1. Embedding Functional Skills
English, Maths & ICT
Embedding Functional Skills

2. What are Functional Skills?
Take a minute to think about the first half hour of your day this morning.
Did you use your English, Maths or ICT skills in any way?
I hope this isn’t teaching ‘granny to suck eggs.’ I won’t spend more than a couple of minutes on this as I will go straight onto the next slide.

3. The First Half Hour Activity Skill Wake up to alarm clock
Maths – had to understand how to tell the time
Showered and washed hair
English and Maths – estimated volume of shampoo. Recognised bottle due to writing/pictures on the front.
Made a cup of tea
Maths – made estimations of measurement and volume (amount of water in kettle/milk and teaspoon of sugar).
Check diary
ICT – Used calendar function on smart phone.

4. Why Bother? English, Maths and ICT skills underpin everything we do.
Embedding these skills into our teaching should lead to improved success rates/learner satisfaction.
It is an OFSTED requirement that these skills are embedded across all curriculum areas.
These skills are often referred to as:
FUNCTIONAL SKILLS

5. English, Maths & ICT in Your Own Teaching
Take 10 minutes to think about the English and Maths and ICT needs in your own area.
Now look at the English, Maths and ILT ‘trees’ provided on the next three slides.
What are the English, Maths and ILT needs in your area? Some examples have been put in to help you.
How could these needs be addressed within your own teaching. What could you do to help?

6. Example: A dance teacher uses shape and counts time – he or she could use clapping to help reinforce this.
I will just give a couple of examples of what they could put onto each e.g. Under units of measure the hair tutors could put ratios of perming/colouring product. Under identify 3 and 2D shapes the yoga tutor could think about how the student has to copy their shapes.

7. Example: Hairdressing students need to learn subject specific words – the tutor could provide a glossary to help them.
Again, I will give a couple of examples e.g. Under reading, it could be course material, under writing it could be assignments, under speaking and listening it could be listening to lectures/discussions……

8. Students can use their smartphones to collect examples or evidence to reinforce learning e.g. bad use of apostrophe on signs (English students), styles of writing (art). Images can be shared with peers and prompt discussion.

9. Showing this on Your Lesson Plans
You must show how you have embedded English, Maths and ICT skills into your teaching.
There is a separate column on the college lesson plan template titled: ‘Opportunities to support English, maths and ICT.’ This is the place to record the support.
It is important to be specific. Please see the table over leaf for examples.
The lesson plan example on the VLE isn’t very specific but it’s the one I will have to use as the handout . It just says things like ‘presentation skills,’ in the embedding column. I didn’t think we were going to go down the route of flagging up every time they used English or Maths ?!? What do you think, please?

10. Examples: how to show embedded functional skills on your lesson plans
Curriculum Area
English, Maths or ICT support need
How NOT to put this on the plan
How to put this on the plan (in the ‘Opportunities to support English, maths and ICT’ column)
Floristry
X has difficulty understanding different words for shapes (English as a second language)
Extra help given
English-Polish dictionary provided for X & cue cards showing shape and word in English given.
Art
Y finds perspective difficult to grasp
Support
Given YouTube link to tutorial on drawing perspective. Extra exercises provided. Learning to be checked week 4.

11. Referral What if the needs are too complex for you to deal with?
Refer to your Curriculum Manager. He or she will then consider whether the student should be referred to the college’s English/Maths courses or whether some kind of in-class support would be appropriate.

12. Conclusion
English, Maths and ICT skills are required in every curriculum area.
We all address these areas as part of good teaching practice.
We need to demonstrate that we have embedded English, Maths and ICT within our own teaching areas.
Remember these are all
FUNCTIONAL SKILLS

13. Training into your area
We can offer the Hidden Agenda in the Classroom direct to your Team Meetings – if you would like to arrange it, contact the Training Office
The face to face training will back up this short powerpoint presentation.