Rotherham picks up money excellence award

ROTHERHAM has become the first borough in Yorkshire—and only the fourth nationally—to receive the Local Authority ‘My Money’ Centre of Excellence Award for 2010.

The town has been rewarded for its work in personal finance education in which the majority of schools across the borough were provided with free support, resources and expert consultancy.

Kay Denton Tarn, a Rotherham healthy schools consultant, has helped forge links between schools across Rotherham and the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg).

The group is an independent charity, helping schools to plan and teach personal finance relevant to students’ lives and needs.

Topics such as needs versus wants, budgeting, comparison of providers products e.g. mortgages, insurance and loans, are age appropriately covered in personal finance education.

Kay said: “Over the last four years, the school effectiveness service has promoted personal finance education in all Rotherham schools via lessons such as personal and social health education, maths and enterprise.

“Lead teachers of these subjects in schools have had the opportunity to attend inputs and have received information about free pfeg resources to enable personal finance education to be fun and interactive in the classroom.

“This means that hundreds of Rotherham schoolchildren are better educated in personal finance issues and better prepared for avoiding financial difficulties in later life.”