With writing levels being at the top of most Key Stage 2 teachers’ agenda, we often hear Literacy Co-ordinators asking how they can boost their writing levels and ensure quality coverage of the curriculum for the Grammar tests. After many years of working with schools, our answer is always clear: get the Year 5 and 6 teachers to work closely together to plan how they will teach sentences. It’s all about the sentences. Students must understand how their sentences are grammatically constructed if they are to hit the high marks in their writing.
We have looked closely at the new curriculum and compiled a progression plan for how to teach sentences in Upper Key Stage 2. This free sentence progression plan is available for free on our website. By following such a plan, you will have covered all of the punctuation requirements for Years 5/6 in the new curriculum as well as a lot of the writing and grammar objectives.
To complement the progression plan we have devised a photocopiable booklet for Year 5 teachers, The book is divided into three terms and is full of homeworks, sheets, theory, activities and resources for teachers to use throughout the year to teach great sentence level work. The resources can underpin any existing schemes of work and will ensure children are taught all of the national curriculum requirements for sentence, writing and punctuation. Not only will this help boost writing levels, but it will ensure curriculum coverage and progression across Year 5 and Year 6 and extend grammar knowledge.