Understanding how to budget, save and invest are essential and valuable skills that young people can use both personally and professionally once they leave school. By equipping students with the necessary knowledge and abilities early on, they will be better prepared to address their financial needs and make sound decisions that benefit their future.

Cambridge School of Bucharest has been teaching students the importance of managing finances during Personal, Social, Citizenship, Health, and Economics Education lessons, and will be implementing a school-wide financial curriculum for ages 3 to 18, for the academic year 2023/2024. This curriculum is designed to foster an understanding of the fundamentals of finance and emphasize the importance of making good financial choices.

Across the school, students will be taught the management of money, budgeting, and financial planning. Understanding these basic concepts can help students make informed decisions about their finances as they grow, allowing them to navigate the financial challenges of adulthood, and planning for their futures, such as tax planning, budgeting, and investment strategies.

This academic year, a core group of students with a passion for Economics and Business has had a significant role in planning the Key Stage 3 and 4 financial curricula, for ages 11-18 years. These students were selected due to their outstanding results in Economics and Business, both in school, as well as work experience and competitions they have participated in outside of school.

Working together as a group, they have selected topics to cover, such as investing, saving, borrowing, and taxation. These students have chosen to discuss the application of finance in today's modern world within the curriculum, with themes such as financial hacks, how to be responsible with spending habits by avoiding impulse buying, and teaching internet safety with money, a particularly important issue with internet scams and fraud on the rise. 

Involving this group in this endeavour allows students to find topics relatable, and for the curriculum to be directly targeted to the student’s interests.

“What makes CSB unique is that we consider our students to be our learning partners when we engage them in activities outside our curriculum.” - Alexandra Dache, Head of Department for Social Sciences at Cambridge School of Bucharest

Every year, CSB provides students with opportunities to engage with the financial sector by giving them access to guest speakers that are financial experts, field trips to financial institutions, and work experience within the field. This year, Sergiu Manea, CEO of BCR spoke to Years 10-13 (ages 14-18) during school assembly, to highlight the importance of being a good leader and choosing the right industry for them. Students in Economics and Business A Levels had a visit from Clarisa Tesu, Head of the Forensic & Integrity Services practice at EY Romania, to discuss the importance of forensics in finance. 

In December, Economics and Business A Level students visited the Bucharest Stock Exchange, for a presentation on young investors and investments in the capital market, by Ileana Botez, Head of Listing & Coordinator. They learned to answer the right questions to identify their own attitude towards risk, and to be able to make an informed decision when investing. 

CSB’s Early Years will be taught how to manage money and its role in their lives from as early as 3 years old. As students move through Primary, they will learn to make informed choices about saving, spending, borrowing, budgeting, and the conversion of different currencies. This will allow young students to feel confident in the financial decisions they make as they get older, and encourage them to be responsible with money when they move into higher education and live independently. 

Most recently, the school held its first-ever ‘Winter Bazaar’, to promote entrepreneurship and encourage students to carry out the basics of running a business from start to finish. Students created business proposals, designed products, produced the items, and sold them at the event for class profit, either to donate to charity or for class trips. The event was extremely successful, with most year groups hitting their class target, and students feeling excited and confident about the prospect of running their own businesses after graduation. 

CSB is committed to providing the best possible financial education to its students and equipping them with the tools and knowledge they need to make sound financial decisions. To find out more about how CSB can provide endless opportunities, contact our admissions team: admissions@cambridgeschool.ro.

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