Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

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.

Lovely workbook for E1 ESOL, Literacy or Functional English. Use a prompt for discussion about the importance of keeping in touch, letting people know where you are, and asking for help. With plenty of opportunities for students to write their own texts.

I was prompted to create this set of tasks after seeing a lovely Red Nose event poster in my staff email. Although it focuses on Comic Relief 2011, this resource could easily be adapted for other charity events. Please read the resource to find out how you can obtain an editable Word version.
Functional English covers reading, spelling, writing, listening, speaking and discussion skills. Functional Maths covers time, money, doubling and halving, and 2D shapes.
Fully mapped to E1-E2 Functional Skills criteria.

09-10 Football Season is a wonderful way to engage mixed ability groups of footie fans!
Covers formulating an argument, discussion, recognising points of view – facts & opinions, writing sentences & paragraphs.
Maths aspects include extracting information from tables, averages, ratios, and addition & subtraction.

A challenging project where students must research, plan and cost a luxury garden. Includes scale diagrams, money, and shape and space problems (paving slabs). Extension options cover percentages and averages. Great for horticulture students or anyone with an interest in gardening.
Also ideal for L1-2 Functional Maths.
The project also involves web investigation (costs of garden materials) and writing a covering letter (selling the finished garden design) and therefore also covers Functional ICT and Functional English.

Investigate the possibility of a college stocking fairly traded products in its canteen. Covers many reading, writing, ICT, numeracy, speaking and listening skills inc. data handling, report writing, creating charts and questionnaires, giving a presentation, etc. Ideal for embedding all three functional skills (or literacy, numeracy and ICT) especially for business students.

Banana smoothie numeracy challenge a hands-on practical task where groups of students must measure ingredients accurately (capacity and weight) and come up with a perfect smoothie recipe to be judged by the teacher. Marks are also awarded for an inventive smoothie name and a well written recipe (optional writing frame included for learners with Entry literacy skills) plus a detailed mark/feedback sheet.