Consumer and financial literacy: Year 10

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Student experience

Young people grow up in diverse circumstances. At age 15 to 16, there is a divergence in young people’s sophistication in relation to financial management attitudes. Unique family circumstances strongly influence young people’s notions of their future possibilities, which influences how they plan for the future. Female and male maturity significantly diverges, creating differing consumer and financial attitudes and behaviours. Typically, students are earning money in wider and enterprising ways. They have part-time jobs, are gifted money, and sell possessions. Many are informal moneylenders and borrowers, providing bridging finance to each other. Their part-time work creates new financial responsibilities such as paying tax, seeking tax refunds, paying bills and managing accounts and credit cards. Young people start to think of the future, possibly investing and using their enterprising spirit to make money, particularly through digital opportunities. Their brand consciousness, more sophisticated consumer needs and wants, and increased income create new consumption behaviours and expenses, also creating more exposure to risks, including financial. This is balanced by more sophisticated values formation as they weigh up ethical and other factors in financial and consumer decision-making.

Student learning

The Australian Curriculum in this year level supports the development of all dimensions of consumer and financial literacy as shown in the diagram below.

Approximate proportion of dimensions addressed in Year 10

Typically, at this level, students learn about compound interest and its effect when applied to financial contexts including loans, superannuation and investments. They investigate how economies and democracies remain resilient and responsive to change. They consider their personal aspirations and career opportunities and the lifelong learning required for a changing future. They learn how government policies, including taxation and superannuation, affect their wellbeing and obligations as workers and citizens.

Students have developed knowledge, understandings and skills and are able to apply these to a range of complex consumer and financial contexts. They evaluate the various factors that influence major consumer and financial decisions and predict the short- and long-term consequences of these decisions, including evaluating the extent to which financial plans support specific financial goals. They investigate and critically analyse a range of authentic persuasive texts and complex financial texts, evaluating them for authorial intent, and the validity, credibility and suitability of information. They resolve real-world challenges; research complex data; and apply mathematical strategies to design, model and find solutions, including those involving compound interest. They analyse, manage, validate and present various types of real-world data and information in a range of appropriate formats, using their analysis to inform real-life consumer and financial decisions. Students practise and explain safe, ethical and responsible behaviour in online and digital consumer and financial contexts such as online shopping and banking. They have developed a range of enterprising behaviours and capabilities that are necessary for managing change including taking on leadership positions, accepting challenges, showing initiative, accepting responsibility, taking opportunities, setting goals, negotiating solutions and refining and rethinking approaches to problems. Students are able to effectively apply these behaviours to a range of real-world situations. They use criteria and cost-benefit analysis to make informed consumer and financial decisions in a range of real-world contexts. When making their decisions, students consider a range of factors such as social context, beliefs and values, ethical perspectives, safety, sustainability, future risk and personal goals.

Moneysmart for teachers provides a number of interdisciplinary units and interactive activities that support the teaching and learning of consumer and financial literacy at this level. Access a list of relevant resources that link to the Australian Curriculum using the right-hand menu.

The ATO’s Tax, Super and You resource also offers a number of digital interactives and modules. This resource has been designed flexibly so that teachers and/or students can choose to focus on one or more, or all, of the digital interactives and activities within each module. Access a list of relevant resources that link to the Australian Curriculum using the right-hand menu. See how each digital interactive and activity align with the Australian Curriculum in this year level.