This resource focuses on narrative writing, asking pupils to write a story about an invasion of Britain. It provides practical tools to assess pupils against the end of 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 historical knowledge, descriptive language, dialogue and cohesive devices. It is designed to support independent writing while allowing pupils to demonstrate their understanding of a historical period.
Pupils are guided with success criteria and checklists, while teachers are supported with clear assessment guidance, in line with the requirement that “pupils’ writing, on which teachers base their judgements, must be produced independently.”
This writing activity works particularly well within a history unit on invasions of Britain, such as the Romans, Anglo-Saxons or Vikings, where pupils can apply historical vocabulary and contextual knowledge. It can also be used as a standalone narrative task to generate further independent writing evidence.
Pupils will need knowledge of a historical invasion, relevant subject-specific vocabulary and narrative techniques to produce effective, engaging writing.
TAF statements covered
Working Towards Standard (WTS)
- Use paragraphs to organise ideas.
- Describe settings and characters.
Expected Standard (EXS)
- Describe settings and characters in narratives.
- Integrate dialogue in narratives to advance action.
- Use a range of cohesive devices within and across paragraphs.
- Use KS2 punctuation mostly correctly, including direct speech.
Greater Depth Standard (GDS)
- Write effectively for different purposes and audiences, drawing independently on what they have read as models for their own writing.
Pack contents
- Personal writing skills checklist – enables pupils to create and use their own targets to support independent editing.
- Narrative writing skills checklist – lists key narrative features without modelled examples for independent review.
- Using dialogue to advance action poster – explains how dialogue can move events forward in a narrative.
- Creating cohesion poster – provides examples of cohesive devices pupils can apply in their writing.
- ‘Invasion!’ story start – an engaging opening to inspire narrative writing.
- Invasions through history image cards – visual prompts to support historical understanding and creative ideas.
- Narrative planning sheet – helps pupils organise ideas and structure paragraphs.
- Themed writing paper – PDF for drafting the final narrative.
- Teacher assessment sheets – track evidence against Year 6 TAF standards and can be placed in pupils’ books.
Suggested teaching approach
Begin by exploring the invasion image cards, discussing what is happening in each scene and identifying clues about the historical period. Pupils will orally rehearse possible narratives, focusing on how dialogue could be used to advance action and how cohesive devices link ideas.
Next, revisit the historical context. Pupils can draw on prior learning about invasions of Britain, gathering vocabulary and annotating images to support accurate descriptions of settings, characters and events.
Pupils will then plan their narrative using the planning sheet, building on the provided story start. They'll consider viewpoint, historical detail, characterisation and how dialogue and cohesion will be used. Display the dialogue and cohesion posters to support planning without over-scaffolding.
After planning, pupils can draft their narratives independently, applying historical knowledge, descriptive language, dialogue and cohesive devices. Teachers may provide feedback on plans or oral rehearsal to support independence.
Finally, pupils will review and edit their writing independently or in pairs using the checklists. Teachers assess the completed work against the Year 6 TAF statements using the assessment sheets provided.
Browse more Year 6 SATs TAF Evidence resources.