LNF Cymru Literacy and numeracy for Wales

Cover Lessons

Cover lesson ideas that practise literacy and numeracy, linked to the Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF), for a range of subjects.

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Learning French Words from Weekend Voicemails

Year 7 · MFL · Beginner

Literacy: Developing vocabulary

Pupils build French vocabulary by listening. In an invented context, 6 pen pals from Villebrune, a small town in France, leave voicemails about their weekend, and pupils in pairs read them aloud to each other from reader cards with an English sound-alike guide, so the cover teacher needs no French. Listeners note in English the day, activity, opinion and reason for each message, then check against the French. Pupils guess 10 words before listening and spot 2 false friends, sort at least 20 words and phrases into a grouped vocabulary list, practise 6 phrases for pronunciation, and write and say a 3-sentence voicemail of their own with parce que. Year 7 groundwork for GCSE French Unit 3: Listening (Areas of content, page 17).

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

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Reading Big Numbers in French

Year 7 · MFL · Beginner

Numeracy: The number system

Pupils read 12 real facts about Wales written for a French-speaking visitor, with every number in words, such as mille quatre-vingt-cinq metres for Yr Wyddfa and soixante-quatorze mille seats at the Principality Stadium. They decode how French builds 70 to 99 with sums (60 + 15, 4 × 20 + 17), write each fact's number in digits, put numbers into a place value table and explain a zero that holds a place, order the mountains by height and the dates from Conwy castle to the 96-member Senedd, and round to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. They write numbers in French using the spelling rules for vingts, cents and mille, then play a listening game in pairs, writing down numbers their partner reads aloud.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

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Designing a Survey of Music Listening Habits

Year 7 · Music · Beginner

Numeracy: Collecting data

Numeracy in Music: pupils help the Music department of Ysgol Bro Alaw, an invented Welsh school, find out how Year 7 listen to music before it plans a lunchtime club. They pick a testable hypothesis, sort data into qualitative, discrete and continuous, name the faults in 8 badly written survey questions (leading, overlapping or gappy answer boxes, two questions in one, vague time words, unnecessary personal data) and rewrite them, then design a 6-question questionnaire and a fair sample. They draw a tally table, collect data from 30 invented completed questionnaires and decide, quoting numbers, whether most pupils listen to music for more than 1 hour on a school day.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Ruler

Software / weblinks

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Making Bars Add Up with Note Values

Year 7 · Music · Beginner

Numeracy: Conceptual understanding

Numeracy in Music: pupils treat note values as numbers of beats and as fractions of a semibreve. Using invented drum parts for a village band, they complete a note value table, add up bars in 4/4 to find and fix 3 wrong ones, and explain why counting notes instead of beats goes wrong. They fix bars and fill smudged gaps in a 3/4 waltz, write bars as fractions to show that a full 4/4 bar is one semibreve, find every way to make 2 beats and write a 4-bar rhythm for a partner to check. Builds towards GCSE Music. Nothing needs to be played.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

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Reading About the Welsh Triple Harp

Year 7 · Music · Beginner

Literacy: Understanding, response and analysis

Literacy in Music: pupils read an information article about the triple harp (telyn deires), the harp with 3 rows of strings that became known as the Welsh harp. They use headings, a fact box and a glossary to find information, retrieve facts, put its history from Italy to Wales in order, explain diatonic and chromatic in their own words, and make inferences backed by quotations about the Welsh Romani harpers and Nansi Richards. They compare the article with a concert leaflet written for a different purpose, then write a 100 to 130 word response on why the triple harp matters to Welsh music.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Highlighters

Software / weblinks

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Fitness Data Tracking

Year 7 · PE · Beginner

Numeracy: Interpreting data

Pupils compare a whole class of 24 anonymised fitness test results: mean, minimum, maximum and range for three tests, a banded tally, a bar chart, and a written conclusion that separates what the data shows from what it cannot show. No exercise is done in the lesson.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Computer/Laptop

Software / weblinks

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Improving a Fitness Circuit Poster

Year 7 · PE · Beginner

Literacy: Proofreading, editing and improving

An invented Year 10 pupil's digital poster for a lunchtime fitness circuit fails the 5-second test: six fonts, pale yellow and light grey text, the time hidden at the bottom, red and green stations with no key, 30 minutes instead of 30 seconds per station and a missing eighth station. Pupils score the design against purpose, hierarchy, contrast, consistency and colour-blind access, proofread and correct all 10 spelling, punctuation and grammar errors and 3 factual errors against the PE department's facts, rewrite the opening and add a safety line, then sketch and label version 2 and write alt text for the website. No exercise is done in the lesson.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Ruler
  • Coloured pencils

Software / weblinks

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Ordering Sports Day Times and Distances

