Contextual Resources

Various activities to practise travel and transport themes and ideas. Read about a journey to college, answer comprehension questions and exam style questions,  form questions, use adverbs of frequency and conjunctions, along with speaking, listening  and writing practice - all on the subject of a journey to college. 

Editor's notes

Engaging and relevant! Written for E3 ESOL but the reading text and several of the exercises (for example: conjunctions) also provide useful and relevant practice for E2-L1 Functional Skills English. 

A poem on the theme of neighbourhoods.  Can be used as a reading and pronunciation exercise or may be extended to include a discussion around housing, traffic, local communities or recycling.

Editor's notes

Super for many levels and situations - includes suggested questions and discussion prompts.

A short information text is followed by several pages of cloze exercises for Motor Vehicle students. To support subject knowledge, working out the meanings of technical vocabulary and learning subject specific spellings.

Editor's note

A cloze exercise for Motor Vehicle students. To support subject knowledge, working out the meanings of technical vocabulary and learning subject specific spellings.

Editor's note

Covers all reformed Functional Skills  content descriptors relating to position and direction (from E1 to L1). Written with mixed-level classes in mind. Positional vocabulary; cardinal and intercardinal compass points; turns (e.g. quarter turns) and bearings are all covered in this set of graduated HS2 (high speed railway) themed problems. Problems are interspersed with context-free underpinning questions, examples and tips.

Functional skills maths.
Extract information from mileage and distance (network) diagrams. Complete a mileage chart.
Editor’s note
With worked solutions, pop up help and a final challenge question.
Ideal as an introduction or for revision.

Entry level Functional Skills Maths on the theme of vehicles queuing up ready to board a ferry.
Covers many aspects of Functional Maths including: number, position & size, simple lists and charts, and time.

Editor’s note
Two versions available: E1-E2 and E2-E3.
With detailed Functional Maths mapping and teaching tips

The classic example of a tally is keeping track of how many cars of each colour go past in the street, but that is rather awkward to do in practice.

Use this presentation to save having to leave the comfort of the classroom! It is a PowerPoint slideshow of cars of various colours, to be projected onto the board. Tell learners to keep a tally of how many cars of each colour appear. Where a car has more than one colour, they should put it under the predominant colour.

E1 learners could focus on simply counting (for instance) all the red cars.

An original resource to generate discussion, practise reading comprehension and writing skills (formal letter). Ideal for Functional Skills Motor Vehicle students. Aimed at L1-2 although the discussion is also suitable for Entry Level.

A high interest worksheet which uses the layout of engines to reinforce some basic mathematical concepts, and to encourage reading. Lots of discussion points.
The angle of the V – right angle or acute angle?
Counting in 2s – How may cylinders – 2 rows of 3, etc.

Editor’s note: interesting mix of skills covered from E2 to L1. Focus is on angles but there is also basic doubling and counting in twos so would work well in mixed ability groups.