CHILDREN have adopted a jackanory style to teach youngsters about to be money savvy.

Year six pupils from Anderton Primary School and Rivington Foundation Primary School are featured in a film reading six short stories spending money carefully — and what happens when you don't.

The stories have been written by high school pupils for use in the DebtAware Money Management lessons, which is a free programme provided by Debt Advice Foundation, a debt charity, to schools.

As part of the programme, pupils are trained as money mentors to support teachers in the giving the lessons.

The film, produced by media students at Edge Hill University will be used in the lessons being run in primary schools.

Year six pupil Lily Heywood of Rivington Primary read "The dog who taught me a lesson in life" about a dog which was involved in an accident and treatment cost £2,000.

Fortunately the family had the money after putting cash aside for emergencies. The story is explores the idea of budgets and a budget surplus or deficit.

Lily said: “I have found that being a Money Mentor is brilliant because I can pass on information that I learnt in my training session.

"This method of teaching about money management does seem to work as children in the class listen really well as they think it is cool to be taught by their friends.”

Lewis Chisholm, aged 10, from Anderton Primary School, said: “Filming was a new experience and the stories are really informative."

Classmate Katie Jones, said: “Children will learn a lot about handling money sensibly by listening to the stories and they will appeal to them as children their own ages are telling them the stories."

Anne Harrison, year six teacher at Anderton Primary, said: "The children did extremely well, having to tell a six minute story to camera with people watching is not easy.

"It was a very valuable experience for the children and they can’t wait to see the finished film and they are very excited to think that more than 4000 children will be watching the film in the course of lessons from September."

The DebtAware Money Management Programme is available, free for schools to use.

For information contact Brian Souter, Education Manager, Debt Advice Foundation on 01254 778 412or e-mail brian.souter@debtadvicefoundation.org