A LEARNING website run from a terraced house in Kidderminster has hit the big time after being snapped up by one in five primary schools throughout the UK.

And bosses at childrensmoneyworld.com said as many as 60 per cent of UK schools could soon be logging onto the site - which teaches youngsters how to look after their cash - by the end of the year.

The four-bedroom house on Bewdley Road is the technical epicentre of the newly re-launched web page which, according to director Nick Baldwin, gets 10,000 visitors a day.

Mr Baldwin said: "We are really the only people doing this sort of thing.

"This is what schools want, but it was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.

"I started with the idea about three years ago. The point was to keep learning about money fun - when I talked to my own children about finance they found it very boring but it is, of course, very important."

The man charged with making the lessons "fun" is Alan Sawyers, 29, who is based - with half a dozen machines - at the Bewdley Road property.

Games, interactive lessons and puzzles are among the money-minded features already loaded onto the site, said Mr Sawyers. He added: "I make most of the games myself. Members of the team get together for a brainstorming session to come up with ideas and then hand them over to me.

"It's very hard work, I gave up my full time job to concentrate on the project as it began to grow."

The duo's hard work has paid off as childrensmoneyworld.com - and two sister sites aimed at parents and children - is now a regular fixture at thousands of UK schools.

Endorsements have come from the National Curriculum Online, the National Grid For Learning and the National Numeracy Strategy, which have hailed the content of the sites, aimed at children up to the age of eight.

"It is actually now part of National Curriculum with 20 per cent of schools signed up to use it. That figure I hope will rise to 60 per cent," said Mr Baldwin, 42. He gave a "conservative" turnover for the financial year as £660,000.

And the site - which has jumped on the craze for computer games using characters such as Perry Penny and Grandpa Five Pounds - has also been adopted by 73 countries and has welcomed three million visitors since its launch in 2000, said Mr Baldwin. A range of CD-ROMs are being launched by the budding entrepreneurs.

"We are delighted with its success - we are going from strength to strength."