creative writing tasks year 6

Writing in Year 6 (age 10–11)

In Year 6, your child will continue to develop develop as a writer, becoming more independent and creative. Read on to discover the National Curriculum expectations for writing in Year 6, and to find out how you can support your child at home.

How to help at home

There are lots of ways you can help your Year 6 child with writing. Here are our top ideas.

1. Read to your child

While children do learn new language and ideas from speaking and listening, the type of language we use in writing is often very different from that in speech. Reading regularly to your child, especially longer chapter books that they might not be able to yet read independently, is a great way to support their writing.

When you are reading together, look at how authors use different techniques for effect. For example, how do they show excitement or build a sense of tension? How do they make use of interesting language, such as metaphors or similes?

For books to read with your child, take a look at our free eBook library .

2. Have your child to read to you

Even though your child may be able to read independently now, making time to hear them read is great for their reading development. Also, by frequently seeing words in print, they will be able to see how different words (and the punctuation and grammar that join them) are used to share meaning.

When you read, occasionally look at the punctuation and talk about what it is telling the reader to do. Show your child how a question mark tells you to raise your voice at the end of the sentence to indicate a question being asked.

Explore how you can show the ‘feeling’ behind an exclamation mark. Are the characters shouting? Has something unexpected happened? Has something gone wrong?

3. Try some real-world writing

Writing at home can be a great way of practising writing, including using grammar and punctuation to create particular effects. Here are some ideas to encourage regular writing:

• Create a story about a space adventurer with strange planetary systems to explore. Every week or month, your child could write about a new chapter about a different planet. Before long, the chapters will have built into a book they can be really proud of.
• Write an A-to-Z. It could be based on anything your child is interested in – animals, space, dinosaurs, fairies, even their favourite TV programme. A page for each letter of the alphabet gives you 26 short pieces of writing spread over the year that build into one big project.
• Produce a version of a book for a younger child. For example, they could write  The Rhino Who Came to Tea  or  The Very Hungry Angler Fish . Books with a distinctive format such as  The Day the Crayons Quit  or  The Last Polar Bears  are perfect for this.
• Write the book of a film or TV programme. If children have watched something they’ve really enjoyed, they could try and tell the same story in writing. Watching the story on screen can give them a useful frame to hang their own writing on.
• While writing using a pen and pencil is useful practice, writing on the computer counts too. You might want to turn the spelling and grammar check off to help children to learn to confidently use their own knowledge. The grammar check can be wrong, too, so this can be confusing for children.

4. Tell stories aloud

Giving your child the opportunity to tell stories orally is a great way to get them used to structuring their ideas and using adventurous language. If they’re not sure where to start, see if they can retell a story that they already know well. Our Traditional tale titles activity sheet has some fun ideas for retelling old stories.

If your child finds it useful to plan out their story first, try our free Story mountain to make a great plot with a beginning, middle, and end. Your child might also enjoy reciting poetry – see if your child can memorise and perform ‘Who has seen the wind?’ with our Perform a poem activity sheet .

Activity: Story mountain

Activity: Perform a poem

Read the poem, talk about what it means, and perform it to an audience.

5. Find story inspiration

You can find fun story ideas anywhere! Why not raid your kitchen cupboards or hunt through the attic to find lost treasures? Anything from an old hat to a telescope will do the trick. What could the object be used for? Who might be looking for it? What secrets could it hold? Suggest different genres such as mystery or science fiction and discuss how the item might be used in this kind of story.

Real-world facts can also be a great source of inspiration. For example, did you know a jumping flea can accelerate faster than a space rocket taking off into orbit? What crazy story can your child make out of this fact? Newspapers and news websites can be great for finding these sorts of ideas.

For more storytelling ideas, download our free Story idea generator  or our Character profile activity sheet .

Activity: Story idea generator

Activity: Character profile

6. Draw your ideas first

If your child isn’t sure where to start with a story or even a piece of non-fiction, it can sometimes be helpful to sketch out their ideas first. For instance, can they draw a picture of a dastardly villain or a brave hero? How about a scary woodland or an enchanted castle?

Your child might also find it useful to draw maps or diagrams. What are all the different areas of their fantasy landscape called? How is the baddie’s base organised?

