A CRAVEN primary school teacher has been specially commended for her efforts in teaching children about money.

Bethany Alexander, who set up and runs Threshfield Primary School’s Enterprise Club, received a ‘special commendation’ in the annual Moneywise Personal Finance Teacher of the Year awards.

Judges, who included Julian Knight MP, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People, and Jeff Prestridge, personal finance editor of The Mail on Sunday, singled out Miss Alexander as one of two entries while not wining the national award, were still worthy of a special mention.

“Nominated by a parent, we were particularly impressed by the entry from Bethany Alexander. Miss Alexander launched and runs the school’s popular Enterprise Club to encourage children to think and learn about money. One of its initiatives this year has been to team up with a local business owner to run a fruit and veg service in the school, reinvesting the profits into new solutions and school services,” commented the judges.

Teachers either entered the competition directly or were nominated by parents, students or colleagues. After an initial round of judging by the Moneywise editorial team, shortlisted teachers were put to the panel of judges.

Threshfield School’s Enterprise Club takes place once a week and is attended by 15 pupils from years three to six. It decides on a business challenge for the year and draws up ‘business models’ with the children required to manage budgets, culminating in stalls at the school’s Christmas market.

The club has recently teamed up with business owner, Chris Gregson, to run a fruit and vegetable business at the school.

Parent, Natasha Midgley, who nominated Miss Alexander, said: “Miss Alexander has created a club where the children are having so much fun and are are so immersed in so many different opportunities that the average key stage two child doesn’t get to do, and that they don’t realise just how much learning is taking place - something all parents involved have smiled at at least once. A number of us have noted the impact on day to day management of pocket money amongst our children.”

Mr Gregson, who is also a parent at the school, added: “We all live busy lives and find it challenging enough to get our kids to do homework - so the fact that one person is pushing this type of learning is great.”

Julian Knight, MP for Solihull, said: “The standard of all the entries was exceptional but what marked out the winners and runners up was the sheer sense of fun and relevance to the pupil’s lives they had managed to instil. It is vital to our prospects as a country that we continue to see the growth in personal finance teaching in schools and all those who took part in this year’s Moneywise awards deserve our praise.”