George Churchill PGCE Year 2

EPF 309 (1a)

Describe the institutional support available to help learners

develop their skills in English and Maths. Identify key
examples from your teaching where you have addressed
the English and Maths needs of your learners. Investigate
how collaboration could further enhance learning and
promote inclusion.

Word count: 1407

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
The site i work at is Adult Services, a provision that provides services to learners with autism

spectrum condition (ASC) post 18 years. The services focus on social and vocational training and

activities that provide invaluable opportunities for individuals to develop their potential and expand

what they know, understand and can do.  Investigating and developing genuine vocational and

craft skills, and experiencing the satisfaction of technical accomplishment, provides economic

inclusion for our learners that strives for independence and emotional wellbeing. Each learner is

given an initial assessment, this explores and recommends provisions and programmes for each

individual based on their abilities and never discriminates against any impairments or disabilities.

From this initial assessment we then identify baselines of learning through assessment and past

history, this allows us to put each learner onto a programme where we feel we can develop their

independence, brought on by implementing the basics such as maths and english whenever

possible that have a scaffolding effect in other areas of learning, to help our learners flourish.

We provide many sessions for our learners, ranging from woodwork, textiles and horticulture to

making a purchase. Each session is structured, taking into account compatibility with other

learners and staff, the environment in which they will be in and the potential ability of each

individual. The main areas I teach are physical education, healthy wellbeing and assessment. In

these areas i have created schemes of work, taken from mainstream curriculums but tailored to

suit my learners level and abilities, so that each lesson can be manipulated to cater for the diverse

needs of my learners so their is no discrimination and equality is embedded throughout, which in

turn safeguards both learners and staff.

The lessons involve each learner taking responsibility for their health, developing theoretical

understanding of their bodies and fitness, using ICT to keep records of their stats and formative

assessments and develop independence in cooking healthy meals for themselves. Each area is

fundamental in its use of maths and english and embeds work ethic used in everyday life, such as

cooking (cook), fitness training (gym instructor), keeping records on computers (office skills) and

health checks (assessment). Because of the use of data storage and ICT using email, my learners

are able to collaborate with anyone they wish, keeping staff up to date with the sessions i lead,

allowing all the session data to be taken into annual reviews and for parents to be emailed the

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
progress of their child in each session, improving communication and baseline assessments used

to develop our learners.

Each term, learners individual development plans are updated with new SMART targets and

personal development that meets the criteria of social and vocational independence (Petty, 2009:

470). A fundamental part of these criteria focus on functional skills that used in everyday life to

complete important tasks and progress the learners understanding of the world around them. One

area of development that benefits the learners is ICT. Not only does ICT link in with recent

government policies (FELTAG) but it enables our learners to overcome discrimination and allows

staff to manipulate sessions to meet the needs of our learners who can have a diverse range of

needs (impairments, disabilities etc). Through doing weekly health checks, my learners partake in

using electrical devices to monitor, collect data, assess and progress areas such as blood

pressure, heart rate, waist to hip ratio, weight and body fat percentage. This always allows scope

for progress, but more importantly embeds speech, language, literacy and numeracy skills. By

using the devices, my learners (behaviourism) link previous learning to new information and

become aware of what is expected of them. Staff use Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, usually

starting with full physical support (hand over hand) and eventually progressing to light hovering

support.

My sessions take into account vocational targets that can be applied to everyday living skills, as

Peter F. Drucker once famously spoke of “avoiding pointless routines of doing something efficiently

that should not be done at all”. A recent FELTAG report (February, 2015) focused on building ICT

and technology skills and by including computing and e-learning in our sessions we are preparing

our learners for progression in real life. Because of the health check sessions, my learners are

embedding skills into their sessions that apply to real life working situations, collecting data, using

ICT devices and software, making graphs and charts from stored data (assessment) and using

emails to send the information to me, the teacher for further assessment. These all apply to office

jobs and administration roles that my learners could effectively use in employment. Because of

policies like FELTAG, it is important to make sure learners do not fall behind with current ways of

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
communication or technology that could benefit them, but also to bare in mind safeguarding and

equality acts (2010).

My exercise and fitness sessions provide plenty of opportunity for numeracy and literacy (reading

and writing). Each week my groups perform a health check using electronic resources to record

data that includes;

• measuring bodyweight
• monitoring heart rate
• reading blood pressure
• measuring height
• calculating body fat percentage
• calculating hip to waist ratio
To measure weight the learners use electronic scales (set to kilograms), we then apply the heart

rate monitor onto the index finger of each learner to record heart beats per minute and then

support each learner with using a digital blood pressure monitor to take systolic and diastolic data

readings. To complete the health checks the learners use a body fat monitor, inputting all the data

they have recorded in the session into the monitor (height, weight, age and gender) and holding

the grip electrodes for a body fat percentage reading. The learners then develop their literacy skills

by writing the information down on a sheet to record the data and see comparisons with previous

weeks. Our session also makes use of a calculator, using division to find the waist to hip ratio then

referring to a government approved health chart to identify levels of health. The learners, through

intensive support using hierarchy of needs and through behaviourism have now learnt to

independently do this themselves, making them fully effective with a calculator.

Because my learners can become anxious and need varying levels of support and interaction to

help them cope with their environment, there has to be a plan b and a plan c for every session i

teach. To reinforce structure and communication, we provide speech and language therapists,

who work alongside each learner giving individual case studies, this institutional support available

to us is invaluable in identifying areas for development that can aid each learners independent

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
development. To cover this I embedded literacy tasks into my sessions in the form of word

searches, these not only can be linked to the session taking place but manipulated to suit the level

and abilities of each learner in my group to meet differentiation and SMART target needs. These

word searches allow my learners literacy skills to progress and also reinforce understanding of the

sessions aims and objectives through use of key words. Because word searches can be created

online using word search creating web sites, my learners are effectively doing all the work

themselves, creating work for each other, collaborating with staff and improving their ICT skills

further.

Due to the nature of ASC, learners often need support in changing focus during an activity and

some may need to take regular breaks from the task that they are working on. It is therefore

important to have relevant free time activities for them to work on. In the business administration

session I have a range of word searches for the students to complete, all of which are relevant to

the subject and are differentiated for the students varying abilities. This activity can improve the

student's literacy as well as re-enforcing certain topics. What I intend to do to develop this is to

teach the students how to create their own word searches on programs available on the internet.

This will mean that ICT is also incorporated. By embedding functional skills into my

sessions I am not only meeting the aims and objectives of the services and provisions my society

wants to achieve, but more importantly, I am developing my learners independent thinking skills,

achieving HOTS and allowing my learners to use employability skills that are crucial to us

achieving partnerships with local businesses and communities that provide work experience for our

society.

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
References

Drucker, Peter F. The Practice Of Management. New York: Harper & Row, 1954. Print.

Hall, Katharine. "Tracking Pupil Progress In English And Maths". SecEd 2013.3 (2013): n.

pag. Web.

Jacobs, Debra S and Dion E Betts. Everyday Activities To Help Your Young Child With

Autism Live Life To The Full. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2012. Print.

Petty, Geoffrey. Teaching Today. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2009. Print.

Reece, Ian, Stephen Walker, and Caroline Walker-Gleaves. Teaching, Training And

Learning. Sunderland: Business Education, 2003. Print.

Robinson, Denise. "Editorial: Teaching Standards, FELTAG And The Ifl". TiLL 6.1 (2014):

3-4. Web.

Sharrock, Terry. Embedding English And Maths. Print.

Winnick, Joseph P and Francis X Short. The Brockport Physical Fitness Test Manual.

Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1999. Print.

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