Students from Hetton Academy, Sunderland, Harton Academy, South Shields, and St Bede’s in Lanchester, Co Durham, enjoyed a Q&A session with the athlete in the event at Durham Cricket Club, as well as taking part in a range of financial education workshops. Sessions included money and mental health, entrepreneurship – and even an interactive escape room, aimed at building knowledge of fraud and scams and how to avoid falling victim to them.
Beth Shriever, said: “I’m delighted to be supporting NatWest Thrive Live – it’s been great to see so many young people actively engaged in the sessions, as they learn about financial skills in a fun way.
“By teaching young people the skills to achieve their goals, as well as how to have resilience and deal with setbacks in order to overcome them, we are ensuring the generation of tomorrow have a strong foundation to deal with whatever life throws at them – teaching them that anything is possible!”
Sean Bowman, Regional Director, Retail Banking, NatWest North Region, said: “Financial confidence and education make such a difference to young people. It’s been inspiring to see the energy from all the young people attending - the Escape Room task really got the pupils thinking about complex issues such as fraud and scams in a creative way.
“NatWest has a proud history of supporting the education community, as well as our wider local communities and customers. We hope that by supporting the young people of today to aim high and achieve their ambitions, we can also empower and support growth in Durham and the wider region as the region’s young people go on to succeed.
“Hopefully, everyone will have left the event today not only feeling confident in managing their money matters – but also feeling like they had lots of fun!”
Kit Brown, a successful author, teacher and NatWest Teacher Ambassador, has also co-created a resource with NatWest called, ‘Confident Me', which was delivered to students on the day. The resource covers what confidence is, why it matters and how to build it.
More information about NatWest Thrive can be found at www.natwestthrive.com
