This resource focuses on narrative writing, asking pupils to create a story based on a natural disaster, such as a volcanic eruption, earthquake, flood or hurricane.
It provides practical tools to assess pupils against the KS2 writing Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) for working towards, expected and greater depth standards.
The resource pack offers a structured approach to cross-curricular writing, combining geographical knowledge, descriptive language, dialogue and independent research.
Pupils are guided with success criteria and checklists while teachers are supported with clear assessment guidance, in line with the recommendation that “pupils’ writing, on which teachers base their judgements, must be produced independently.”
This writing activity works well within a geography unit on natural disasters, giving pupils the opportunity to describe physical and human features while demonstrating narrative skills. It can also be used as a standalone narrative task to provide further independent writing evidence.
TAF statements covered
Working Towards Standard (WTS)
- Describe settings and characters.
- Use capital letters, full stops, question marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contractions mostly correctly.
Expected Standard (EXS)
- Describe settings, characters and atmosphere in narratives.
- Integrate dialogue in narratives to convey characters and advance action.
- Use a range of punctuation taught at KS2 mostly correctly.
Greater Depth Standard (GDS)
- Distinguish between the language of speech and writing, choosing the appropriate register.
- Use the range of punctuation taught at KS2 correctly and, when necessary, precisely to enhance meaning and avoid ambiguity.
Pack contents
- Personal writing skills checklist – encourages pupils to monitor and edit their own writing.
- Narrative writing skills checklist – lists features of narrative writing for independent editing.
- How to describe settings, character and atmosphere poster – key features for effective narrative description.
- ‘Fleeing Disaster!’ story start – an engaging opening to inspire pupils’ narratives.
- Natural disasters image cards – support geographical and descriptive vocabulary.
- Narrative planning sheet – helps pupils structure ideas and plan paragraphs.
- Themed writing paper – PDF for drafting the final story, including the story start.
- Teacher assessment sheets – track evidence against TAF standards; can be placed in pupils’ books as a record.
Suggested teaching approach
Begin by reading the ‘Fleeing Disaster!’ story start and exploring the natural disasters image cards. Discuss what the characters are fleeing, what damage has been caused, and what they can see, hear and feel. Orally rehearse describing the scene, using descriptive vocabulary to capture setting, characters and atmosphere.
Next, pupils will consider how authors describe characters, settings and atmosphere. They'll refer to the poster and identify techniques to include in their own writing. Pupils will set personal targets on their writing checklists for descriptive vocabulary, punctuation and narrative structure.
Then, pupils will plan their narrative using the planning sheet, deciding how to continue the story, develop characters and describe the disaster.
After planning, pupils will draft their story, applying descriptive language, dialogue and punctuation accurately. Give feedback on planning or rehearsal as needed to support independent writing.
Finally, pupils will review and edit their writing independently or in pairs using the checklists, while you will assess their work against the Year 6 TAF statements.
Browse more Year 6 SATs TAF Evidence resources.