Five top tips for Year 6 writing in the summer term

With SATs just around the corner, Year 6 children are diligently working to fill knowledge gaps in maths, SPAG, and reading. But how can you ensure they also reach their potential in writing? Here are five practical tips with effective longer-term strategies to enhance Year 6 writing during this busy period.

1. Keep the writing going!

Keep writing every day during the build-up to SATs and afterwards, to ensure you have sufficient evidence to meet all the ‘pupil can’ statements in the Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF). It is worth noting that writing is a headline school accountability measure, whereas the SPAG test is not. Grammar can be taught through writing. Focus on one grammar skill in each writing lesson, such as using word classes for effect or experimenting with different clause structures in sentences.

It is worth remembering that a range of writing is required:

This can be seen in the teacher assessment exemplification materials, where Morgan uses the polite recommendation in the letter of thanks, the passive voice in the graffiti argument and technical vocabulary in the science piece.

With limited time, avoid writing projects that require children to absorb a lot of new information. Instead, focus on projects where they can quickly generate ideas. For example, when writing to inform or persuade, encourage children to write about personal interests and topics they already know well.

An effective genre is ‘faction’, where children write to inform the reader about a mythical creature or place they've created. To avoid ‘middle of the road’ writing, choose an audience and purpose that requires a formal register,  to sound like ‘experts’. This encourages ambitious sentence structures, passive voice, modal language, and carefully selected vocabulary. Provide high-quality model texts (e.g., Holly Black’s Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide or Britannica’s All New Children’s Encyclopedia) and discuss how writers open sentences and choose words carefully. This will also encourage writing at the greater depth standard as children could demonstrate they are able to ‘draw independently on what they have read as models for their own writing’ and ‘exercise an assured and conscious control over levels of formality, particularly through manipulating grammar and vocabulary to achieve this’.

2. Independence and choice

If your class's writing sounds similar, it's time to offer more choice. For example, children could write from the perspective of a character they have chosen themselves. Not only will this motivate your children to write, but it will also ensure their writing is independent and can be used as evidence. Independent writing doesn't have to be a ’cold’ write:

To help children write, success criteria can be established with the children through exploration of model texts but shouldn't be overly directive. Furthermore, the guidance points out that when a specific aspect of writing has been supported through modelling or success criteria, a piece can still be used as evidence that a child has independently met other ‘pupil can’ statements that were not explicitly scaffolded.   

3. Mind the Gap

Consider the range of evidence you currently have: does it cover all the statements in the TAF, or are there gaps? One statement often lacking evidence is:

‘integrate dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action’ (TAF)

Dialogue is an exchange of speech between characters, not quotes in a newspaper article. Correct use of speech punctuation is essential. Use a comma after the reporting clause and end punctuation within inverted commas:

He asked, “Your journey here was uneventful, I trust?”

“Yes, Uncle,” I said.

Evidence is also needed to show how dialogue ‘conveys character and advances the action’ (TAF). This involves the ‘show don’t tell’ technique: instead of telling the reader what's happening, show them through actions, sensory details, and dialogue.

If you feel you have insufficient evidence of dialogue, a rich writing project could involve creating a simple short story where characters move through a setting and have an encounter involving dialogue. This would also provide evidence for:

‘in narratives describe settings, characters, and atmosphere’ (TAF)

Find inspiring examples of short stories with vivid settings and powerful dialogue, such as Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley, Short! by Kevin Crossley-Holland, or Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield.

The scene from Edward Scissorhands when Peg encounters Edward in the attic is an example of video providing an engaging writing stimulus: description of the setting and characters could be added to the dialogue in the film.

Explore how these writers use dialogue to reveal characters' thoughts, feelings and personalities. Discuss how they weave in detail to describe settings and characters, creating specific atmospheres. (This reading and discussion will of course also develop pupils’ reading comprehension and so provide useful practice for KS2 reading expectations.) For example, in Macbeth from Shakespeare Stories, dialogue reveals things about the characters: 

Collect phrases that describe character reactions, such as ‘’her eyes blazed’ or ‘he bowed his head,’ to integrate into and inspire their own dialogue.

To ensure the writing is independent, give children time to create characters and generate ideas for how they might speak and behave through drama activities like improvisations, speaking statues, and freeze frames. Demonstrate how to shorten dialogue and use it sparingly to advance the action.

To develop setting descriptions, use model texts as inspiration, such as this excerpt from Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror:

Create soundscapes in class, featuring elements like whispering trees or the watching moon to help generate ideas for figurative language and sensory descriptions.

To add to the element of choice in their writing, help children open their stories in different ways. For example, look at how writers begin stories with dialogue or an atmospheric setting description, and let your children choose how to start.

4. Transform your classroom into a publishing house!

Motivate your children to edit their writing to the highest standard by becoming a publishing house: publish their work, whether through a final draft or reading aloud to their preferred audience. The national curriculum emphasises the importance of editing and proofreading, so allocate ample time to teach and support this process. Share how professional writers like S.F. Said take time to edit then proofread their work, as can be seen here.

In addition to working on new writing, children could revisit work completed earlier in the year and edit it. They often enjoy this, and it helps to expand your bank of evidence.

