Design a £100 Note Challenge

A cross-curricular challenge for upper-KS2 pupils, that will challenge their artistic skills and (optionally) allow you to discuss the concept of inflation.

Since money gets less valuable with each passing year, we may soon need a £100 note here in the UK. So, who better to design one than your pupils! Here’s some pointers for how to introduce the activity:

• Bring in some real bank notes to pass around, ideally a mixture (£5, £10, £20) - get pupils to describe the security and anti-counterfeiting features they spot (e.g. holograms, serial numbers, intricate details)
• Ask pupils to spot what all BoE bank notes have in common (monarch on the front, distinct colour scheme, famous historic British figure on the reverse, the "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of . . . " message, etc.)
• Get pupils to critique the example design on the first page - it’s not bad, but it’s not perfect - what’s missing? what could be better?
• Now pupils can have a go creating their own - we’d suggesting planning the design out first, then taking time to carefully produce the design with as much detail as possible.
• Finally, a self/peer evaluation - have they included all the security and design features?