Maths for adult-life purposes. Working with numbers, measures, and data the way an adult uses them — at work, at home, in services, in shops, in conversation with a council or a bank or a healthcare provider. Canonical content in its own right — not a watered-down version of academic maths.
The position the v0.3 schema takes is structural: Functional Maths is parallel canonical content, not an overlay of NC Maths. Its outcomes (work out the cost of a tradesperson’s quote, calculate medication doses, read a payslip, interpret a bar chart in a news article) are the learning, not a lesser form of the learning.
Strands
- Number in adult life — whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio and proportion in real-world contexts
- Common measures, shape, and space — units, area, volume, perimeter, basic geometry for everyday tasks
- Handling data and information — averages, range, charts, basic probability; critical evaluation of statistical claims
Cornerstone framing
Functional Maths connects most directly to Reflection — the discipline of checking that an answer makes sense in context. Also touches Connection (much real-world maths is about coordinating with others — splitting a bill, agreeing a quote, scheduling a delivery).
Tested most directly by
Pearson Edexcel Functional Skills Maths Level 2 (NEO’s chosen FS pathway). Also tested in part by KS4 Maths content domains where adult-life problems overlap with academic exam content (Number, Ratio/Proportion, Statistics, basic Geometry).
PfA alignment
Strong on Independent Living (managing money, planning, problem-solving). Also touches Employment (workplace numerical reasoning) and Good Health (medication, exercise, food).
Cross-curriculum
The canonical strands here overlap meaningfully with KS4 Maths but are not subsumed by it. A learner pursuing FS L2 only is studying real canonical content — they are not doing a smaller version of GCSE Maths. The vault makes that visible by giving Functional Maths its own canonical home.