Support Year 6 pupils in producing engaging narrative writing that can be used as secure evidence for end-of-KS2 teacher assessment.
This resource focuses on narrative writing, asking pupils to write a story centred on a journey. It provides structured opportunities to collect evidence against the KS2 Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) for working towards, expected and greater depth standards.
The task is designed to work particularly well alongside geography learning. Pupils can draw on their understanding of countries, climate zones, biomes or physical landscapes to shape setting and atmosphere, applying subject-specific vocabulary within an extended piece of independent writing.
Pupils are supported through planning tools, feature checklists and stimulus materials, while teachers are provided with clear assessment guidance. This aligns with statutory requirements that writing used for teacher assessment must be produced independently, with prompts used to support ideas rather than model final outcomes.
The activity can be taught within a geography lesson as purposeful cross-curricular writing, or used more flexibly as a standalone narrative task to generate further independent evidence of pupils’ writing ability.
TAF statements covered
Working Towards Standard (WTS)
- Describe settings and characters
Expected Standard (EXS)
- Describe settings, characters and atmosphere effectively within narratives
- Integrate dialogue to develop character and move the action forward
- Select grammatical structures that suit the task, such as using passive verbs to influence how information is presented
Greater Depth Standard (GDS)
- Distinguish clearly between the language of speech and writing, selecting an appropriate register
Pack contents
- Personal writing skills checklist – enables pupils to set individual editing targets
- Narrative writing checklist – feature-based guidance for independent editing, without modelled examples
- Describing setting, character and atmosphere poster – key techniques for effective narrative description
- Passive verbs poster – supports pupils in manipulating sentence structure for effect
- Journey story opening – an engaging stimulus to launch the narrative
- Setting image cards – visual prompts to inspire journeys across contrasting landscapes
- Narrative planning sheet – supports structured planning of plot, setting and characters
- Themed writing paper – for drafting the final narrative, including the story opening
- Teacher assessment sheets – record evidence against Year 6 writing TAF statements
Suggested teaching approach
Introduce the concept of a journey narrative and explore how authors use setting, character and atmosphere to engage the reader. Share the story opening and discuss possible locations and events, drawing on geographical knowledge where relevant. Pupils then explore setting images and collect vocabulary linked to climate, landscape and environment.
Using the planning sheet and checklists, pupils plan their narrative, considering plot development, descriptive detail and opportunities to include dialogue. Pupils will then write their story independently, referring to their chosen success criteria.
Editing takes place using the feature checklists, either independently or with a partner, without teacher modelling. Teachers assess the completed narratives against the Year 6 TAF statements using the provided assessment sheets, identifying any next steps needed to strengthen evidence.
Browse more Year 6 SATs TAF Evidence resources.