Blackpool Sixth Form College teacher named one of the UK's best personal finance teachers

A Blackpool teacher has been announced as one of the winners of the Personal Finance Teacher of the Year Awards, a national competition judged by leading figures in finance.

Danny Topping, who teaches at The Blackpool Sixth Form College, won the 'Ambassador award' in the competition, which was organsied by Interactive Investor, the UK’s second largest 'DIY' investment platform.

The competition was set up to recognise teachers across the key stages who have actively sought to instil good financial know-how among their pupils, awarding cash prizes to winning schools to help fund their efforts.

Danny has received £5000 for The Blackpool Sixth Form College by winning the 'Ambassador award', a new category this year which recognises teachers who create and provide resources on financial education for other teachers to adapt and use in their classrooms.

A business and finance tutor by trade, Danny has developed courses on financial education aimed at providing teachers with a set of high-quality resources that require minimal planning, while still bringing the subject to life for their students.

His attempts to ‘jazz up’ existing courses on financial education led him to create more task focussed lessons for his students in 2018, which Danny later made available for purchase after receiving enquiries from teachers, and he says his his resources have now been acquired by over 50 schools and colleges around the UK.

Danny said: "It’s great to receive the recognition for the work that I’ve put in developing my resources over the past few years. It has taken many hours during evenings and weekends, but it has been well worth it.

“I am passionate about helping young people develop their personal finance knowledge - a valuable life skill - especially the dangers of getting into unnecessary debt. I get a real buzz knowing that teachers at schools and colleges around the country are using my resources to help their students.

“I am very grateful for the cash prize for our college - an unexpected and pleasant surprise! I look forward to developing and promoting the subject further.”

This year, there were cash prizes for seven schools, with the winning teachers and ambassador each receiving £5,000 for their schools, while the schools of the runners up receive £3,000, and the highly commended teachers, £2,500.

Interactive Investor say that they are particular proud to announce the winners of the Personal Finance Teacher of the Year Awards 2021 as it as a time when the cost-of-living crisis has brought the importance of financial literacy into sharp focus.

One of the judges of the competition, Richard Wilson, CEO of Interactive Investor, said: “We have much admiration for teachers, whose hard work and inspiration makes a difference every single day.

“This year’s winners have raised the bar on previous years’ entries, having delivered the highest quality financial education we have seen. We’re delighted to see how they inspire children to learn about money with such fun and engaging lessons. And we were impressed by the dedication of those teachers who were championing the financial education mission not only in their own schools but in other schools in their areas.

“Financial education from a young age is so important – to help forge a healthy relationship with money from the beginning. Congratulations to all our winners.”

The others judges were Guy Rigden, Chief Executive of charity MyBnk; Dominic Vallier, Head of Financial Education Relationship Managers at the London Institute of Banking and Finance; Russell Winnard, Director of Programmes and Services at Young Enterprise; Jeff Prestridge, Personal Finance Editor of the Mail on Sunday; Claer Barrett, Consumer Editor, Financial Times; and Moira O’Neill, Head of Personal Finance, Interactive Investor.