Lochend High School

Lochend senior pupils are running the school-based Credit Union as part of their Community Involvement time with support from New Easterhouse Credit Union and GEMAP (Greater Easterhouse Money Advice Project). This takes up one period a week of their time. A member of staff from GEMAP works with the group of six pupils to have meetings discussing the organisation of the group and how best to promote the service in the school.  

Senior pupils have spoken to the other year groups at Assemblies about the importance of saving, benefits of saving with the Credit Union at Lochend as 'Young Savers' and they have issued application forms for new members. They have a collection day one day a week (on Monday at break times) and a member of staff from GEMAP and/or the New Easterhouse Credit Union is present to support them and take away all monies collected. Pupils can only withdraw money from the New Easterhouse Credit Union in Shandwick Square Shopping Centre. 

In addition to this, the group made an application to the local Youth Bank for a grant to promote the Credit Union in the school. This is an organisation where young people make decisions about awarding funding for beneficial community projects involving other young people. After one of the seniors had been interviewed about the project, the group was awarded £500. The seniors running the Credit Union plan to use some of this supplementary funding to offer incentives for young people to open accounts and save with them. They also used part of the grant to plan, organise and run a 'Fun day' in the school street at lunchtime one day before Christmas. The pupils ran activities such as a tombola, guessing the number of sweets in a jar and pinning the nose on the reindeer, and raffled an iPod shuffle. It was a great success, attracting many pupils and staff, and was supported by the New Easterhouse Credit Union and GEMAP.

In addition to this, S2 and S4 pupils have a series of lessons during PSE time. Staff from GEMAP deliver these workshops. S2 are presently studying budgeting and saving and S4 will be covering a series of lessons on budgeting, banking, credit and debt. Through these lessons the pupils also learn about the opportunity to save with the New Easterhouse Credit Union as a Young Saver at Lochend.