Some children might enjoy taking this idea a step further and drawing their own comics. This is great practice – it stretches your child’s creativity, gets them thinking about plot, character, and dialogue, and is a big confidence boost once they’ve finished and have an amazing story to look back on.

What your child will learn

In Year 6 (age 10–11), your child will be aiming to build upon the goals and expectations they were first set in Year 5. They will be expected to:

• Identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing
• Noting and developing initial ideas, drawing on reading and research where necessary.
• Selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, understanding how such choices can change and enhance meaning
• In narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action
• Using a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs
• Using further organisational and presentational devices to structure text and to guide the reader (for example, headings, bullet points , and underlining).
• Assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing
• Proposing changes to vocabulary, grammar and punctuation to enhance effects and clarify meaning
• Ensuring the consistent and correct use of tense throughout a piece of writing
• Ensuring correct subject and verb agreement when using singular and plural , distinguishing between the language of speech and writing and choosing the appropriate register.
• Proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors.

Handwriting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation are all important aspects of writing too. You can find out more about them on our dedicated pages:

Handwriting in Year 6 (age 10-11)

Find out more about handwriting in Year 6 at Primary School.

Find out more

Spelling in Year 6 (age 10-11)

Find out more about spelling in Year 6 at Primary School.

Grammar and punctuation in Year 6 (age 10-11)

Find out more about grammar and punctuation in Year 6 at Primary School.

• Age 5–6 (Year 1)
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• Age 10–11 (Year 6)
• Year 1 (age 5–6)
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Free Printable Creative Writing Worksheets for 6th Year

Creative Writing: Discover a world of imagination with our free printable Reading & Writing worksheets for Year 6 students. Enhance your students' skills and creativity with Quizizz's diverse resources.

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Explore printable Creative Writing worksheets for 6th Year

Creative Writing worksheets for Year 6 are an excellent resource for teachers looking to engage their students in the world of reading and writing. These worksheets provide a variety of activities and exercises designed to help students develop their skills in fiction writing, as well as other forms of creative expression. By incorporating these worksheets into their lesson plans, teachers can provide a structured and supportive environment for students to explore their creativity and improve their writing abilities. With a focus on reading and writing, these Year 6 worksheets offer a comprehensive approach to developing students' literacy skills, ultimately preparing them for more advanced writing tasks in the future.

Quizizz is a fantastic platform that complements Creative Writing worksheets for Year 6, offering teachers a variety of interactive and engaging activities to further enhance their students' learning experience. This platform provides a wide range of quizzes and games that can be tailored to specific topics, such as reading and writing or fiction writing, allowing teachers to reinforce key concepts and assess their students' progress. In addition to its extensive quiz library, Quizizz also offers a variety of other resources, including flashcards and interactive presentations, making it an invaluable tool for teachers seeking to create a dynamic and immersive learning environment for their Year 6 students. By incorporating Quizizz into their lesson plans, teachers can ensure that their students are not only developing their creative writing skills but also having fun in the process.

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Sixth Grade Creative Writing Worksheets

• Who Am I? – Character Description
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Year 6 writing at greater depth (GDS): quick wins, guidance and helpful materials

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This is not an ideal time for a blog about end of KS2 statutory writing assessment.  It’s the week after SATs for one thing.  So, this blog is deliberately geared towards the immediate weeks ahead. It’s clear from so many conversations, across so many schools, that quick win advice might go down well right now.  For some, addressing gaps caused by pandemic disruptions remained a priority up until recently.  It’s hardly surprising that talk has been of expected drops in the numbers achieving GDS standard in writing. Still, there have been a number of requests for support in identifying writing opportunities that might be helpful in the final stretch of the assessment window. 

This blog aims to provide some guidance along those lines.  It does not reflect our wider views and approaches to developing reader-writers.  It’s a deliberately short term and strategic look at primary writing with a particular aim in mind. It’s also an attempt to take some of the weight from our year 6 colleagues’ shoulders in what has been another challenging year.  Under 'normal' circumstances, this time of year for the Year 6 teacher, especially the new-to-year-6 teacher, is seared into my own teaching memory.  It can feel lonelier than it should, no matter how many times you might be told “You’ve got this”, no matter how healthy an outlook we might have on the place and nature of statutory KS2 assessments.

