Functional Skills Level 1 - Mathematics (8361) - Teaching guidance

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Ophelia

Functional Skills Level 1 Mathematics teaching guidance (8361) provides planning support through worked examples linked to likely assessment content. It outlines general information and disclaimer notes, explains how specification updates are published, and gives a structured scope of contexts such as work, business, holidays, events, shopping, and personal finance. The guidance also details assumed knowledge, commonly used command words, and specific number-system skills including reading, writing, ordering, comparing, and operating with large positive integers, fractions, decimals, percentages, and simple interest.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages40

Reading Time1 h 41 min

AccessFree to download

General Information

Contents and contexts

Assumed knowledge and command words

1 Use of number and the number system

NS1 Read, write, order and compare large numbers

NS2 Recognise and use positive and negative numbers

NS3 Recognise and use positive and negative numbers

| LEVEL 1 FUNCTIONAL SKILLS IN | | --- | | MATHEMATICS
(8361) | Teaching guidance For teaching from September 2019 Version 1.0 Spring 2020 Our specification is published on our website ([www.aqa.org.uk](www.aqa.org.uk)) . We will let centres know in writing about any changes to the specification. We will also publish changes on our website. The definitive version of our specification will always be the one on our website, this may differ from printed versions. You can download a copy from our All About Maths website ([http://allaboutmaths.aqa.org.uk/](http://allaboutmaths.aqa.org.uk/)) Contents General Information-Disclaimer | This teaching guidance will help you plan by providing examples of the content of the specification.
It is not, in any way, intended to restrict what can be assessed in the question papers based on the specification.
Contexts | | --- | | The following is a list of likely contexts that will be used in our papers. It may not be exhaustive:
• working for a company
• running your own business
• going on holiday
• going on an outing
• going to a sports or entertainment event
• organising a party or other event
• shopping
• personal finance
Assumed knowledge | | Functional Skills Level 1 assumes all the knowledge and skills from the Entry Level Certificates in Functional Skills.
Functional Skills Level 2 assumes all the knowledge from Functional Skills Level 1.
Command words | The following command words are the ones we will generally use. For specific purposes we may use other command words. • Work out: this will be the usual instruction when one or more calculations are required to get to the answer. • Calculate: this will be used when the student is expected to use a calculator to carry out a given calculation. • ‘How many …can …’ implies that we are asking for the maximum number. 1 Use of number and the number system Students at Level 1 are expected to be able to count in steps of various sizes, including negative numbers; read, write and understand positive whole numbers to one million. They can order and compare whole numbers of any size, and fractions, ratios and decimals and recognise the effect of multiplying and dividing by powers of 10, 100 and 1000. They can identify, compare and extend a range of numerical and spatial patterns, use, understand and calculate with fractions, decimals and percentages and calculate simple interest. Note: students are expected to be able to add and subtract numbers up to one million with or without a calculator, multiply or divide by any positive integer from 1 to 12 without a calculator and multiply and divide by any positive integer up to one million with a calculator. |
NS1 | Read, write, order and compare large numbers ( up to one million) | | --- | --- | Teaching Guidance Students should be able to: • know and use the word integer • read a positive integer value in number form and write it in words • read a positive integer value in word form and write it in number form • compare positive integers and know which is the smallest or largest • order a list of positive integers from smallest to largest or largest to smallest • compare positive and integers in context and infer how they should be interpreted. GCSE Link – N1 Examples 1 Put these numbers in order starting with the smallest. 1567 156 615 546 15 67 2 Write three hundred and two thousand in digits. 3 Write 6734 in words. 4 Which is closer to 1000, 967 or 1043 5 Write these numbers in order, starting with the smallest. 338 349 460 297 38 695 905 502 97 993 189 900 6 John’s annual salary is £30 050 and Kiran’s annual salary is £29 900 Who has the larger salary? |
NS2 | Recognise and use positive and negative numbers | | --- | --- | Teaching Guidance Students should be able to: • know that numbers can be positive, negative or zero • understand negative as less than zero • compare po

FAQs

What is the purpose of this Functional Skills Level 1 Mathematics teaching guidance (8361)?

It helps teachers plan by providing examples of the content likely to appear in the specification. It is not intended to limit what can be assessed in question papers.

Where is the definitive specification version published?

The definitive version is always the one on the AQA website, which may differ from printed versions.

What does NS1 in the guidance focus on?

NS1 focuses on reading, writing, ordering, and comparing large numbers up to one million, including recognising and working with various numeric forms and patterns.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Ophelia