Functional_Skills

According to The Moser Report published in 1999, one in five adults in the United Kingdom is not functionally literate. This fact was thought to be one of the reasons causing low productivity. From this report a national plan was drawn to enable adults to gain the basic skills of Numeracy, Literacy and I.C.T. During this essay, I will evaluate a range of ways to embed functional skills within a swimming environment. Firstly, I will discuss the importance of numeracy as a functional skill. We use this every day, sometimes without even noticing, from paying for groceries to calculating one’s monthly budget. During a swimming session, each and every student is encouraged to use this skill. For example, whilst a learner swims, they will count their individual lengths or ask for them to be recorded on the target board. This could range from one length to 100 lengths. From this, a learner can work out how many lengths they have remaining until they reach their set targets- be it a session target or a target to achieve an award. Another example would be calculating their total distance travelled during any one session by adding each length and its distance together. Literacy is embedded in many ways within the swimming lessons. One example would be, before a session begins, each learner’s individual targets are written on the target board. In turn, each learner must read and digest these. Another example of this would be the process of regular student feedback during sessions. This process allows learners to actively participate in communication and broadens their use of subject-specific vocabulary. Embedding I.C.T. within a swimming session is somewhat difficult. However the possibility has been explored. A possible way to embed I.C.T. would be by using a process called Progressive Video Analysis. This process would involve filming a student (with consent) at their Baseline Assessment stage of swimming & documenting this video. The idea is to then re-film them six to eight months later and compare the two using a piece of software called ‘DartFish’. This allows a ghost version of the first film to be played simultaneously, overlapping the most recent video. This allows one to analyse a learner’s stroke improvement. The ‘iPad’ could be used during this process, as a portable media player during sessions. In conclusion, functional skills are considered to be the centre piece of secondary 14-19 education. These skills are the foundational building blocks of any educational setting. Each and every person is entitled to these skills. The key is making them relevant to your learner.