CHILDREN at Riverside Primary School showed they meant business in an Apprentice-style task recently as they successfully organised a community café.

Each class received £10 at the start of the week with instructions to buy something towards the event, which took place on the Friday.

Pupils debated, researched and budgeted to ensure they could make their money work. This included calling local businesses to seek out the best deals and visiting shops to purchase their items.

It led to some innovative approaches, with a P5 class electing not to spend their £10 and go down the recycling route, collecting glass jars and twigs and using old Gaelic dictionaries to make floral decorations for the tables.

One class who had money left over from their task displayed resourcefulness by offering their remaining budget to other classes in exchange for doing jobs in their classroom.

Nursery children also got involved in the activities, visiting a local supermarket where they were handed the opportunity to be the ‘cashier’ by scanning through their items and paying for them individually.

Funded by Maths Week Scotland, the challenge was focused on enhancing financial literacy among pupils and also included workshops and other valuable learning opportunities.

Chrissie Gemmell, deputy headteacher at Riverside Primary School said: “The event was a great success and we are all very proud of the efforts that the children and staff have gone to in order to bring the learning to life.

“It was a really exciting week at Riverside and we can’t wait to continue our learning on financial education.”

Stirling Council’s chief operating officer for people, Kevin Kelman said: “Congratulations to all the pupils at Riverside Primary School for demonstrating their financial skills and hosting such a fantastic well-attended event.

“These innovative challenges help our children and young people develop key skills which they can apply to real-life situations.”