•PHOT
OCOPIABLE•
CAN
BE DOWNLOADED
FROM WEBSITE
Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2022.
Home >> Adults >> General English >> NEWS LESSONS
The people making a difference: the teacher running a free school uniform
exchange on her doorstep
Level:
Intermediate – Teacher’s notes
Key:
1. determination
2. struggling
3. smart
4. surging
5. drop
6. horrified
3. Understanding the article
a. Students read the statements and decide whether
they are true or false according to the article. They
should correct any that are false.
Key:
1. False. Jo Land and her husband are both
teachers, but even so she was horrified at the
cost of her youngest son’s school uniform.
2. False. She bought the plastic dustbin and
placed it outside her house so that people could
drop off unwanted items of school uniform.
3. False. The items are dropped off into the bin
and then Jo Land posts details about them on
Facebook. The first person to message her
about the item can come and collect it or she
will take it to them.
4. True
5. True
6. False. Jo Land does not ask people about their
finances. She says that everyone is struggling
with the high cost of living.
4. Key language
a. Students find phrases that fit with the meanings.
Key:
1. down the road
2. cost of living
3. financial hardship
4. in stock
b. Next they use the phrases to complete the
sentences about the article.
1. Warmer
a.
In this warmer task, students look at the picture and
label as many clothing items as they can. They can
do this task individually. Then, students work with a
partner or in groups of three and discuss the warmer
questions about school uniforms in the UK. The
article says that a complete secondary-school uniform
costs around £400 (paragraph 6). According to the
Children’s Society (www.childrenssociety.org.uk), in
2022, the average cost of a primary-school uniform
is £315, and £337 for a secondary-school uniform.
2. Key words
a. Students write the correct word from the wordpool
next to the definitions on the lines provided. Then
students find and highlight
them in the article to read
them in context.
Key:
1. horrified
2. comprehensive
3. dustbin
4. drop
5. preloved
6. struggling
7. surging
8. smart
9. landfill
10. determination
b. Before reading the article carefully, students
use some of the key words
to fill the gaps in the
sentences to ensure that they understand and know
how the words are used in other contexts.
Article summary:
Why a teacher decided to
set up a popular and successful free school
uniform exchange scheme
Time:
90 minutes
Skills:
Reading, speaking,
writing
Language focus:
Vocabulary, speaking, writing
Materials needed:
One copy of the
worksheet per student
•PHOT
OCOPIABLE•
CAN BE DOWNLOADED
FROM WEBSITE
Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2022.
Home >> Adults >> General English >> NEWS LESSONS
The people making a difference: the teacher running a free school uniform
exchange on her doorstep
Level:
Intermediate – Teacher’s notes
If you’d prefer
to make this a speaking task, get
students to record their nominations instead of
writing them and play the recordings to the class.
Key:
1. cost of living
2. in stock
3. financial hardship
4. down the road
c. Then they use each of them in sentences of their
own that are not related to the article.
5. The British school system
a. Students use the words in the box to complete the
text about the UK school system.
Key:
1. State
2. Public
3. fees
4. free
5. colours
6. logo
b. Check their answers
and ask them to talk about
how the UK school system compares to that in their
own country.
6. Discussion
Students discuss the questions related to the article, and
give their reasons and justifications for each answer,
referring to their own experiences wherever possible.
7. In your own words
a. Students first think about someone they know who
is making a difference in their community. If they
don’t personally know anybody who is making a
difference, they can draw
on articles they may have
read as well as their own imagination to invent
a person.
Next, they write the emails stating why their person
should win the award – a certificate, publicity for their
cause, and a weekend at a spa hotel.
Finally, share all the emails so that students can vote
for a winner.