Wales’ largest building society has launched a financial education app and online hub encouraging children to practice their numeracy and savings skills, as part of its ongoing commitment to financial education for young people.
Principality Building Society’s interactive and educational Dylan’s Den app is available for anyone to access and not limited to Principality customers. Aimed at children aged 5-11 in both KS1 & KS2, the app consists of games and tools encouraging children to learn about savings and money management from a young age.
On a separate web platform called the Dylan’s Savings Squad Hub, Principality has created individual zones for parents to be able to support their children with their learning at home.
This is the first online financial education material of its kind to offer the medium of both English and Welsh.
The lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic meant a major disruption to young people’s education, with parents and teachers utilising educational resources from home. Principality’s app and online hub is accessible from both home and the classroom, allowing children to learn about financial education regardless of where they’re based.
Featuring Principality’s Dylan the Dragon character, the app includes games such as Coin Catcher, to learn about coin identification, and Flying Factors, designed to teach numerical factors in a fun way. The online Hub offers games about saving for a day out including trips to the Eisteddfod, Snowdonia or Principality Stadium, with the aim of teaching children about savings goals and how to achieve them.
To encourage children and parents to use the app, Principality has included the added incentive of a prize draw after playing a set number of games, with prizes including a £100 gift voucher to spend at Buy a Gift, for a fun family day out.
Mike Jones, Interim Chief Executive Officer at Principality Building Society said: “As a mutual society committed to the promotion of financial education, we’re pleased to be launching Dylan’s Saving Squad – our next step in ensuring every child has access to vital lessons around savings. By making the app available to everyone, children and parents anywhere can utilise these resources to enhance their child’s familiarity and understanding of money, teaching valuable skills for life. We will also shortly be launching an online teachers’ hub to further support hard working schools in the teaching of financial education.”
Since 2019, Principality Building Society has reached 20,000 young people with financial education and careers-based activity.
