Inter-School Challenge Cup

“Our students were delighted to be involved in the first inter-schools Credit Union Quiz held recently. A professionally run event with some challenging questions that allowed our Business Students to revisit topics that they may have encountered during their lesson. There was even the opportunity to discuss some surprising answers – such as the highest interest rate charged by a Loan Shark? Very thought provoking and resulted in them talking about it for days.

Thank you for this opportunity, after recent years of not being able to participate in events outside of school this was beneficial for our students educationally and socially and winning the event was an added bonus!”

                Paula Edwards – Huntington School

On Monday 17th October 2022, working closely with the Illegal Money Lending Team and the City of York Council, Community First devised and hosted the first Inter-School Challenge Cup at York Mansion House.

The event was a quiz contest between Secondary Schools culminating in a live, in person team quiz competition. The final five secondary schools from across the York Borough Area (Fulford, Joseph Rowntree, All Saints, Huntington & Arch Bishop), with each team consisting of four students from years 10-11. In the presence of the Lord and Lady Mayor of York, who will kindly presented the prizes to the winning team, the quiz comprised subjects and topics of the quiz will be based around monetary awareness, financial empowerment and the dangers of Illegal Money Lenders (Loan Sharks) and where they, their friends and their families can turn to should they have any related problems that through the quiz event (and the ‘training’ in readiness for the quiz) they recognise the symptoms (e.g. change in behaviour, stressed, illness etc.) that there is a problem. 

It was an extremely close fought event, and with after three rounds of difficult questions, Fulford and Huntington Schools made it through to the grand final head-to-head; with the other three finalists, All Saints, Archbishop's and Joseph RowntreSchools, all even and only one point behind. All Saints were awarded third place after a very tense sudden death question round. The Grand Final Round was just as tight with only point separating the teams. With such close margins all participants should be extremely proud of their performance, but ultimately only one team could raise the champions' cup and that team was Huntington School.

All participants and the audience present, which included the Lord Mayor of York, and those watching at home via the live stream, found the event thoroughly entertaining day competing for their school against the others, so whilst financial education may not always be considered by some as entertaining, the concept and its execution negated this opinion. Not only was the event enjoyable, but the overwhelming majority of participants expressed increased financial awareness and confidence, with almost half expressing a significant increase in awareness.

“Through the whole quiz process we aimed above all to nurture financial confidence in a fun way.”  - Dr Gary Simpson, CEO Community First Community Bank.

When Community First devised this initiative it was also hoped that it may raise awareness of the need to constantly review the curriculum in secondary schools regarding Financial Awareness, as Dr Gary Simpson (CEO of Community First) stated: 

“So often young adults are leaving school with sparse, even ungrounded financial knowledge applicable to their lives. They do not therefore understand the dangers, risks, even the fundamental terms and processes used in most monetary transactions (e.g. APR) involved in financial management. Also they do not know who they can turn to if they have problems. They can then therefore be a target for illegal money lenders.”

This is something new, and to our knowledge, there has been no similar event run. This has all come about in York through the essential support given to Community First by and through the city’s council’s Pauline Stuchfield and Maxine Squires. Should the quiz be deemed a success then perhaps this could become an annual event, expanded to a regional or even to a national status - and it becomes part of the yearly school schedule. This would then constantly drive the message of the dangers of illegal money lenders and the practice and the need for personal money management skills in the city and far beyond.

“This quiz is a great opportunity to help young people learn more about the importance of developing their financial understanding. The topics being covered in this quiz help to support young people’s awareness of financial issues and how to avoid dangers, such as those posed by illegal money lending. At City of York Council, we therefore welcome the first inter-school quiz and look forward to it becoming an annual event for secondary schools.” - Cllr Andrew Waller, City of York Council Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education

“Loan sharks pose a serious threat to all communities as they prey on the most vulnerable in our society. It is paramount that young people stay informed about the dangers of illegal money lending and how to protect themselves from being exploited.This quiz was a great success and all the schools should be immensely proud of their efforts. We were extremely impressed by the level of engagement and enthusiasm shown by students throughout the day. We are looking forward to staging more events like this and seeing even more schools get involved in the future.” - Tony Quigley, Head of the England Illegal Money Lending Team