Functional Skills in Mathematics

Rob Apperley and Gill Colley

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• Accessible and well-structured
• Designed for the purpose
• Simple and easy to use

Focus on key skills

All current GCSE specifications now require a proportion of questions to have embedded ‘functional elements’, testing everyday mathematics skills. At foundation tier this applies to up to 40% of questions, and it remains a key concern even in higher tier papers.

Functional Skills in Mathematics is specifically designed to develop the skills that all students will need, as applied to real life and workplace situations. It contains materials to test and then reinforce the following mathematical concepts:

• numbers
• calculations
• ratio and proportion
• fractions, decimals and percentages
• equations and formulae
• discrete and continuous data
• statistical methods
• probabilities
• area, perimeter and volume of common shapes
• 2D representations of 3D objects
• metric and imperial measures.

Once they have taken their initial test, students then work on the areas where they need most reinforcement, using step-by-step worked examples and practice questions. Full teacher’s guidance and useful Web links are also included.

Essential grounding for later life

Mathematics departments need to make sure that their students have a firm grounding in functional skills, both to comply with the requirements of the new GCSE and other examination syllabuses, and to give students the basic capabilities they will need in later life. Functional Skills in Mathematics gives you a bank of copiable resources designed for the purpose, which can be used to support a programme of study or as reinforcement or exam preparation for particular students.

Convenient format

Functional Skills in Mathematics is supplied on a CD-ROM and comes with a full site licence, meaning that it can be placed on a network for the whole department to use. Students needing reinforcement can access the materials independently, and teachers can find and use material whenever they need it.

Contents

• Introduction
• Skills test
• Tutorials
• Practice exercises
• Resources