Sunday 23 September 2012
Monday 17 September 2012
GCSE shake-up
What about Functional Skills, do they have a place?
YES THEY DO
Whilst all the talk is about the GCSE shake-up, Michael Gove yesterday in Parliament also added that "something else" would be available for those students at school, who were unlikely to succeed in the new exams.
Add this to the requirement for Functional Skills in Apprentices which starts this month and we can conclude that Functional Skills plus the new Bacc type qualifications will be the way forward.
YES THEY DO
Whilst all the talk is about the GCSE shake-up, Michael Gove yesterday in Parliament also added that "something else" would be available for those students at school, who were unlikely to succeed in the new exams.
Add this to the requirement for Functional Skills in Apprentices which starts this month and we can conclude that Functional Skills plus the new Bacc type qualifications will be the way forward.
Functional Skills Newsletter Sept 18th
September 18th - the Functional Skills
newsletter
This week we have news on the return of
the Wednesday Webinar - tomorrow's is entitled ""The
key differences between SfL/KS and Functional Skills".
We have advance news on the Functional
Skills survey with some incredibly positive results about the rigour and indeed
enjoyment of teaching and learning Functional Skills.
We've pulled together some of the
stories that we think you'll find interesting about Functional Skills, although
it has to be said that most news this week is GCSE related and we've got the
Guroo guys to summarise their offer and commit to a 24 hour turnaround on
getting customers ready to deliver Functional Skills.
As always, your comments and thoughts
are appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by
emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk
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"Rigorous" Functional Skills likely to be the winner
in GCSE shape-up.
Research to be published shortly will
show that practitioners believe that Functional Skills are 78% more challenging
that KS/SfL.
And showing astonishing high levels
of confidence in Functional Skills, the research also shows that 85%
say that Functional Skills is a better qualification.
Further that nearly 2/3rds of learners enjoy Functional Skills and more than
4 in 5 practitioners have confidence in delivering Functional Skills and an almost
unbelievable 75% of teachers/tutors are looking forward to the change to
Functional Skills!
That means we have a rigorous
qualification that teachers and tutors both want to teach and are confident
of delivering and that learners like doing. So whilst all the talk
around the exams shake-up is about GCSE, it seems likely that Functional
Skills will feature heavily as the changes take place in the next 2-3 years.
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Wednesday Webinars are back!
We'll be holding a webinar every
Wednesday after the newsletter is published so the first one this term is
Wednesday 19th September at 4.05pm
This weeks topic will be presented by
Jonathan Wells and is entitled "The key differences between SfL/KS and Functional
Skills"
To join simply email info@guroo.co.uk and we'll send you the link on Wednesday
afternoon - Guroo Wednesday Webinars are free to join but are limited to the
first 50 joiners.
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Functional Skills in the news
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Ready for "FS day"? It takes just
one day to get set-up and ready using Guroo Functional Skills Resources
Guroo is a company that is dedicated
solely to Functional Skills. It is very easy to become a customer and get
your SITE CODE and this costs as little as £325. Once you are a customer,
you get access to the pdf version of the Functional Skills Level Checker and
then you can add any number of user licences to use the on-line initial
assessment, diagnostic and teaching & learning resources. We have
on-line and paper based products covering the full learner journey.
A Paper Based Functional
Skills Level Checker for Maths and English developed by Guroo
and ideal for use as part of a pre-course assessment or interview process –
takes about 10 minutes to do, and produces a good guide to the level that the
learner is currently operating at.
An on-line Initial Assessment producing
a detailed Functional Skills Diagnostic. Takes around 50 minutes per subject (we do all three
subjects) and is completed on-line and automatically marked. The
diagnostic details performance against the Functional Skills criteria in all
subjects. The test is adaptive with learners starting at E3 then adapting
according to performance and has randomisation and variability built in so the
assessment can be done several times without learners becoming good at the test
rather than the skills.
A massive bank of teaching and learning
resources. Mainly on-line interactive and
based around 130 “challenges” each with several learning tasks. The tasks
can also be downloaded as pdf’s for printing and use off line and again cover
all levels and all three subjects.
Customers pay an establishment fee
which is a on-off fee. You then buy licences based on number of users or
tests according to what you need. It is not an annual subscription, use
stays as long as your learner or tutor is with you. Establishment fees
start as low as £325 and indeed, customers who only wish to use the Paper
Based Functional Skills Level Checker pay just £325 for the licence providing
they choose to print the test papers out themselves.
Guroo customers get access to the Level
Checker free of charge if they wish to print out the tests themselves or can
buy sets of tests in bulk for ease of use and indeed to save money, as our sets
often cost less than printing yourself! We’re also producing an
automatically marked on-line version too, again access is limited to licenced
customers. Prices for the on-line test are 50p per set (Maths and
English), the paper based version can be supplied in a 100 pack for £75 which
contains 100 x English, 100 x Maths and marking/guidance notes for each
subject. A 250 pack is just £150, almost certainly than printing in
house.
