Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

A short workbook I created to 'test the maths water' before teaching maths to a group of adult and young ESOL learners. It covers almost everything in the Entry Level 1 curriculum with exam style tasks/ questions  linked to C&G Functional Skills Maths assessments.

I usually use it with groups as a gentle introduction to the idea of maths and it forms a good diagnostic for the things they need to learn. It also lets me see how motivated they are to study maths!

Editor's notes

20 literacy and numeracy questions to warm up the new term! All based on the words HAPPY NEW YEAR (can easily be adapted for other festivals such a Diwali, New Year’s Eve or Ramadan). Covers vowels, consonants, number, ratios, simple substitution, range, mode and more!
Ideal for mixed ability groups (E1-L2). Also provides very good practice in reading instructions carefully.
For higher level groups it could be completed in teams as a speed test.

This is great as a warm-up activity or a bit of end-of-term fun. It is suitable for a mixed ability group of numeracy learners, or indeed literacy or ESOL learners. This quiz tests learners’ knowledge of how old someone has to be in order to do certain things legally, e.g. be a blood donor. It can be used in small group or pair work (which worked well for me) as well as individually.

This carousel of Jubilee tasks was hurriedly put together for a group of 10 E1-E3 Functional Maths and English 16-19 year old learners who had just (very successfully!) finished all their Edexcel Functional Skills assessments.

After a year of hard work from my students, the emphasis was on celebration and fun. However, learning objectives included: measuring, counting, writing an email, spelling, 2D shapes, estimating, rounding and working with money. Rough lesson outline also included.

An adapted version of Zoe Hyde’s Christmas E1-2 Functional Maths (see below) using Australian money. There are other minor edits – for example, the football is sent to New Zealand, not to Europe.
Questions cover almost all of the E1 and E2 UK Functional Skills maths criteria. Includes shapes, size, addition and subtraction, money, reading scales and much more. Fully mapped with teaching tips.

I have found that many numeracy students get scared when you mention terms like percentages or fractions. I therefore developed this introductory activity for my new level 1 numeracy students. They are mostly young parents who were disengaged at school and have no mathematics qualifications.

They are usually nervous when they attend the first session so I try to boost their confidence and reassure them that the course will not be like school.

‘I have…Who has?’ is a fast-paced coin counting game that has been adapted from a game on Super Teacher Worksheets

For the game to work correctly all of the worksheets need to be distributed to your students so some students may get more than one card. This could be used as a way to differentiate with the higher level students being given more cards to work with.

A set of posters / cards / checklists designed to prompt discussion, check learning and keep a record of student progression. Designed for Entry Level Functional Maths and English learners in an FE setting but suitable for all levels and subjects.
This resource was inspired by discussion on the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics) site about “understanding versus doing” and I would like to thank the forum members for their ideas and feedback.

A really interesting quick quiz – originally written to get e2e learners interested in numbers but makes an ideal warm up activity for any group (at any level).

A clever spreadsheet that creates a set of 15 loop or ‘follow me’ cards. Comes with a prewritten set of cards based on multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 100 but can you can easily add your own questions and answers on any topic.