Contextual Resources

Simplified news article about a bus crash in Australia. Reading activity with DARTs. Can be extended into a speaking and listening and writing activity.

Editor's notes

A very sad story.  Ideal for E2-E3 reading and discussion (and equivalent Australian levels). Dictionary/vocabulary work, T/F questions, sentences, cloze exercise and discussion prompt.

Reading paper for L2 on The Cost of Living Crisis. Current topic and uses L2 reading exam paper format from Edexcel, Pearson. 

Editor's notes

Another fabulous and very relevant practice exam from Steph! Written Edexcel-style but very useful practice or revision for any awarding organisation. The mark sheet (also in Edexcel style) will be available shortly (for resource contributors only). Please visit  Answer sheets for more information and to check when it is available.

A set of tasks to practise reading and writing skills. Read about a student and his work and college life.

• Practise using conjunctions.
• Learn synonyms
• Practise using punctuation correctly.
• Write about your own experience of studying and working

Editor's notes

So practical and down to earth! Find out about Joseph's day to day college life and his busy job with Deliveroo. Also very useful for E2-E3 Functional Skills English students.

8 May 2023 7pm improvements to page 4 extension question (upside down tear-off hints, scaffolding, etc.)  and other minor adjustments).
he first in a new series of Cost of Living resources. Use research on the increasing costs of homemade sandwiches to calculate original costs from the previous year. Plus a challenging extension question about misleading statistics in a related newspaper article.

A huge set of resources for E1-E2 reading, writing and SLC.

Can be used as revision, the core of two or more lessons (the writing tasks would make a good lesson on their own - there are four tasks, two for each level) or for assessment. Optional marks and detailed mapping is provided and many, but not all, questions are exam-style. 

1/5/2023 Sorry! Just seen that several pages have an incorrect heading of Halloween. Resource temporarily removed.  Now fixed and uploaded (11.15am 1/5/23) 

This exercise can be used in several different ways.  The cost of living crisis has hit everyone and this one pot pasta dish can save on gas/electric by making everything in one pan.  The main idea is to cost the ingredients as it is, but then think of alternatives to the original recipe. Then if you double the recipe up, how much are you saving by buying 500g of mince?  How much are you saving by buying a 4 pack tin of tomatoes?  Look at the different prices of dried pasta.  Look at how much frozen mince is.  This is about converting g - kg too. It uses dividing and multiplying.  

An Australian version (i.e. uses A$, Australian vocabulary, etc.) of the popular Using Formulae v2 written by Gordon Noblett in 2007. Useful, realistic practice – questions cover mobiles, cooking, printing photos, plumbing rates, etc. Each multi-part question is cleverly staggered so that learners build up a set of answers and then find a 'rule'. Includes 'formulae expressed in words' so some questions also suitable for Level 1 (in addition to Level 2).

Editor's notes

An Australian version (i.e. uses A$, Australian vocabulary, curriculum details, etc.) of the popular Using Formulae written by Jean Thomas in 2006. Covers substituting into formulae, percentages and working with large numbers.

Editor's notes