'We need to teach children about personal finance'

At Queen's Park Academy Primary School in Bournemouth, Dorset, children are already being taught about finances.

Principal Sarah Simmons said that the pupils are quite switched on when it comes to managing money: "They are very savvy, sometimes a lot more savvy than we are with their money.

"They learn about debt, they understand what happens, that money doesn't grow on trees, and that actually you have to earn money to get money and those skills they'll take through right until they're adults."

The national charity Young Enterprise has been calling for financial education in schools for years.

CEO Sarah Porretta said: "We see financial education as not just a subject but a life skill. It's very difficult to navigate the world as an adult if you don't have that financial literacy.

"Teachers need support to do this, but we need a national response to this to make sure that teachers feel confident and skilled to teach this really important subject."

The Leaf Studio Academy in Bournemouth specialises in sport and the performing arts and is also already teaching financial literacy.

Head of School Tim Clark said it's an essential part of what young people need to survive in the modern world: "They do subjects like what is credit, good credit, bad credit, scams, particularly online scams because obviously that's something that's prevalent a lot at the moment and they don't always understand that.

"They do sessions on mortgages and tax and that is always very enlightening as they realise how much they lose in the long run.

"If we don't teach them those things, we're doing them an absolute disservice because they are not going to be equipped to survive and to thrive when they leave school, no matter how good their grades are," he said.