Taxing the brain

Year 6 pupils from St John Fisher School learn all about Tax

Year 6 pupils from St John Fisher School in Middleton had a fun and interactive session recently with a team from HMRC to learn all about Tax. This is part of a wider programme produced by HMRC for primary and secondary schools to help students understand what the world of work is like and the reasons why we pay taxes.

HMRC’s Junior Tax Facts programme offers a very simple introduction to tax for 8-11 year olds. The programme consists of an engaging animation and lesson plans, which are free for teachers, to help young children understand where the money comes from that pays for all the things that are essential to them, their families and communities, like local transport, the police, doctors and their school.

The pupils were engaged in a number of activities which created lots of debate whilst incorporating lots of varying skills from communication and listening, to negotiating, literacy and numeracy and debating – all skills needed for later years.

Deborah Hunt, Year six teacher, said: “A fantastic workshop that I would recommend to other year six teachers. The children were engaged throughout and learned such a lot!”

Hilary Pogson, Customer Services, HMRC, said: “This is the first time we’ve delivered a Junior Tax Facts session in Rochdale and it was a really great experience. The volunteers who delivered the session had a fabulous morning and were really pleased with the feedback from the children. We were a bit worried in advance about how we could make tax exciting but the HMRC volunteers made sure there were lots of group activities to keep everyone interested.”

Jo Manfred, Skills & Participation Development Officer at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The session with the pupils has been a fantastic opportunity to be involved with a recognised employer and learn about something which will be really important for them in the future. It was great to see the pupils all work together and debate how much of their weekly money they would give to tax... with some giving 100%.”