So, without any apologies, I’ll crack on with some targeted advice and helpful links.

The blog has three sections:

• section 1 looks at examples of pupil’s writing from the STA and highlights a broader view of what might constitute GDS writing.  I think this might be most useful in relation to nudging possible borderline cases, and for some quick win writing opportunities in the run up to the close of the assessment window
• section 2 offers links to four evergreen, hugely helpful blogs from our Assessment Team (@HertsAssessment) colleagues, offering practical guidance related to writing moderation and the TAFs
• section 3 gathers links to my earlier blogs on the topic of GDS writing for those that have joined Twitter/become familiar with our blogs more recently.  These offer further writing opportunities

1. In search of a benchmark: widening writing exemplifications

1a. core exemplifications.

Just briefly, let’s remember Frankie in all this.   Frankie the ‘epitome’ of GDS .

Frankie stands as the one-and-only STA  exemplification of writing judged to be representative of GDS for writing.  My relationship with Frankie’s writing efforts rivals some of my friendships in terms of how often we get to interact. In recent weeks, we’ve become aware of newer teachers/year 6 returners that are not familiar with this bank of work. 

For those not familiar, it’s essential reading under the current system. If you haven’t before, read the work and the associated commentaries, focusing on the most useful, perhaps less florid parts.  This will give you a common reference point with year 6 teachers across the country.  You can find it here:

Gov.UK: Teacher assessment exemplification: English writing - working at greater depth within the expected standard, Frankie .

Keep in mind this statement from the opening of the exemplification files:

"Exemplification materials illustrate only how 'pupil can' statements in the frameworks might be met. They do not dictate a particular method of teaching, or the evidence expected from the classroom, which will vary from school to school. "

The word 'might' is important here – Frankie is one manifestation of the standard, not a definitive model. This is good news. Otherwise, we’d all best enrol our children in ballet classes at the earliest opportunity.

Reading each piece and considering the most useful parts of the commentaries can help us to keep in mind aspects of writing that we might want to draw attention to when working with the most assured writers.  Exemplification banks, without the commentaries, can also offer some useful opportunities for focused reading for our children to see the work of others and consider what they like/dislike and how they would have gone about a similar task. This can add further layers to awareness of the limitless networks of choices that writers have at their disposal.

I used the plural ‘exemplification banks’ deliberately.  Turning to one of the EXS exemplifications might help Frankie seem a little less lonely.

Meet Leigh , handily remembered as Near-Leigh GDS Leigh. My former colleague Clare Hodgson, our then moderation lead,  wrote about Leigh’s work and how it might offer more helpful hints in an earlier blog for the assessment team.  

Take a read of this helpful snippet in which Clare flags some learning relating to bullet 3 of the GDS statements.  I’d thoroughly recommend reading  the whole of this immensely popular blog .

Obviously, writing such as  'Frankies'  clearly meets this statement - but how 'assured and conscious' do our Y6 writers need to be? Here it is worth turning to the  'Leigh'  exemplification file as a benchmark as Leigh only narrowly misses the greater depth standard. There is one piece - piece B - where Leigh is able to meet the 'assured and conscious control' statement. The annotations on the remaining pieces show where Leigh has been less consistent and hence why the award remains at expected standard. 

Reflect too, as you read the collection, on the purpose and audience for each piece in the collection. Are there enough opportunities for Leigh to write formally? Could more opportunities for formal writing have helped? Does the recount provide any evidence for Greater depth? (No!) Additionally, has Leigh been given adequate time to re-draft some sections of his/her work to consider precision of language, or tidy up punctuation? The implications are that greater depth writers may need longer to craft their writing, as well as more exposure to a range of reading material and a range of tasks that have clearly defined purpose and audience. 