Contact info@guroo.co.uk for anything to do with Functional Skills.
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Monday 3 September 2012
Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Sept 4th
September 4th - the Functional Skills
newsletter
With less than a month until "FS
DAY", a quick reminder in this week's newsletter about some of the
services that Guroo provides, with establishment licences starting from as
little as £325 and user licences from £1.50 per user.
Plus news from AELP including
practitioner workshops and details of September's Special Interest Group
meeting for Functional Skills.
Plus the launch of the Paper Based
Functional Skills Level Checker - available ABSOLUTELY FREE to licenced Guroo
customers and a reminder to complete the annual Functional Skills Survey -
adding to the nearly 200 responses we've already had!
Paper Based Functional Skills Level
Checker
A reminder that licenced Guroo
customers can now access this new paper based level checker. It
is NOT available on the web site, please email us at info@guroo.co.uk and we'll send you a pdf version for immediate use.
If you aren't yet a customer of Guroo,
but keen to use the Level Checker, there are special licences available
starting at £325 - click here to get to the latest price
lists and products.
Guroo also has limited stocks of full
colour printed test papers for licenced customers. A 100 pack with 100 x
English, 100 x Maths plus laminated guidance/marking notes for both tests costs
just £75 - probably cheaper than printing everything yourself. A 250 pack
is even better value at £150.
Guroo Functional Skills Resources
Guroo is a company that is dedicated
solely to Functional Skills. It is very easy to become a customer and get
your SITE CODE and this costs as little as £325. Once you are a customer,
you get access to the pdf version of the Functional Skills Level Checker and
then you can add any number of user licences to use the on-line initial
assessment, diagnostic and teaching & learning resources. We have
on-line and paper based products covering the full learner journey.
A Paper Based Functional
Skills Level Checker for Maths and English developed by Guroo
and ideal for use as part of a pre-course assessment or interview process –
takes about 10 minutes to do, and produces a good guide to the level that the
learner is currently operating at.
An on-line Initial Assessment producing
a detailed Functional Skills Diagnostic. Takes around 50 minutes per subject (we do all three
subjects) and is completed on-line and automatically marked. The
diagnostic details performance against the Functional Skills criteria in all
subjects. The test is adaptive with learners starting at E3 then adapting
according to performance and has randomisation and variability built in so the
assessment can be done several times without learners becoming good at the test
rather than the skills.
A massive bank of teaching and learning
resources. Mainly on-line interactive and
based around 130 “challenges” each with several learning tasks. The tasks
can also be downloaded as pdf’s for printing and use off line and again cover
all levels and all three subjects.
Customers pay an establishment fee
which is a on-off fee. You then buy licences based on number of users or
tests according to what you need. It is not an annual subscription, use
stays as long as your learner or tutor is with you. Establishment fees
start as low as £325 and indeed, customers who only wish to use the Paper
Based Functional Skills Level Checker pay just £325 for the licence providing
they choose to print the test papers out themselves.
Guroo customers get access to the Level
Checker free of charge if they wish to print out the tests themselves or can
buy sets of tests in bulk for ease of use and indeed to save money, as our sets
often cost less than printing yourself! We’re also producing an
automatically marked on-line version too, again access is limited to licenced
customers. Prices for the on-line test are 50p per set (Maths and
English), the paper based version can be supplied in a 100 pack for £75 which
contains 100 x English, 100 x Maths and marking/guidance notes for each
subject. A 250 pack is just £150, almost certainly than printing in
house.
Functional Skills Annual Survey Report
for 2012
It will take you around 10-15 minutes.
The results we get are used widely in the sector plus this year, we are
being supported by OCR, Pearson and EMSkills who have all kindly sponsored key
survey questions.
Even better, we've using the sponsorship funds to support
some of our favourite charities, simply make your choice at the end of
the survey!
The summary report is scheduled for
publication in September, please email jwells@guroo.co.uk if you have any questions at all.
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Delivering Functional Skills -
managing the learner journey, a practitioner's guidance workshop
Two new events organised by AELP on
Monday 24th Sept in Leeds and on Thursday 4th October in Birmingham.
These half-day workshops are led by
experienced facilitators drawing on best practice methods of delivering
Functional Skills in Apprenticeship programmes. They are aimed at
practitioners from all sectors.
AELP members should also be aware
that the Functional Skills Special Interest Group
meeting will take place on Tuesday 25th Sept in London. A packed agenda
covering initial assessment, diagnostic, inspections and final assessment
will be chaired by Roger Francis of Mindleaders. To attend contact events@aelp.org.uk
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