- key points from the first session of our Teaching Functional Skills course

1. West Suffolk
Consortium
Functional English &
Maths
Julia Smith
Bob Read

2. Objectives
 clarify the content & structure of the course
 highlight current issues in Functional Skills
delivery
 identify some key messages and teaching
approaches to be explored in specialist
sessions
 introduce the purpose, format and features of
our course blog

3. The Great Big Functional Skills
Quiz…prizes!
True or False – Stand up, Sit down or True/False
 Entry Level FS are assessed internally
 They must be taken in one sitting
 You are allowed to explain the vocabulary in the test
 Functional skill exam questions are not in the GCSE
 All assessment records should be kept for a
minimum of 5 years
 Spelling is checked within maths

4. The Big Quiz contd…
 How many students at school are passing…
 How does this compare to colleges?
 Work based learning?
 Prison!
 What makes the difference?

5. What are the key issues?
 On a post-it write down what you think the
biggest issues are
 A) in learners being successful
 B) in learners not being successful

6. Did you mention these?
 Where the exams came from…
 Students don’t know how to think…
 What resources are available…
 Skills transfer…
 An understanding of the qualification…

7. Chief Examiners Reports
 Learners fail when they are not entered at a
level for which they are ready
 They need specific exam preparation time
 If a learner has chosen the wrong data but
correctly performed calculations they will not
achieve because the “overall results must be
reasonable”.
 Learners cannot be given achievement if they have made a major error even if the
calculations are correct. “If the candidate has omitted any significant part of the task,
even with 8/10, they have not achieved” (p6 assessment pack for maths)

8. The Key Teaching Issues -
Maths
Learners often don’t know where to start
Identifying which information they need – red herrings!
Learners struggle to make decisions – making a
choice and playing a role
Literacy difficulties – both reading and writing
Presentation of work, data, numbers
Checking & evidencing checking – reverse
calculations, estimating and magnitude
Explaining what they have done and why
Copying errors
Using a calculator – mindless number crunchers!
Specific detail – units, labels, headings

9. The Key Teaching Issues –
English…
 Writing, writing writing…colloquial, grammar,
capitals, sentence construction, tense agreements
 They don’t write enough and what is there is littered
with errors – even insufficient evidence
 Speaking and listening – is not a reading
assessment – best practice: ensure that any
supporting notes/ppt have suggestions for
improvement
 Reading for a purpose – many difficulties in this
 Using a dictionary

10. Accessibility
 Learners with difficulties/differences should
always be accommodated for
 They are entitled to a scribe, reader, large
font
 They are put in for exams en masse, when
they are not ready perhaps

11. Ofsted Good Practice
 DV8 Training

12. The problem solving process
 Here’s a problem
 Peter’s cube
 Your challenge is to make a 3d cube with a
letter on the outside of each face just by
folding the paper

13. Active Learning in Functional
Skills Teaching

14. Two Active Learning tasks
 what kind of skills would pupils be using in
completing these tasks?
 how are the tasks and the skills relevant to
the demands of Functional English and
Maths programmes?

15. Active Learning
in Functional Skills
Teaching
 practical, decision making tasks
 collaborative working
 confidence in coping with the challenges of
problem solving
 teacher: asking rather than telling
 pupils: reasoning rather than
answer guessing

16. Active Learning
 pupils: active cognitively, not just in behaviour!
 transferable skills
- ‘how could we use this skill in other contexts?’
 need to balance active learning with
graded skills development

17. Course Blog

18. Question Time…
??????

19. Objectives
 clarify the content & structure of the course
 highlight current issues in Functional Skills
delivery
 identify some key messages and teaching
approaches to be explored in specialist
sessions
 introduce the purpose, format and features of
our course blog

20. Review…
 On 3 post-its write down
 1 thing you have learned from today
 1 thing that has surprised you
 1 thing you still want to know