Health, Social care, Early years

A set of five texts about screen time, physical and sedentary activity, and sleep for Children under age 5. The texts can be used in various combinations for Functional Skills (FS) speaking, listening and communicating; reading and writing activities. Teachers can pick and choose their own texts and create related DARTs (directed activities related to text) and questions to suit. There will also be pre-prepared resources on skillsworkshop. See "See also" for links.

This resource is based on the DfES ESOL Skills for Life recording 'Phoning about symptoms'. It gives exam practice questions (C&G style) in the first section and in the second section an activity to enable learners to tune in to the sounds of English. The first section can be completed in class and the second at home or the whole sheet can be given for homework. Listening development at home enables learners to listen as often as they wish and tune in until they hear the text more clearly.

Functional Skills Level 2 Reading Task on Convid-19. 

Two texts based on the current Corona virus crisis.

• Text 1 - opinionated, news article from a professor
• Text 2 - factual guide from Gov.Uk 

Editor's note

Update - apologies, when I added this resource on April 1st I forgot to upload the Word document. It is now available below. Maggie 10/4/20

Functional Skills Level 2 (and T Level General English Competencies) writing tasks consisting of writing a report and a letter to apply for a job (both based on the current Covid-19 crisis).

Here is a resource I have successfully embedded into our early years training. It is a bit over the top with errors but even more able students enjoy doing it.

Editor’s note
Could be used by anyone – not just Early Years!
With answer key and Functional Skills mapping

I have been covering how to make an appointment with the GP and taking part in a role play with the GP with my ESOL group, so I have prepared these materials.

My courses are not accredited, so I don’t know how this fits into the ESOL SFL criteria and my classes are, inevitably, a mix of Pre-Entry and E1 learners. Hope it might be useful.

Based on three recent articles about sugar in food and drinks – with a special focus on high sugar drinks sold by popular High Street coffee shops.

The articles are followed by six pages of challenging differentiated questions for E3-L2 Functional Maths – all are based on the articles. Topics include large numbers; fraction, decimal & percentage equivalents, averages & range, extracting information from tables, and the four operations.

Also includes embedded Functional English.

Topical resource based on a news story. Reading comprehension at 2 levels (E3 and L1/L2) plus two writing extension activities with writing frames. Some embedded maths (including a chart in the L1/L2 exercise) and the opportunity to discuss healthy eating. The higher level comprehension aims to get learners to understand in depth what they are reading, rather than just answer the questions from the text.

Cloze activity, reading and a writing exercise to mark National Obesity Awareness Week which runs 12th-18th January 2015, although the activity does not specifically refer to this and so can be used at any time. The cloze acts as an introduction, while the reading should stimulate discussion and provide the background for the writing activity. The writing task includes space for planning and drafting.

One of the Level 2 Functional English Writing exam papers asked students to write a speech.

I found a speech online and showed them how to use repeated words, emphasis, subheadings and to think about their audience. I then used the Drink Aware website to create this resource to enable students to practise speech writing.

This resource could also be used to practise writing letters or emails to colleagues to encourage them to think about drink driving, and to practise other aspects of writing styles for Level 2 exams.