Leigh’s writing is offered as one of two banks that exemplify writing demonstrating sufficient evidence of the requirements for a judgement of EXS, but was evaluated as stronger than their fellow EXS-achiever Morgan. Towards the end of each bank there is a tick-grid showing which pieces meet which bullet point in each standard.  Here’s Leigh’s tally sheet for the EXS statements.  If it was a game of bingo, you’d be getting excited:

It's almost a clean sweep.  Bullet two and three relate to narrative features and are demonstrated sufficiently well in two pieces to secure an overall nod of approval for those two statements, as shown by the tick in the final column. Piece A did not offer evidence of the EXS spelling list statement, but given that every other piece does, it’s no wonder that that statement is also judged to be fully met.

Nice work Leigh. So let’s give the GDS bullets a quick once-over.

Back to our imagined game of bingo. It’s far from a full house but Leigh does manage to get a complete line of ticks for Piece B (third column)  and a close-to-complete line for piece E (sixth column).

It’s by looking at these pieces that we can begin to broaden our view of the nature of writing that might support a judgement of GDS. Frankie is a very particular, ballet-obsessed writer who may well skew judgements towards a very secure bank of evidence demonstrating the standard.  Leigh is a very particular, different kind of writer, offering pieces that might draw closer parallels with the writing produced by your children. In piece B, we have something that we might fairly characterise as 'very recognisably primary school writing'.  It’s writing that with the right inputs, we might see from confident Year 4 writers. Here its labelled as procedural; for our purposes I am going to call it Very Fancy Instructions.  Take a look, read the piece, read the commentaries, and consider how you might apply some of those pointers to writing from your own curriculum. It’s a style of writing that is likely very familiar to your young writers.  Might Piece B offer some inspiration for some instructional writing based on rich, well-known content? 

Piece E, a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk in something like the Star Wars universe, meets all but bullet 3 (as discussed by Clare above). Once again the commentaries are instructive and acknowledge some strengths in the manipulation of grammar, and some indications of why it doesn’t quite hit the spot.  Might this be useful in revisiting earlier narrative writing with a view to some targeted editing with that bullet point in mind? Further developing the literary language used in a piece, moving beyond structures more typical of day-to-day speech will likely pay dividends.  Giving children the chance to revisit earlier writing with a more mature eye can make all the difference and is a perfectly legitimate writing activity.  Writers revisit old work; writers put down a project and pick it up later, with fresh, or older, wiser eyes. Your writers shouldn’t be any different – and that really can be a very quick win. It’s also immensely gratifying for children to appreciate for themselves their own progress and growth as writers in their time with you. Revising earlier pieces will provide an opportunity for this, as well as a further lesson that writing is something to be crafted over time, not just within the context of a single lesson or unit.

1b. Lessons from moderation materials

Besides Leigh’s writing, there are further samples to draw from in the collections used in Lead moderator/moderator standardisation exercises.  These can be found in various locations, but our friends at Babcock offer up a beautifully well-organised webpage gathering them all together for very easy access. Thank you Babcock – this has been so useful in terms of its clear layout.

Please do me a quick favour, to help with orientation, if this is new to you:

• follow this link - Devon County Council:  KS2 Pupil Writing Collections   (previously Babcock)
• scroll down slowly enough to count the number of collections judged at GDS

I make it nine. Nine is better than one.  Include Leigh here and we have nine-and-a-bit.  Frankie is no longer the singular star in a GDS solar system.  We’ve got a galaxy of pointers, all with commentaries and some really nice pieces to broaden the horizons of all three standards.

Let me direct you to  2019 KS2 standardisation exercise 2  and take a look at Pupil C’s work, judged as meeting GDS.  This one gave a number of moderators pause for thought.  It has many nice touches, but it has its shaky moments.  Here’s a top tip: if you are ever unsure whether a bank represents achievement at EXS or GDS, read it out loud.  It really helps.  Try reading some of Pupil C out loud.  You’ll pick up on some less confident stretches, minor lapses, and moments where they seem to become somewhat locked into a groove, unsure of where to go next.

This writing is officially judged to have indicated a higher achievement than Leigh’s but I also think it offers a less intimidating vision of what GDS might look like. Some evidence banks scream GDS almost instantly. They are just plainly, obviously GDS through and through.  That's arguably less useful in terms of mapping out the standard, and certainly not so useful in helping us make a call on borderline cases. 

