Princess Helena College

Year 12 Economics pupils had a trip to the heart of the financial world on Thursday. After a visit to the Bank of England Museum, they went on to the London Metal Exchange to see trading in action.

“On Thursday 9 June, our school organised an amazing Economics trip for the Year 12 Economics class to London to visit the Bank of England Museum and the London Metal Exchange. At the Bank of England, we found out about the history of our currency and the current state of the economy, including inflation. We were also surprised to see a picture of Mrs Parton's old office at Lloyds, showing her old colleagues looking very stressed on the day the UK pulled out of the ERM - part of the ‘Economic Shocks' exhibition.

Another exhibit was a UV light machine that showed if a note was real or fake. We loved this part of the Museum and tested our own money, which was luckily all real. However, as we watched the next visitor check his £50, the UV light did not go on, showing that his note was fake!

We then headed off to the London Metal Exchange, where we had the opportunity to watch trading of precious metals such as copper, gold and lead. This was extremely interesting to watch as the LME is one of the few places in the world still to use the ‘open outcry' system of agreeing pricing through hand signals. The trading takes place in frantic bursts, with traders on the phone with up to three clients at once at the same time as communicating with the ‘pit'.

Overall it was a fabulous day out that the whole class enjoyed, and it was also very useful to our studies.”