A Functional Skills Workbook in Two Formats: Why Choice Matters for Learners

~ katecoldrick

I’m pleased to share that my workbook, Kate Coldrick’s Guide to Functional Skills Level 1 Writing, is now available on Amazon in two formats: as a Kindle eBook and as a paperback.

Cover image of Kate Coldrick's Guide to Functional Skills Level 1 Writing workbook, featuring a colourful bird rising from the open pages of a book.

Although the content of the book is the same in both versions, offering it in different formats is a deliberate and pedagogical choice. Over many years working with learners in schools, colleges, and specialist settings, I’ve seen first-hand how the physical form of a resource can shape a learner’s relationship with it.

Learning isn’t format-neutral

For some learners, reading and working digitally is liberating. Kindle allows text to be resized, spacing adjusted, and pages navigated flexibly. For students who experience visual stress, fatigue, or fluctuating concentration, these options can make sustained writing work feel far more manageable.

For others, however, learning works best when the book is physically present. A paperback can be held, annotated, bookmarked, and returned to without the mediation of a screen. Many learners find it easier to plan, draft, and edit their writing when they can see progress across real pages, rather than scrolling through a digital document.

In classroom and tutoring contexts, a printed book also solves a very practical problem: teachers and tutors no longer need to print and manage large numbers of loose worksheets. A bound workbook allows students to keep their work together, revisit earlier units, and build a tangible record of progress over time.

An inclusive approach to Functional Skills English

Functional Skills English is often taken by learners who have had disrupted or difficult educational experiences. Many are returning to study after a long gap; others are balancing learning with work, caring responsibilities, or additional needs.

For that reason, this workbook was written to be clear, structured, and confidence-building, with explanations broken into manageable steps and plenty of opportunities for guided practice. Making the book available in both Kindle and paperback formats extends that same inclusive approach to how learners engage with the material.

Students can choose the format that suits them best. Tutors and teachers can choose what works in their setting. No one is forced into a single mode of learning.

Part of a wider body of work

Publishing this workbook also sits within my broader practice as a writer, educator, and photographer. Alongside my educational writing on literacy and neurodiversity, I work on creative and photographic projects such as Elswyth and my long-form blog On the Skyline, which explore voice, memory, place, and the cultural narratives that shape how women are represented.

Although these strands of my work may look different on the surface, they are connected by a shared concern with how meaning is made, how voices are heard, and how people find ways to articulate their experience – whether in an exam response, an essay, or an image.

Availability

Kate Coldrick’s Guide to Functional Skills Level 1 Writing is available now:

Read more about practical strategies that support autistic and neurodivergent students in my recent blog post, 6 Ways to Support Autistic Girls in Your Classroom, about my work on the About page, or browse my resources for teaching neurodivergent students in Kate Coldrick’s TES shop.

Written by Kate Coldrick, an educator and writer based in Woodbury near Exeter.