From this bank, and again like Leigh, take a look at the pieces that stand out as fairly common primary writing tasks, for example  Piece B, the science investigation .  Familiarity is helpful.  What do they do there that makes that piece contribute to the overall judgement? Might your children  do better?  For instance, I think the investigation loses sight of its purpose once it gets to the second page, and there are real lapses in clarity.  A sharper, scaled down version of the evaluations would have helped me maintain a better understanding of the learning from this investigation. Might this present an opportunity to revisit some similar work from across the year?

Then there’s Piece C, an information text on a ‘newly discovered, genetically engineered hybrid animal’ drawing upon research of two distinct species:

For our purposes here, let’s just note some especially helpful aspects of this piece:

• it legitimately offers scope to make use of more formal language structures (bullet 3) and as such achieves a suitably authoritative and expert register (bullet 2)
• each section is very short – generally around the 50-60 word mark.  Writing in chunks or bursts on distinct aspects of the topic should generally be less demanding than a task that builds in additional challenges from text level conventions or requirements. I can picture my children taking a section in turn (perhaps on differently coloured paper to reinforce their distinctness - don't ask me why, it just seems to help keep things in their rightful place) and working in a very focused, deliberate way for each domain
• the range of conjunctive language is relatively limited but is used effectively to link ideas (and when, where, despite, because, before, also)
• perhaps most importantly, the familiarity and friendliness of the form – this type of text is a  a staple in non-fiction reading across the primary phase, and will have likely had a place in writing lessons in multiple year groups, across the phases
• finally, keep in mind the availability of books that provide a rich bank of language/language features as helpful incidental models of this kind of writing, for example Norman Messenger’s  The Land of Neverbelieve  as well as online entries describing the features of real animals just waiting to try a new kind of coupling

In terms of quick wins, you might want to think about those tasks that are most obviously aligned to generic primary writing: Leigh’s procedural/instructions writing based on a taught topic; the science write up; the information text; the narrative sequences/episodes (as opposed to full short stories).  They may well prove useful as targeted reading, close to the act of writing.  Discuss with children what they like and what sort of friendly critique they might offer the authors. Try and divorce these pieces from  their statutory assessment context and any sense of 'teaching to the test' and instead foster a notion that we are simply looking at, and evaluating, some work from peers in a wider community of writers.  Take note of features that they find especially effective and begin to consider how this might influence their own writing, whether in fresh composition or in revisiting and revising older work. 

2. Guidance related to writing moderation/TAFs

This section provides a series of links to blogs from our colleagues in the Assessment Team ( @HertsAssessment ). Each provides helpful and accessible insights from previous rounds of moderation based on the current TAF.

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

Clare Hodgson, my former co-presenter of our Y6 GDS writing course, wrote this extremely helpful blog drawing upon her experiences as a lead moderator, and those of the moderation team she worked with. This blog was written in October of that year, so keep in mind that much of the advice is geared towards the rest of that academic year.  That said, it contains an extremely helpful checklist for downloading that should prove helpful at this late stage of the year.  Clare offers five, easily-digested ‘lessons’, that will also serve as a very helpful primer for next year – especially for those new to year 6, or new to the Year 6 writing framework.

Declaration of Independence

As the title suggests, this blog looks at the notion of independence and independent writing. If any questions remain in relation to this aspect of the statutory requirements, here’s a good place to head.

With sincere thanks to our colleagues on the Assessment Team.

3. Earlier blogs on GDS

I’d just like to bring this blog to a close by flagging some further pieces that I put together  between 2017 and 2021.  Between them they offer a range of guidance and suggestions designed to support the achievement of GDS but situated within the context of whole class teaching.  Please note that the earliest blogs reflect the Interim Teacher Assessment Frameworks (2016 and 2017). Expectations have changed – and if you didn’t teach under those, well, that’s something to be thankful for. Three of those blogs, the In Search of…series, explicitly address the challenges around expectations for formal and informal writing. Please note, the infamous requirement to shift between levels of formality, like some kind of language-based Hokey Cokey, no longer applies. And that is a very good thing indeed.  Nonetheless, the wider points about voice, register and levels of formality should still be useful.  Each link has a summary so that you can target your reading according to your needs.

The long and the short of GDS in Year 6 writing

An introduction to the current framework, with a brief exploration of each of the four bullets.

