Contextual Resources

A topical resource that requires students to interpret a news infographic and calculate the difference between two times. There is also a second question for Level 2 learners on Speed, Distance, Time. As well as enabling students to practise time calculations it can lead to discussion about this controversial rail project.

Editor's notes

Really topical and interesting. With curriculum mapping. No answer sheet.

This is a speaking and listening activity written in the style of the NCFE reformed Functional Skills assessment.  It is based on the 'Happy News: It's not all bad' reading resource previously published on skillsworkshop. Three task are covered: presentation (talk), Q&A session and a formal discussion. 

Editor's notes

A set of Entry Level tasks - all based on a vending machine. The main focus is money but positional vocabulary is also covered. Skills covered include: recognising letters and numbers for items in a vending machine, identifying coins to pay with, working out change from £1,  checking answers, rounding and estimating, distinguishing between right and left.

Editor's note

A delightfully functional resource. With teaching notes. Fully mapped to the Reformed Functional Skills content.

A reading comprehension based on articles taken from Emily Coxhead's The Happy News.  This publication is to "celebrate all that's good in the world" and so it seemed a good time at the start of the year to have the opportunity to talk about the positives, rather than negatives, around us. Questions cover many aspects or the new reformed L1-2 curriculum including: main points & detail, textual and organisation features, interpreting punctuation and understanding vocabulary. I am also planning to use this as the basis of a speaking and listening discussion.

Specifically written to focus only on comparing and contrasting texts (now expected at Level 1 and Level 2).  This set of  graduated questions uses texts from "Six Texts about TV Licences" (available separately on skillsworkshop) and encourages learners to compare content, format, purpose and language of texts based on similar topics.

A set of six texts about TV Licences that 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. When selecting texts consider the interests and levels of your learners, and what type of text and purpose you want to focus on.

Challenging set of  questions based on an infographic from a recent TV Licensing annual review.  Aimed at L1-2 but a few questions are Entry 2/3 - there are also  a couple of  "stretch questions" making a bridge to GCSE. Two main topics are covered: working with very large numbers and percentages. Extracting data, equivalents and ordering decimals are also touched upon.

I wrote this resource to explore the Reformed Entry Level 2 reading and writing content, and the format of the new assessments from various awarding organisations (AO). 

Sparked after reading an article about a UK Which? report in The Guardian newspaper, and made in haste, this resource is aimed at Entry Level 3 (E3) and Level 1 (L1) learners but includes some E2 and L2 questions. There is no answer sheet – one might appear later for skillsworkshop contributors – but see below for general marking guidance. If you are stuck you can ask for help using my Twitter tag @skillsworkshop https://twitter.com/skillsworkshop

Sparked after reading an article about a UK Which? report in The Guardian newspaper, and made in haste, this resource is aimed at Entry Level 3 (E3) and Level 1 (L1) learners but includes some E1-2 and L2 questions. There is no answer sheet – one might appear later for skillsworkshop contributors – but the teaching notes do include general marking guidance.