Year 7 · PE · Beginner

Numeracy: Measurement

Numeracy in PE: measurement. Using an invented school's sports day results, written down in different ways by different helpers, pupils read stopwatch displays in minutes, seconds and hundredths, order 100 m times (spotting that 14.9 is the same as 14.90), convert 800 m times from minutes and seconds into seconds before ordering them and finding margins, record long jumps in both centimetres and metres (including 3 m 8 cm = 3.08 m), add relay legs to find the winning team, and choose the most sensible unit for different events. Nobody runs or jumps: pupils stay seated.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

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Finding Precise Words for Feelings

Year 7 · PSE / Well-being · Beginner

Literacy: Vocabulary, spelling, grammar

Pupils practise choosing precise vocabulary and spelling tricky words in a PSE / Well-being context. They order feeling words by strength in happy, sad, worried and angry word families, learn spelling patterns for words such as anxious, embarrassed, disappointed, relieved and grateful, and write sentences about mixed feelings. They then rewrite an invented Year 7 pupil's diary of his first week at secondary school, replacing vague words such as good, bad and weird with precise ones, and write a short note of advice to next year's new pupils. Naming a feeling accurately helps pupils understand it and ask for the right help.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

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How Much Sugar Is in That Drink?

Year 7 · PSE / Well-being · Beginner

Numeracy: Calculation

Pupils practise calculation in a PSE / Well-being context. Using invented label cards for 8 drinks, they estimate and then calculate the sugar in a serving from the figure per 100 ml, and convert grams into teaspoons and into a percentage of the real NHS limit of 30 g of free sugars a day. They add up an invented pupil's day of drinks, work out which swaps save the most sugar over a school week, and apply the real UK traffic light rules for drinks, including the extra rule for large servings. The lesson ends with a short piece of friendly advice backed by at least 3 calculated numbers.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Calculator

Software / weblinks

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Saying What You Mean in a Group Chat

Year 7 · PSE / Well-being · Beginner

Literacy: Punctuation

Pupils read an invented Year 7 form group chat about a bake sale for the food bank, where friendly messages keep getting misread. They find 5 messages that went wrong and explain why using clues from later replies, then fix the punctuation of 8 messages so each says what the writer meant. They show how the same words change meaning with different punctuation and choose the right channel for 5 situations, from a group chat to telling a trusted adult. They finish by writing a 6-rule group chat charter for their own form, with every rule a correctly punctuated sentence.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Highlighters

Software / weblinks

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Listening for Key Points in Three Talks on Kindness

Year 7 · RE · Beginner

Literacy: Listening to understand

Pupils practise listening to understand in an RE context. The cover teacher reads aloud three short talks about why we should be kind: the Christian parable of the Good Samaritan, the Sikh story of Bhai Kanhaiya giving water to wounded soldiers on both sides, and an invented humanist speaker explaining empathy, reason and the Golden Rule. Pupils listen once, then make key-word notes on a second hearing, summarise each talk in under 20 words, compare the different reasons each belief gives for kindness, and write their own view using ideas they heard. Pairs finish by checking their notes against the script. Prepares pupils for explaining and comparing religious and non-religious views in GCSE Religious Studies.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

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Reading Pie Charts about Belief

Year 7 · RE · Beginner

Numeracy: Interpreting data

Pupils practise reading and interpreting charts in an RE context. Using an invented school survey of belief in Year 7 and Year 11, they read a labelled pie chart, work out fractions and percentages, read an unlabelled pie chart from the size of its slices, read a bar chart of what gives pupils' lives meaning, and learn why percentages are fairer than numbers when groups are different sizes. They compare the school with real Census 2021 figures for Wales and decide whether four claims are true, false or cannot be told from the data. Prepares pupils for reading statistics on religious belief in GCSE Religious Studies.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Calculator

Software / weblinks

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Symmetry in Islamic Geometric Patterns

Year 7 · RE · Beginner

Numeracy: Shape and space

Pupils practise using the properties of shapes in an RE context. Using 5 pattern cards and background on why many mosques are decorated with geometric patterns, calligraphy and arabesque, they name the polygons in each card and find every line of symmetry and the order of rotational symmetry. They use interior angles of 60, 90 and 120 degrees to explain why triangles, squares and hexagons tessellate around 360 degrees, complete half-drawn patterns by reflection on a grid and construct an 8-point star from a square and a rotated square. They finish with a 2-sentence explanation linking the maths of the patterns to tawhid and the idea of the infinite.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Ruler
  • Coloured pencils

Software / weblinks

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Counting Daisies with Quadrats on Cae Bryn Eithin

Year 7 · Science · Beginner

Numeracy: Collecting data

A numeracy lesson in Science on collecting data, building towards the ecological sampling in GCSE The Sciences Unit 4, Section 4.1.1. An invented Year 7 class asks whether more daisies grow on mown grass than in long grass by a hedge. Pupils turn the question into a testable prediction, sort 8 kinds of data into quantitative and qualitative, find and fix 4 problems in a pupil's unfair plan, and design a results table. They then collect the data themselves by counting daisies in 10 printed quadrats with a counting rule for daisies on the frame, work out totals and means, and use them to answer the question and judge whether 5 samples are enough. No practical work or computers.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

Software / weblinks

See a completed example