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

This blog built on the one directly above it.  It looks at the role that reading might play in developing writing and offers some suggestions around particular approaches to instruction that might prove especially helpful when time is running short.  As such, it offers further quick win suggestions, in addition to those given in Section 1.

Martin Galway

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Year 6 Writing Units

I have a large collection of fully planned and resourced writing units. Nearly all of these units are based around the core concept of a high-quality text that teaches.

As with any of my resources, feel free to use ‘as is’ or adapt, amend, share – whatever makes you happy!

2024 – Narrative – based on ‘The Ice Bear’ by Jackie Morris

2024 – Biography – inspired by ‘Women in Science’

2023 – Narrative – based on Wolves of Currumpaw

2023 – Poetry – inspired by ‘The Lost Words’

2023 – A story involving a ghost – inspired by ‘A Christmas Carol’

2023 – Video clips for ‘A Christmas Carol’ unit – separate download.

Persuasive Letter – based on Holes

Old Versions of Planning – Might need refreshing / updating:

A diary entry – inspired by ‘My Secret Wat Dairy’ (2023 version)

Narrative – based on Holes

Persuasive Letter – based on Holes (much older version than above)

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• Creative Writing Prompts Activities And Resources For Ks1 And Ks2 English

Creative writing prompts – Best activities and resources for KS1 and KS2 English

Fed up of reading 'and then…', 'and then…' in your children's writing? Try these story starters, structures, worksheets and other fun writing prompt resources for primary pupils…

What is creative writing?

How to develop opportunities for writing with choice and freedom, jump to section:.

• Writing with choice and freedom

Creative writing resources for the classroom

Creative writing prompts.

• Improving creative writing
• Overcoming the fear of creative writing

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, ‘creative’ is ‘producing or using original and unusual ideas’, yet I would argue that in writing there’s no such thing as an original idea – all stories are reincarnations of ones that have gone before.

As writers we learn to be expert magpies – selecting the shiny words, phrases and ideas from other stories and taking them for our own.  

Interestingly, the primary national curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all and is focused on the skill of writing.

Therefore, if writing creatively and for pleasure is important in your school, it must be woven into your vision for English.

“Interestingly, the Primary National Curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all”

Creative writing in primary schools can be broken into two parts:

• writing with choice and freedom
• developing story writing

Writing with choice and freedom allows children to write about what interests and inspires them.  

Developing story writing provides children with the skills they need to write creatively. In primary schools this is often taught in a very structured way and, particularly in the formative years, can lack opportunities for children to be creative.

Children are often told to retell a story in their own words or tweak a detail such as the setting or the main character.  

Below you’ll find plenty of creative writing prompts, suggestions and resources to help develop both writing for choice and freedom and developing story writing in your classroom. 

Here’s an interesting question to consider: if the curriculum disappeared but children still had the skills to write, would they?

I believe so – they’d still have ideas they wanted to convey and stories they wanted to share.

One of my children enjoys writing and the other is more reluctant to mark make when asked to, but both choose to write. They write notes for friends, song lyrics, stories and even business plans.

So how can we develop opportunities to write with choice and freedom in our classrooms?

Early Years classrooms are full of opportunities for children to write about what interests them, but it’s a rarer sight in KS1 and 2.  

Ask children what they want to write about

Reading for pleasure has quite rightly been prioritised in schools and the impact is clear. Many of the wonderful ideas from The Open University’s Reading For Pleasure site can be used and adapted for writing too.

For example, ask children to create a ‘writing river’ where they record the writing they choose to do across a week.

If pupils like writing about a specific thing, consider creating a short burst writing activity linked to this. The below Harry Potter creative writing activity , where children create a new character and write a paragraph about them, is an example of this approach.

If you have a spare 20 minutes, listen to the below conversation with Lucy and Jonathan from HeadteacherChat and Alex from LinkyThinks . They discuss the importance of knowing about children’s interests but also about being a writer yourself.

'The confidence Crisis in Creative Writing.' Lucy and Jonathan chat with Alex from @LinkyThinks https://t.co/VClYxiQhcf — HeadteacherChat (@Headteacherchat) August 9, 2022

Plan in time to pursue personal writing projects 

There are lots of fantastic ideas for developing writing for pleasure in your classrooms on The Writing For Pleasure Centre’s website .

