Imke Djouadj, head of English and maths for the


ETF, says that this perceived discrepancy will be addressed by the reforms, as the new qualification content will be standardised with more consistency across awarding organisations (AOs) and there will be more uniformity between them. “It should dispel the idea that some AOs are easier than others. The number of awarding organisations has also reduced as some of the smaller organisations have not put themselves forward,” Djouadj says. Along with this increased consistency will come


greater rigour, and emphasis on underpinning skills, bringing them more in alignment with the school curriculum and the foundation level of GCSE. There is new content for all levels. In maths, learners will be expected to complete longer calculations without the aid of a calculator. And in English, students will be required to complete basic spelling and grammar tests without the


aid of dictionaries or spelling checks. However, for some, the increased rigour has led to a loss of the practical element, particularly in the maths paper.


“It lost its characteristics of being ‘practical maths’,”


according to Valeria Panyko, a maths teacher at Croydon College and a Fellow of SET who recently gained Advanced Teacher Status (ATS). “The beauty of Functional Skills maths was that students were able to relate to it. The sample assessment material (especially the L1) takes the context away and focuses on calculation methods in many questions.” And in English too there are concerns that attempts to align with GCSE content risks making FS appear as a pathway to GCSE rather than a qualification in its own right. Anne Haig Smith is director of the Applied Learning


Foundation at Activate Learning and she was one of the experts consulted for the Making Maths and


inTUITION ISSUE 36 • SUMMER 2019 13


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