January 22nd - the Functional Skills
newsletter
Traineeships were perhaps the most
significant announcement by the Government of the last couple of weeks and we
summarise their potential impact on Functional Skills. We also have a very
interesting summary of the Education Ministers speech about Maths - it's
remarkable how her comments are so close to the fundamental aspects of
Functional Maths.
Many of customers know that Guroo is
based on a Moodle platform so we've added a link to Moodlerooms. We also
have a brief reminder about events and finally this week, the webinar is
all about the brand new reports in Guroo including Progression reports,
something which I know lots of people have requested.
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
Traineeships - the details
It looks very likely that these will be
introduced in September. Announced
last week by the Government Minister, Traineeships are for 16-19 year olds who
are not otherwise in full time education, or paid training such as
apprenticeships.
They include three core elements:
They include three core elements:
- Functional Skills - Maths
and English - where the young person has not already achieved
grade C at GCSE
- Intensive work training and/or
work placement
- Other support such as vocational
qualifications adapted to the needs of the individual.
FE Week
carried full details of the Traineeship proposals, so click here for a report of the
Ministers speech
and here for details of the proposals.
Minister’s speech about Maths
In the same week as the announcement
from BIS about Traineeships, we also had the DFE Minister talking about Maths.
A full transcript of Elizabeth Truss speech is available here and it is remarkable how many of the ideas are similar
to those that underpin Functional Maths. For example:
"And,
crucially, we are putting arithmetic, numbers, fractions, decimals and
percentages at the heart of our new curriculum. These essential skills
are the bedrock of the subject, vital for almost every higher-level specialism
and essential if children are to feel confident and capable ..."
"A
vital part of that mastery is practice. The truth is that high-quality,
productive practice is essential in learning any skill .... So pupils need
plenty of opportunities to practise a technique in a wide variety of contexts,
working through increasingly demanding problems on their own and with a
teacher."
"All
the evidence from international tests and league tables suggests that high
performing countries put core academic subjects at the centre of their
curriculum for longer than we do in this country. Nowhere is this more striking
than in 16-18 maths. Last year we announced that maths will be compulsory
for students up to the age of 19 who have not achieved a C at GCSE ? a decision
supported by this week?s Nuffield report."
Better Moodle Experiences
Many readers will know we?re big Moodle
fans at Guroo, with all the initial assessment, diagnostic and resources
content at www.guroo.co.uk and the on-line level checker www.myfunctionalskills.co.uk
being delivered on Moodle that has been adapted by our technical team.
We also know that many folks out there
use Moodle to deliver online components of their courses ? and that it isn?t
easy to keep Moodle running reliably, to make it look the way you want it to,
make it work on mobile devices, mark work efficiently, and more.
So if you?d like to get the best bits
of open source Moodle but would also like better branding, interfaces and course
structures, better reporting, marking, personalised and differentiated learning
? and would like it all to ?just work?, then you should maybe take a look at
Joule from Moodlerooms:
?Joule is an online learning platform
based on Moodle that makes it easy to manage courses and deliver engaging
content and activities to learners, anytime, anyplace. Joule is here to help
you save time and effort and help you meet your learning goals, one lesson at a
time.?
Event Reminders
Implementing Functional Skills in
Birmingham is on this Friday and is targeted at Functional Skills practitioners
and managers and featuring presentations and workshops by experts in Functional
Skills. The event also has all the leading resource providers in
attendance led by Guroo.
Guroo will attend Learning and Skills
show next Tuesday and Wednesday at Olympia in London on stand 213. It's
relevant to the vast majority of our customers in the FE, Adult Learning and
Workplace Learning markets. Because of the clash of dates with the Learning
and Skills show, Guroo will not be at BETT this year.
Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm
Guroo has been growing recently and
this week we have launched a series of new reports and admin developments.
It's been a while since the Guroo support team had the chance of doing a
webinar, so this week Andy and Simon will be taking you through all the recent
new additions. As always we find that many more people enjoy coming back
for the recording afterwards, but if you'd like to be live, just drop an email
to info@guroo.co.uk
Join us on Wednesday at 4pm.
All previous webinars are recorded and
available anytime for playback - login as a guest and the password is password.
Simply click on the links below and don?t forget, if you?d like to have your
own 1:1 webinar looking at how Guroo can help you support Functional Skills,
just call us on 0191 305 5045 or email info@guroo.co.uk and we?ll take it from there.
Guroo group and user admin
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