TEACHERS Grant Smith, from Amaroo School, and Jackie Kirk, from Canberra Montessori, have each been recognised at a special ceremony in Sydney for their efforts to improve the money management skills of young Australians.

They are among the 15 recipients of the The Commonwealth Bank Foundation Teaching Awards, which acknowledge and reward outstanding teachers across Australia running or developing innovative programs money and finance.

Grant teaches at Amaroo School and his prize money will go towards developing a program in which students create multimedia resources about financial literacy concepts to share with their younger peers. Audio-visual, production and print equipment will be utilised so that students can create claymation video, 3D animation, audio-visual and magazine-printing projects. The finished work will be shared through events such as financial literacy week, social networking and print-based media.

Jackie is the Cycle 3 (year 4-6) director at Canberra Montessori School. The financial literacy program grew from a student-driven, real-life activity. In 2012, a group of students noticed parents collecting their early learners at midday and felt they could do with a cup of coffee – and the Grove Café was started. Students were involved in the set-up, prepared costings and funding applications, and helped determine cost bases and profit margins. They continue to be responsible for maintaining a float, purchasing product, banking and delivering profits to a chosen charity. This award will be used to upgrade the coffee machine, cafe furniture and further develop the program.

Both teachers were awarded $10,000 to allow them to develop and expand their programs plus a personal reward of $2000.