It may be that you are redoubling your focus on your ‘cuspy’ children: those just below expected standard (EXS) and greater depth standard (GDS). Address gaps in their writing through guided group work or 1:1 feedback, so that they can apply what they have learnt independently in their writing.

Using the TAF as a guide, start by sorting your children’s books into groups based on their main writing needs, such as:

• using a variety of sentence structures: Help children practise writing a range of sentences to fit the purpose and audience, whether formal or informal. Consider using passive voice, modal verbs, and subordinate clauses.
• improving cohesion: Support children in linking ideas clearly and avoiding repetition so the writing flows smoothly. Check children are using a range of conjunctions and fronted adverbials effectively and are not over-reliant on the same cohesive devices.
• selecting appropriate vocabulary: Provide guidance on choosing words that best fit the audience and purpose of the writing.

Remember the basics: children must demarcate sentences ‘mostly correctly’. For further guidance, see the HFL moderation team’s blog: Messages arising from the 2024 KS2 writing moderation cycle and Getting it Write.

To guide children while maintaining their independence, you can indicate the broader section in their work which would benefit from improvement or correction but avoid being overly specific. They need to demonstrate their ability to edit and improve their work.

Having grouped your books, in the following lesson, model how to edit a piece of writing to address common issues you have noticed. Demonstrate how reading your writing aloud can help identify areas for improvement. Teach children to be each other’s ‘editors in chief’ and give feedback using prompts such as:

• "What is your 'special moment' in this piece of writing? Which bit do you want to 'zoom in' or linger on? Can you describe it to me? Go and add that!"
• "Which bit could you take out to make it clearer or to move the story on?"

While the class are editing, provide feedback tailored to each group.

To help children make additions or rewrite sections, provide editing flaps where they can rewrite sentences on strips of paper and stick only the end onto the margin, allowing you to flip the strip up and see the original underneath.

Having edited the compositional aspects of their writing, you can now move on to proofreading. To keep this stage engaging, ‘gamify’ the process: who can make the most effective and impactful corrections or improvements? Be specific about what you want them to look for as a class and use mini-plenaries to focus on different elements in turn, such as word choices, verb consistency, punctuation, and spelling. For example, you might demonstrate how to split run-on sentences into separate sentences, or join them with a conjunction or semicolon (avoiding the comma splice), depending on the effect you want to create:

1. The wind howled outside, the lights flickered ominously.

   To join these two clauses, this could be:

2. The wind howled outside while the lights flickered ominously.

   Or:

3. The wind howled outside; the lights flickered ominously.

This can be discussed, and children can then hunt in pairs for examples in their own writing to fix. Another common area of confusion you may need to revisit is the correct use of the apostrophe. Training your class to use editing stations (with thanks to Emma Stanley for these resources) can help to create a buzz about editing and proofreading.

What would really help is for children to edit as they write by incorporating regular mini-breaks. Pause the class and have pupils read their sentences to a partner, making necessary changes to spelling, punctuation, or composition. Each break can focus on a specific aspect. This practice helps children develop self-awareness in their writing, making it less daunting than editing an entire piece later. Live feedback in the classroom addresses misconceptions immediately and can have a ‘ripple effect’ where other children overhear and then check their own writing.

If you need evidence for the handwriting statement, ‘maintain legibility in joined handwriting when writing at speed’, allow time for children to copy their final draft after editing and proofreading. This could be the entire piece or just their ‘best bit.’

5. Check the spelling!

Evidence is needed for correct spelling of words from the Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 lists. Spellings can be evidenced through dictations, but Year 3/4 spellings are often problematic as they are used frequently in children’s writing. Again, points could mean prizes! Here are some strategies to address common spelling issues when proofreading or modelling writing:

• For unstressed vowel sounds (e.g., different, interest, family, remember), model how to count the syllables and use a ‘spelling voice’ to emphasise the harder-to-hear syllable (like Wed-nes-day). Have children hunt for this kind of word in their writing and check them.
• For adding suffixes, teach the ‘swap, double, or drop’ rules. Get children hunting for -ed, -es, or -ing suffixes in their writing and check the spelling with their partner:
• Swap the y for an i (family > families; reply > replied)
• Double the consonant to keep the vowel sound short (stop > stopped; run > running)
• Drop the e when adding -ing (make > making)

For common homophone errors, correct a short piece of writing together which contains examples (e.g. there/they’re/their), then have children hunt with partners for specific examples in their own writing. Some children may need personal reminders to check the spelling of certain high frequency words they often get wrong.

ACE spelling dictionaries are effective scaffolds for spelling. Teach your class how to use them and encourage regular use, along with thesauruses.

Final thoughts and best wishes

By keeping the writing going, ensuring there is always an element of choice, and maintaining rigorous editing, you can help your Year 6 children fulfil their potential in writing.

Best wishes for SATs. I hope this information helps you get the best out of your young writers during this busy time. Below are useful links for further guidance.

Getting it Write: Secure Teacher Assessment of Key Stage 2 Writing

Year 6 checklist for writing teacher assessments

Year 6 writing at greater depth (GDS): quick wins, guidance and helpful materials

A very particular weakness

Looking back to look forward: reflections from the 22/23 moderation cycle

Declaration of independence

GDS and writing in year 6: keeping things focused now time is short

The long and the short of GDS in Year 6 writing

'Write away!' and other lessons derived from the 2018 KS2 Writing Moderations