Money savvy students launched a bank at their school as part of a campaign to teach young people about handling and saving money.

The 15 year 10 students at Forest Gate Community school in Forest Gate were trained by education charity MyBnk which taught them to become savings and loans managers and cashiers.

The charity helped them launch the microfinance scheme during their lunch hour using their own money.

Now, they’ll open once a week, run their own online accounts portal and incentivised saving drives while managing and approving loans - MyBnk, provides the microfinance training and business support.

Although the young savers won’t be earning any interest there will be plenty of other incentives.

Steve Gillatt, assistant head at the school, said the year 10 students signed up 40 savers. He said it was a great of responsibility for the team of students who would be giving up their lunchtime once a week to run the bank.

He said: “Maths is something that can be a dry subject but here we are turning it into a real life learning situation. In the short term there is excitement and a real buzz about it, in the mid term they are learning skills and in the long term they are gaining life skills that will serve them later.”

MyBnk Founder Lily Lapenna said: “The sooner young people are familiar with banking, the better they can develop sound financial habits like saving and navigate the system. We’re going all out for a generation that will have to make smarter financial decisions and create their own opportunities”.