I asked one of the boys the other day just what it is they do in SVS. “Oh, learn to write cheques and stuff like that”. How quaint! I felt this wash of nostalgia for the feel of a shiny new cheque book but, as I hardly ever write cheques these days, I rarely get a new cheque book. Anyhow, it set me thinking about which of the various things I’ve got to do in the next day or so would be a useful addition to the modern curriculum. I’m sure you’ll all have your own ideas…
- Fill in my VAT return. This rates as a chore on a par with washing up & ironing, except I don’t get a yellow letter threatening dire consequences if the ironing is a day late. Only the disapprobation of friends, neighbours and passing visitors. I could go to annual returns but then I’d only get around to book keeping once a year. Missing receipts are bad enough quarterly.
- Deal with patronising dishwasher engineer. I know he’s patronising because he’s been before and I just have to grit my teeth and smile sweetly. This might be a more useful skill for the girls than the boys, but not being male, I can’t say for sure. Actually, my cheque might be useful here because you can be sure he won’t leave without being paid. And, by the way, don’t EVER buy a Baumatic appliance.
- Figure out how to set up a conference call from home. I favour Skype, personally, but that will rely on persuading the others. Still, it has to be easier than getting from deepest Somerset to Bangor by public transport.
- Tackle the laundry mountain and clean the bathroom. Teaching the boys how to clean the loo could be regarded as a service to all future womankind. And maybe putting the loo seat down, while we’re at it. At the moment, we’re working on washing up and hoovering.
- Find a professional coach for the swimming club. Thought I had this one cracked but it’s not looking so straightforward today. And if they’re doing form filling, please teach them how to fill in an Enhanced Disclosure form. Black ink. Don’t write outside the boxes. No abbreviations. It all looks easy but they always seem to come back.
- Try to persuade the person whose house we want to buy that he really wants to sell it to us and noone else, at a price that we can afford. “Look into my eyes, my eyes…”
- Get some work done without being distracted by blogs…
Better get on with it.
I taught SVS last year and was somewhat bemused by the material, some of which was quite out of date. Obviously teachers adapt it -but finance is changing quickly like most things. I found pupils very interested in the section on credit cards, however -and in some stuff I researched myself on identity fraud. I think we should tackle finance education in schools with a lot more thought. During the course, our school brought in someone from a large banking group to talk to pupils about opening an account. No pressure -but using their logo on the material and talking about how to set up an account with them.
I did have some concerns about that. Isn’t it giving a bank a kind of educational seal of approval? Or am I being cynical?
Interested to hear what you think.
I’d be uncomfortable with that arrangement. Apart from anything else, the important thing to learn isn’t the “how to fill in the form” bit, it’s how to choose the account - or the bank.
This is all about building brand awareness, and schools need to be wary. Read recently a good piece on this - don’t remember where - but just turned up this scary abstract in the attempt to find it.
The bank’s logo on materials in a presentation is product placement jsut as much as deliberate product placement in a film and could well establish that bank as the first thought when looking for a bank. But on the other hand, if anyone else’s house is like ours, they’ll see bank logos lying around on envelopes and statements (at least while we still get paper copies).
I have to confess to total ignorance on what SVS is all about and what gets taught - I certainly didn’t mean you to take me too seriously!