Learning outcomes
- Explain three findings from UK research on how 5-7 year-olds form money concepts
- List the 20 key money vocabulary words for Year 1-2
- Run six classroom routines that build money skills incidentally
- Plan a unit of 4-6 KS1 finance lessons using site resources
- Manage common KS1 misconceptions and engagement challenges
Before you start
- Allow a quiet hour. The module assumes some teaching experience but not specifically KS1 finance experience.
- Have the Ages 5-7 hub and lesson plans open in tabs.
- If possible, have a handful of UK coins nearby for the activities.
1How 5-7 year-olds form money concepts10 min
Three research findings are essential for KS1 finance teaching:
Practical implications:
- Visible accumulation (clear jars, sticker charts) is the single biggest engagement lever
- Real coins beat any worksheet for coin recognition
- "Where does money come from?" is a Year 1-appropriate question (not "too abstract")
- The opportunity-cost concept can be introduced informally ("if we buy X we can't buy Y") even before the word
Where in your current KS1 teaching do you already use visible-accumulation techniques (sticker charts, reward jars, etc.)? Could one of them flex into money education?
2The 20-word KS1 vocabulary8 min
Year 1-2 Maths "Money" objectives implicitly require ~20 vocabulary words. They group into four clusters:
| Cluster | Words |
|---|---|
| Coins & notes | coin, note, penny/pence, pound, cash |
| Buying & shops | buy, sell, price, change, shop |
| Saving & spending | spend, save, share, pocket money, treat |
| Banks & work | bank, card, wage, work, charity |
The Money words page on this site is designed as a Year 1-2 vocabulary reference. Print it (no ads) and pin in the maths corner. The Year 4-5 follow-up vocabulary builds on these 20 with concepts like interest, tax, bills.
Teaching technique: introduce 4-5 words per week over a half-term, not all 20 at once. Use them in routine classroom language (snack money, lunch tickets, school trip permission slip) to reinforce.
Which of the 20 words do your pupils already use confidently? Which need most reinforcement?
3Six classroom routines12 min
The most evidence-backed KS1 financial education isn't a discrete subject — it's a set of routines threaded through ordinary teaching.
| Routine | How it works | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Coin counter | One pupil counts the day's "school money" (a small box of coins). Read total aloud. Rotate weekly. | 5 min daily |
| Class shop | A pretend shop in a maths corner with priced items. Pupils take turns being shopkeeper and customer using play coins. | 15 min weekly |
| Saving jar | Clear class jar fills up with stickers earned. When full, a class treat. Saving as visible patience. | 1 min per sticker |
| Needs vs wants sort | Show 4-6 items (real or pictures). Pupils sort into "we need this" / "we'd like this". Discuss edge cases. | 10 min weekly |
| Story money | When reading any story, pause when money appears: "what would this cost?" / "should they buy it?" Discussion only. | 2 min ad hoc |
| End-of-term shop trip | Once a term, walk to a local shop. Each child buys one small item with their own money (with consent + supervision). | 1 hour termly |
These six routines build the four pillars without any explicit "money lesson". A child who experiences all six across a school year has learnt more financial vocabulary and behaviour than most year groups achieve with discrete weekly lessons.
4Lesson plans and guides on this site10 min
The KS1 lesson plans (Session 1 of the build) include 6 detailed 45-minute lessons:
- Recognising UK coins and notes — Year 1
- Counting money — Year 1/2
- Saving vs spending — Year 2
- Wants vs needs — Year 2
- Pocket money basics — Year 2
- Shopping basket challenge — Year 1/2
Each lesson includes: meta strip (time, age, curriculum), learning aim, resources, 5-stage flow, differentiation, SEND adaptations, EAL support, assessment criteria, homework, safeguarding note, and JSON-LD schema.
Complementing the lesson plans, the Ages 5-7 hub has 18 interactive games and 6 deep guides for pupils to use directly. The deep guides at 5-7 are intentionally short (3-5 min reads) and designed for reading with a parent or in a 1:1 support setting.
5Common KS1 misconceptions10 min
Five misconceptions to watch for:
- "Money comes from the cashpoint." Many 5-7 year-olds have never seen a wage paid, only money withdrawn. Explicit teaching of work → wages → bank → spending is needed.
- "The bigger coin is worth more." 50p is larger than £1 but worth half. Size doesn't track value in UK coinage. Sort-by-value activities are essential.
- "Pennies are useless." Some children dismiss 1p and 2p. Counting up 100 pennies to make a pound, and reading prices ending in .99, is corrective.
- "Cards are free money." Children who haven't seen cash often see card payment as having no cost. Talking through "the card takes from Mum's wage" is the corrective.
- "Saving is for grown-ups." Pupils can think saving means tens of thousands. Re-framing as "any money kept for later" recovers it as something they can do.
Which of these five do you most expect to hear from your class? What would the corrective look like in your teaching context?
6A 4-lesson KS1 sequence to try10 min
A practical 4-lesson unit you can deliver across half a term:
| Week | Lesson | Resource on site |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recognising UK coins and notes | KS1 lesson plan + 5-7 guide |
| 2 | Counting money to £1 then to £10 | KS1 lesson plan |
| 3 | Needs vs wants — sort and discuss | KS1 lesson plan |
| 4 | Saving in a class jar — opportunity cost intro | KS1 lesson plan + 5-7 guide |
Between lessons, run the six classroom routines from earlier. By the end of half a term, pupils have had ~8 hours of money exposure across discrete lessons and routines combined.
What would prevent you from delivering this sequence in your school in the next term?
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UK Tax Drag · Delivering KS1 financial education — a 60-minute CPD module · v1.0 · CC BY 4.0
UK Tax Drag (2026). Delivering KS1 financial education — a 60-minute CPD module. Teacher CPD module. Available at: https://kids.uktaxdrag.co.uk/teacher-cpd-ks1.html
CC BY 4.0. Free to use, photocopy and adapt for school CPD programmes.