One suggestion is assigning time to pursue personal writing projects. The Meadows Primary School in Madeley Heath, Staffordshire, does this termly and provides scaffolds for children who may find the choice daunting.

Give children a choice about writing implements and paper 

Sometimes the fun is in the novelty. Are there opportunities within your week to give pupils some choices about the materials they use? Ideas could include:

• little notebooks
• a roll of paper
• felt tip pens
• gel pens  

Write for real audiences 

This is a great way to develop children’s motivation to write and is easy to do.

It could be a blog, a class newsletter or pen pals. Look around in your community for opportunities to write – the local supermarket, a nearby nursing home or the library are often all good starting points.

Have a go yourself

The most successful teachers of story writing write fiction themselves.

Many adults do not write creatively and trying to teach something you have not done yourself in a long time can be difficult. By having a go you can identify the areas of difficulty alongside the thought processes required.  

Treat every child as an author

Time is always a premium in the classroom but equally, we’re all fully aware of the impact of verbal feedback.

One-to-one writing conferences have gained in popularity in primary classrooms and it’s well-worth giving these a go if you haven’t already.

Set aside time to speak to each child about the writing they’re currently constructing. Discuss what’s going well and what they could develop.

If possible, timetable these one-to-one discussions with the whole class throughout the year (ideally more often, if possible).  

Free KS2 virtual visit and resources

Bring best-selling children’s authors directly into your classroom with Author In Your Classroom. It’s a brilliant free podcast series made especially for schools, and there’s loads of free resources to download too.

More than 20 authors have recorded episodes so far, including:

• Sir Michael Morpurgo
• Dame Jacqueline Wilson
• Michael Rosen
• Joseph Coelho
• Lauren Child
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce
• Benjamin Zephaniah
• Cressida Cowell
• Robin Stevens

Creative writing exercises

Use these inspiring writing templates from Rachel Clarke to inspire pupils who find it difficult to get their thoughts down on the page. The structured creative writing prompts and activities, which range from writing a ‘ through the portal story ‘ to a character creation activity that involves making your own Top Trumps style cards, will help inexperienced writers to get started.

Storyboard templates and story structures

Whether it’s short stories, comic strips or filmmaking, every tale needs the right structure to be told well. This storyboard template resource will help your children develop the skills required to add that foundation to their creative writing.

Ten-minute activities 

The idea of fitting another thing into the school day can feel overwhelming, so start with small creative writing activities once a fortnight. Below are a few ideas that have endless possibilities.

Character capers

You need a 1-6 dice for this activity. Roll it three to find out who your character is, what their personality is and what job they do, then think about the following:

• Can you draw them?
• What questions would you ask them if you met them?
• What might their answers be?
• If they were the main character in a story, what might happen?

Download our character capers worksheet .

Setting soup

In this activity pupils Look at the four photos and fill in a mind map for one of the settings, focusing on what they’d see, hear, feel, smell and feel in that location. They then write an ingredients list for their setting, such as:

• A dollop of calmness 
• A drizzle of a beautiful sunset 
• A generous helping of a still ocean 
• Copious amounts of smooth sand 
• A spattering of lush, green palm trees 

Download our setting soup worksheet .

Use consequences to generate story ideas

Start with a game of drawing consequences – this is a great way of building a new character.

Next, play a similar game but write a story. Here’s an example . Download our free writing consequences template to get started.

Roll and write a story

For this quick activity, children roll a dice three times to choose a setting and two characters – for example, a theme park, an explorer and a mythical creature. They then use the results to create an outline for a story.

Got more than ten minutes? Use the outline to write a complete story. Alternatively, use the results to create a book cover and blurb or, with a younger group of children, do the activity as a class then draw or write about the outcome.

Download our roll and write a story worksheet .

Scavenger hunt

Give children something to hide and tell them they have to write five clues in pairs, taking another pair from one clue to the next until the 5th clue leads them to the hidden item.

For a challenge, the clues could be riddles.  

Set up pen pals. This might be with children in another country or school, or it could simply be with another class.

