Goose helps children in Wales

Posted by on Wednesday, 21 November 2018 - Leave a comment

One day, when creator, Laura Wall, was reading Wild Goose to some children at Countryfile Live in Oxford, a parent listened to the Goose story and had an idea! He worked at The Principality Building Society, based in Wales and was very involved with the community. He worked in particular with comprehensive schools to help educate older children gain an understanding of money and how to manage it. Ultimately with the right skills and confidence young adults are more likely to be able to manage their finances and not get into debt, if they have a financial awareness and good management of money. It's even more beneficial if children from as young as 4 years old have an introduction to money, but as of yet there are few resources to introduce the subject in a fun way. He asked Laura if she would write a book which enables families and teachers to talk about the subject with their children.

Some parents worry about exposing their children to money too early because they want to protect them from adult pressures.

But helping your child to understand and respect money from an early age will help them manage it better when adult.  - The Money Advice Service

Laura set about working with her publisher, Award Publications, and Principality Building Society to create a story which was fun, but which also gives adults reading the story the opportunity to discuss topics in the book. Such topics include pocket money and decision making, entrepreneurism and working together with others to raise money for something important.  This is all done around the theme of baking and as such makes for a heart-warming, chaotic and amusing story! There is even a recipe at the back of the book for children to have a go at making their own cupcakes. 

Laura toured around several schools with The Principality Building Society and spoke at the Let's Talk Money Week conference for Let's Talk Money Week in Novemeber. She read the story to children and together they talked about money and other aspects of the book such as fundraising, which was then followed by a workshop with Principality staff. This was all with the help of James Harper - who was the parent who first had the idea! Principality Building Society held over 40 book readings in total throughout Let's Talk Money Week and donated over 2000 books to children.

It been exciting to team up with Laura and Goose for Talk Money Week 2018, with the new book being packed with lovely messages on how kids can support their schools and local community, how they can work together, learn vital skills about money, and even develop enterprising skills for the future. Talk Money Week is all about getting people talking about money and the book certainly helped and brought a big smile to young faces as they joined Goose on the Cake Bake adventure. It has got to be one of the nicest ways of learning about money, with ingredients being bought, cakes getting sold, and coins being saved. We all enjoyed taking the book into Primary Schools across Wales, sharing the story and also supporting it with some numeracy based activities. - James Harper

Laura's hope is the book helps all children in any circle of life and anywhere in the world and that it goes some way to giving parents and guardians the opportunity to talk about money with their children and has a positive impact in the community.

More information can be found on Goose's Community page.