On June 9th, Young Enterprise held their annual Forum on Financial Education. As Northampton School for Boys is one of their Centres of Excellence for Financial Education we were invited to attend, and two students were asked to take part in a “youth debate”.

The event was held at the Bank of England and was attending by financial charities, banks, policy advisory bodies and media. NSB were the only school in attendance.

During the Forum we heard from Young Enterprise and their work campaigning for greater compulsory financial education in schools, our hosts the Bank of England and some interesting research into financial literacy in the UK.

Miss Kennedy spoke with the CEO of Young Enterprise and a representative from HSBC (the sponsors of the Youth Debate) in a “fireside chat”, about financial education and the next steps for schools in ensuring financial literacy for all young people.

We heard some interesting perspectives from politicians, bankers and social mobility researchers in a panel discussion.

But the headline event of the Youth Debate was by far the highlight. Two of our students, Edward Rushmore and Angus MacGregor took part in a debate facilitated by Debate Mate. They were on opposing sides, and they were the youngest involved, with all other participants being part of graduate schemes and apprenticeships. The motion asked “Are financial trends such as crypto and hustle culture doing more harm than good to young people.” Both of our students spoke with passion and eloquence, but it was Angus’ opposition team that won in the end. Both students were highly praised by all in attendance, which was very much deserved.

Edward said of the day: “It was amazing to be surrounded by people with so much knowledge of finance and financial education. All the speakers had unique and important perspectives to share, from research reports to maternal perspectives on money. The debate was amazing, and I learnt a lot from the other participants. I loved summing up our arguments on the risks of new, riskier, financial trends. Ultimately, though not all members of the audience agreed, we managed to convince a fair few.

Furthermore, it was lovely chatting with professionals in the industry. In particular, I discussed education policy with David Wootton, a former advisor to the Education Secretary and Chair of a large Multi Academy Trust, and talked liquidity and markets with Quentin Nason, who's been in investment banking and hedge funds for over 30 years!”

A fantastic opportunity for our phenomenal students thanks to Young Enterprise and their Centres of Excellence Programme.

There has been a slightly mixed bag of fortunes for our various cricket teams this season with a fairly even split of victories / defeats across the age groups. There was, however, an exceptional performance to highlight this week by one of our most talented young cricketers - Jacob White, in an U14 game v Wellingborough School. Jacob played a huge part in NSB's comprehensive win with an astonishing bowling performance of 2.3 overs, 2 maidens, 0 runs conceded and 7 wickets! 7 wickets for zero runs in 15 balls must be pushing a world record somewhere!

 

Many congratulations to our two Pokémon stars in Ethan and Shan Church, who have been dominating in Global competitions throughout the last year. The boys have competed in cities from Brisbane to São Paulo as well as across Europe with Shan, currently the UK's fourth-ranked top player and in the world's top 50 and Ethan, 8^th in the UK and in the top 65 in the World which is an incredible achievement for his first Senior season. They have one more event to look forward to in August before the season ends - the World Championships in California, where they will compete for the $50,000 first place prize money as well as the ultimate Pokémon crown!

Finally, a reminder that we have the hotly anticipated School Musical on July 11^th / 12^th - tickets available from the Box Office. Performances at 7.30pm and a Saturday matinée at 3pm. 

Richard Bernard
Headteacher