Search heats up for UK’s best money teachers

• Schools in Scotland, Kent, Yorkshire, the Midlands and Northern Ireland dominate enquiries – but ii would like to see even more entries
• Wales, London, the South West, and the North of England significantly underrepresented this year, so far – but it’s not too late!

After a long summer, interactive investor, the UK’s second-largest investment platform for private investors, has extended its deadline to find Britain’s best money teachers and it urgently needs your help to find them.

The interactive investor Personal Finance Teacher of the Year Awards 2023 comes with a prize pot of £25,000 to be shared among the winning teachers’ schools.

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The deadline for nominations has been extended to Friday 27 October 2023 as ii steps up its search for Britain’s best money teachers.

So far, ii has heard from school communities across Scotland, Kent, Yorkshire, the Midlands, and Northern Ireland. We welcome even more entries from all parts of the UK, but would also like to see nominations and entries from Wales, which traditionally has had some strong winning schools, the North East and West, London, and the South West.   

Nominations can be made by anyone (including parents, guardians, and pupils) who is resident in the UK.

Teachers must then send a lesson plan and supporting statement to teacher@ii.co.uk by Friday 3 November 2023.  Entries will be judged by an experienced panel of judges from the education world, financial media and industry.

Richard Wilson, chief executive, interactive investor says: “In a world of buy now pay later, increasingly sophisticated scams, and where young people are more aware of cryptocurrency than any other investment*, good money skills are essential. 

“Young people are navigating a far more complex set of financial rules than their parents and grandparents ever did, but while the provision of money lessons in schools remains patchy, there is some fantastic work being done. Please help us find the best money teachers of 2023.

“We want to recognise the amazing, but all too often uncelebrated, contributions that our teachers make to help young people go out into the world with an understanding of how to manage their money.”

The rise of the ‘finfluencer’

With the rise of social media financial influencers – often known as ‘finfluencers’, 22% of UK adults are increasingly using social media for financial information, rising to 37% for 22-35 year olds**, according to ii research. 

While it’s important to be open-minded about this, knowing how to raise a critical eyebrow and scrutinise the array of financial information from a dizzying range of sources, is important. And there’s an argument that teachers, not TikTok, are the best introduction.

How to enter:

Nominations can be made by anyone (including parents, guardians, and pupils) who is resident in the UK.

To nominate a teacher, parents, carers, or pupils should email teacher@ii.co.uk with the teacher’s name along with the name and address of the school, by Friday 27 October 2023. We will then approach the teacher and ask them to submit their lesson plan and brief supporting statement (teachers will need to submit this by Friday 3 November 2023).

Teachers can also nominate themselves, by emailing teacher@ii.co.uk with a lesson plan and supporting statement.

Only one entry may be submitted by any person.

The prizes:

The following prizes will be awarded to schools:

Personal Finance Teacher of the Year (primary school)

Personal Finance Teacher of the Year (secondary school)

Personal Finance Support Assistant (NEW)

Runner-up prizes, special Judges' Awards and Highly Commended prizes may be awarded at the judges' discretion. The full prize money will total £25,000 to be shared across winning schools.

Prize money will be awarded to the school.

interactive investor Services Limited reserves the right to alter, withdraw or amend this competition at any time.

Winner selection and notification

The winners will be selected by a panel of judges selected by Interactive Investor Services Limited. Judging will be on the basis of the lesson plans and supporting statements supplied.

The winners will be notified by mail, email, telephone or in person as soon as reasonably practicable after the judges have made their decisions. The notification will include details of how the prize can be claimed.

In the event that a winner does not accept their prize, Interactive Investor Services Limited reserves the right to select an alternative winner.

*Source: The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) using Research in Finance. The research among young people aged between 20 and 40 who do not currently invest was conducted via an online survey of 200 non-investors with an even split between 20-29 year olds and 30-39 year olds. The online survey was conducted between 13 October and 31 October 2022. The research also included in-depth interviews with six non-investors, which were conducted between 5 September and 14 September 2022.

** Findings from interactive investor’s Great British Retirement Survey 2022 stress the importance of financial education after it found 22% of people (rising to 37% of 22–35-year-olds) use social media for financial information, with 7% citing is as their most influential source. On top of that, young people are more likely than other age groups to be influenced by social media (14%) when it comes to pensions.

Competition Terms and Conditions - The competition is open to all qualified teachers employed at a primary or secondary school in the United Kingdom, but nominations can be made by anyone who is resident in the UK (including parents, guardians, and pupils).