Students at Aylsham High School will soon be taught how to handle their personal finance as part of their maths lessons.

Deputy head teacher, Julie Ward, said the school was a 'spear head' in financial education and the new curriculum will be aimed predominantly at 11-12 year old students.

She said: 'It's exceptionally important especially in this day and age. They leave school and they go into the big wide world and the first thing they get is a student loan and they have to learn how to manage it.

'We are really pleased to be doing this because it's crucial. There is a lot of information that's hard to understand. You think 'what does that really mean?'

'It's practical maths and gives maths work some context.'

The school has been chosen to join the Centre of Excellence programme in financial education, which will see them working with the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg), part of the Young Enterprise charity.

The programme, which is supported by Santander, is being championed by the maths department led by teacher Karl Thomas, with support from pastoral leader and teacher Troy McKechnie.

Aylsham High School is one of 40 across the country set to benefit from this programme and the partnership aims to extend its support to more schools in the area.

Michael Mercieca, chief executive of financial education charity Young Enterprise, said: 'We are delighted that Aylsham High School has joined our Centre of Excellence programme through our partnership with Santander. The work that staff will be doing with our educational specialists over the coming months will be of enormous benefit to students, with financial education set to be firmly embedded into the curriculum. Our aim is to ensure that all students enter adult life with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to manage money well.'