what kids, teens and their families have repeatedly told us that they want and it’s crucial to ensuring the next generation receives a meaningful financial education that will help set them up for future success.

“What we need to do now is ensure that it’s not seen as ‘job done’. We need to learn from the fact that just adding financial education to the secondary school curriculum over the last 10 years hasn’t worked well enough. We must ensure that money lessons form a compulsory part of the timetable, teacher training is delivered, expert resources provided, funding made available and that it’s assessed. We’ll one hundred percent take today’s news as a very welcome win, but the hard work starts now.”

Louise’s comments were backed up by GoHenry member, Eashan, aged 14, who said: “Finally, it’s happened! I think it’s safe to say that we are all so happy that finally our generation has been given a chance to get a head start in one of life’s most essential skills!

“Learning about money is something we’ve wanted for a long time and starting early in primary schools is such a huge step towards building a successful next generation. This means everyone could get the chance to understand things like saving, spending, and budgeting from an early age. It’s such an important skill for life.”

While GoHenry is celebrating financial education being included on primary school curriculums in England for the first time, the mission-led brand will be continuing its campaign to ensure that all young people receive a consistent level of financial education in schools. 

This includes the recent formation of a GoHenry Kids’ Financial Education Advisory Panel who will help inform updates to its Financial Education Manifesto and provide new recommendations to the Government on how best to implement money lessons in schools quickly and effectively.