Kilmarnock Academy held a Finance Week at the end of October. The aim was to focus on money matters, not only because of the current “credit crunch”, but to increase awareness of how much things cost. Pupils were made aware of how much more things cost when borrowing was involved.

Every pupil in the school was given a “cash tracker” to keep for the week. This was a money diary to log income and expenditure. At the end, pupils were asked for their feelings on how they could cut their expenditure and save for that “rainy day”.

Each department in the school had a focus on matters financial and pupils work had a money bias. For example, the English department did talks on pocket money, while the Maths department had a shopping list to cost. The Modern Languages department converted the cost of popular items into Euros, while the PE department priced the Killie replica strips and the cost of using the Galleon.

There was a junior school competition where pupils had to seek out prices in the Burns Mall and the senior school took part in an inter-active holiday game.

Thursday lunchtime saw “The Price is Right” competition and the whole week culminated in the bag packing in Asda. Over 130 pupils and staff took part in the bag packing and they came in fancy dress because it was Hallowe’en. They did us proud and were complimented on their appearance and attitude.

The prize winners won a crisp ten pound note which was greatly appreciated.

Burns Mall Competition	Leigh McMaster	S3
Holiday Competition	Bradley Miller	S4
Cash Tracker	Glen Love	S2
	Ryan Love	S2
Fancy Dress (Boy	Connor McLintock	S1
Fancy Dress (Girl)	Sheree Clark	S5
Most Money Raised	Candice McIntosh	S4
	Scott Jenkinson	S4

Report by L. Hamilton