Activity ideas

• Glossaries – Students could compile glossaries of financial terms used in the film clip, along with their own definitions. This encourages them to clarify their understanding of key vocabulary.

Terms might include: ‘credit’, ‘debt’, ‘interest’, ‘interest rate’, ‘Annual Percentage Rate (APR)’, ‘overdraft’, ‘mortgage’, ‘loan’, ‘student loan’, ‘payday loan’ and ‘credit check’.

• Missing word puzzles – On the blackboard or onscreen, display the following paragraph, with the words in brackets missing. Ask students to fill the gaps.

An overdraft is short-term borrowing, best used for emergencies. The bank charges interest AND a daily, weekly or monthly fee. Spend more than you have in the bank without their permission and this unauthorised overdraft will cost you a LOT more. If you’re about to go overdrawn, talk to your bank and agree a cheaper authorised overdraft.

Ask students to devise similar missing-word puzzles about other forms of borrowing.

• APRs – Working in pairs, students could use an online loan repayment calculator to explore borrowing £100 at a range of different APRs. For each APR, they should note the length or ‘term’ of the loan, the monthly payment, total interest and total amount repayable.

Point out that, even if the APR and monthly payments seem low, when a loan runs for a long time it ends up costing a lot to borrow a little.

Invite each pair of students to draw leaflets advertising three loans from their imaginary bank. Each loan has a different APR and a different term. Their classmates must try to spot the best deal (the one that will cost them the least in the end) for borrowing £100.

• Alternatives – Ask the question ‘are there alternatives to borrowing money?’ The class could list suggestions, such as: ‘save up, wait until you’ve been paid, cut back on other spending, do some overtime, sell something to raise the cash, choose a cheaper item, or consider if you really need to buy something at all.’

Supported learning and SEN

Students could (with any necessary support) take a screen-grab from Steph McGovern’s film and add their own speech bubble, e.g. ‘tell the bank before you go overdrawn’. A collection of ‘Steph Says’ captures and captions could form a financial education comic strip.

Closing the lesson

Ask students to try out their missing-word puzzles on the class.

This is a fun and snappy way to revisit the lesson material, reinforce the learning and check the students’ understanding.

Follow-up task

Ask the class to research online the differences between credit and debit cards. Students could draw up a table comparing the two types of card.