Using the Price of 1st Class stamps as an indicator of inflation

Here's a simple resource to introduce the concept of inflation over a period of time. This was inspired by a marvelous example given by Mark Mitchell at a recent Tutor2u TBBLE teacher CPD event - Mark used a wonderful back-catalogue of issues of the Beano to illustrate changes in prices over time as a way of introducing the concept of inflation.This resource is not quite as much fun but does allow you to input any date from February 1971 (the date of decimalization in the UK) and find out the price of a First Class stamp in the UK (assuming a standard weight of under 60g). A simple image then materialises indicating the cost of the stamp at that given time.You could ask students to give you significant dates during their life time (e.g. birth, start-date of primary school/secondary school, siblings birth dates and possibly parents birth dates, last time their football team won a significant trophy) and track how prices have changed.The file also has a single chart showing how stamp prices have changed compared to inflation in any one year - perhaps an interesting thing to look at and discuss given the current flotation of the Royal Mail.Click here to download the Powerpoint presentation.