Latest Resources & Links

Added on 4 December 2017

Sports Funding and Brexit - although, despite, however

This resource is aimed at high E3, L1 and L2 ESOL learners who make mistakes when using conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs in their writing to express contrast. There are seven speaking, reading and writing tasks in all.

Level

English

Use knowledge of grammar

Apply grammar

Identify main points and detail

Functional Skills English

ESOL

ESOL Writing: sentence focus (punctuation and grammar)

ESOL Reading: sentence focus (grammar, punctuation)

ESOL Engage in discussion

ESOL Writing: text focus (composition)

ESOL Reading: text focus (comprehension)

Context

Sport

News, Politics & Government items

Added on 27 November 2017

How to Pass Functional Skills English Reading Level 2

This is a really useful video for L2 Reading for Pearson Functional Skills as it shows the ‘banker’ questions and guides learners (and tutors) to where the marks are. This can be used in class or for homework/self study.

Basic addition and subtraction worksheet generator

This is a MS Excel resource that is designed to be a useful resource for producing sheets for starter activities or homework. This also provides a tutor marking sheet. The sheet can be used to differentiate by choosing larger or smaller numbers, and can be addition or subtraction.

Editor’s note
Creates printable sheets of 20 problems (plus answer sheets). Clever and useful!

Level

Maths

FM Context free underpinning

FM E1.3 Add numbers which total up to 20, and subtract numbers from numbers up to 20

FM E2.5 Add and subtract two-digit numbers

FM E3.2 Add and subtract using three-digit whole numbers

AN N1/L1.3

AN N1/E3.2

AN N1/E2.3

AN N1/E1.5

AN N1/E1.4

Added on 26 November 2017

Home made pizza price comparison

A resource for maths to allow students to calculate the cost of a home made pizza and compare to a takeaway / store bought pizza. Considering profits and recipe scale.
2 different levels of sheet Foundation and higher that can be printed back to back with a design ideas sheet to give the costing some context or used in a catering / life skills lesson for cross curricular.

Editor’s note
PPT format but prints as 3 x A4 sized editable worksheets.

Level

Maths

Functional Maths - measures, shape & space

Context

Catering Food Nutrition

Added on 16 November 2017

Odd even picture reveal activity

This is an Excel file with a basic odd/even activity. I took inspiration from Jean Thomas’ “Reveal the hidden shapes!” activity from 2005.

With this activity, the tutor can design a picture (or one learner can design a picture for another learner) and it produces a printable sheet. The learner then shades all the odd numbers on the sheet in one colour, and all the even numbers in a different colour – revealing a picture or a message.

There are no macros, so cross-compatibility with Excel shouldn’t be a problem.

Level

Maths

FM Context free underpinning

FM E2.3 Recognise and sequence odd and even numbers up to 100

AN N1/E3.1

AN N1/E2.2

AN N1/E2.1

Added on 16 November 2017

How to write a formal letter or email - templates

How to format and plan a formal letter or email for English functional skills.
Word document / template.

Editor’s note
Two very useful editable Word documents – one for a letter, one for an email.
[5/12/17] Minor edits to the formal letter template

Level

English

Functional English - writing

Wt/L2.1

Wt/L1.1

Added on 9 November 2017

Armistice day - Tower of London Poppies

A picture PPT first used to introduce the 2014 L1-2 Blood Swept Lands L1-2 Functional Maths tasks (see link below).
A great discussion prompt that can also be used or adapted to introduce any Remembrance Day activities.

Level

General

Generic resources for literacy, numeracy and beyond

Added on 26 October 2017

The Golden Scissors: Hair Award Night

A Functional Skills English project, hosted on Padlet. Students are challenged to host an industry award evening. They must source, decide upon and hire the venue; invite the guests as well as write a speech and report on the events of an incident-packed evening.

Formats of writing covered are: formal letter; report; speech; article & invitation.

Aimed at high Level 1 and Level 2 Functional English learners – Padlet allows for the resources to be accessed online or downloaded and offered as paper-based tasks.

The Golden Brick: Construction Award Night

A project-based reources hosted on Padlet. Aimed at constructions learners, it challenges them to host an awards night. They must source, choose and hire a suitable venue as well as write a speech and report on the evening’s most notable events.

Writing skills covered: formal letter writing; report writing; speech and article writing & invitation writing.

Padlet allows access to the resources either directly on the site or downloaded for printing as paper-based task sheets.

This Time Next Year We'll Be Millionaires!

A short project designed to encourage group work, negotiation and some creative thinking. Learners must invent and company and a product to market.
The three tasks explore persuasive language techniques through: advertising, accessing ‘crowd funding’ & speech writing.

Aimed at high Level 1 & Level 2 Functional English earners, but could be an ideal opportunity for peer-tutoring in mixed-ability groups.
Padlet allows access to the resources either directly on the site or downloaded for printing as paper-based task sheets.