What do pupils want to say or share? It might be a letter, but it could be a comic strip, poem or pop-up book.  

You need a log-in to access Authorfy’s content but it’s free. The website is crammed with every children’s author imaginable, talking about their books and inspirations and setting writing challenges. It’s a great tool to inspire and enthuse.  

There are lots of great resources and videos on Oxford Owl which are free to access and will provide children with quick bursts of creativity.  

Creative writing ideas for KS2

This free Pie Corbett Ultimate KS2 fiction collection is packed with original short stories from the man himself, and a selection of teaching resources he’s created to accompany each one.

Each creative writing activity will help every young writer get their creative juices flowing and overcome writer’s block.

WAGOLL text types

​Support pupils when writing across a whole range of text types and genres with these engaging writing packs from Plazoom , differentiated for KS1, LKS2 and UKS2.

They feature:

• model texts (demonstrating WAGOLL for learners)
• planning guides
• writing templates
• themed paper

Each one focuses on a particular kind of text, encouraging children to make appropriate vocabulary, register and layout choices, and produce the very best writing of which they are capable, which can be used for evidence of progress.

If you teach KS2, start off by exploring fairy tales with a twist , or choose from 50+ other options .

Scaffolds and plot types

A great way to support children with planning stories with structures, this creative writing scaffolds and plot types resource pack contains five story summaries, each covering a different plot type, which they can use as a story idea.

It has often been suggested that there are only seven basic plots a story can use, and here you’ll find text summaries for five of these:

• Overcoming the monster
• Rags to riches
• Voyage and return

After familiarising themselves with these texts, children can adapt and change these stories to create tales of their own.

Use story starters

If some children still need a bit of a push in the right direction, check out our 6 superb story starters to develop creative writing skills . This list features a range of free story starter resources, including animations (like the one above) and even the odd iguana…

Use word mats to inspire

Help pupils to write independently by providing them with helpful vocabulary sheets that they can pick and choose from when doing their own creative writing.

Download our free creative writing word mats here , including:

• Create a spooky atmosphere
• Write an adventure story
• Describe a character’s appearance
• Describe a character’s personality
• Describe how a character moves
• Describe how a character speaks
• Describe a mythical beast

Creative writing pictures

Using images as writing prompts is nothing new, but it’s fun and effective.

Pobble 365 has an inspiring photo for every day of the year. These are great inspiration for ten-minute free writing activities. You need to log in to Pobble but access to Pobble 365 (the pictures) is free.  

Choose two pictures as prompts (you can access every picture for the year in the calendar) or provide children with a range of starter prompts.

For example, with the photo above you might ask children to complete one of the following activities: 

• Continue the story using the story starters on Pobble. 
• Write down what your dream day would include. 
• Create a superhero called Dolphin Dude.  
• If you didn’t need to breath when swimming underwater, what would you do? Write about your dream day. It might include rivers, lakes, swimming pools, the seas or oceans.  
• If you had a super power, what would it be and why?  

The Literacy Shed

Website The Literacy Shed has a page dedicated to interesting pictures for creative writing . There are winter scenes, abandoned places, landscapes, woodlands, pathways, statues and even flying houses.

The Literacy Shed also hosts video clips for inspiring writing and is choc-full of ways to use them. The Night Zookeeper Shed is well worth a visit. There are short videos, activities and resources to inspire creative writing.

Once Upon a Picture

Once Upon a Picture is another site packed with creative writing picture prompts , but its focus is more on illustrations than photography, so its offering is great for letting little imaginations soar.

Each one comes with questions for kids to consider, or activities to carry out.

How to improve creative writing

Developing story writing .

If you decided to climb a mountain, in order to be successful you’d need to be well-equipped and you’d need to have practised with smaller climbs first.

The same is true of creative writing: to be successful you need to be well-equipped with the skills of writing and have had plenty of opportunities to practise.  

As a teachers you need to plan with this in mind – develop a writing journey which allows children to learn the art of story writing by studying stories of a similar style, focusing on how effects are created and scaffolding children’s writing activities so they achieve success.  

• Choose a focus When planning, consider what skill you want to embed for children and have that as your focus throughout the sequence of learning. For example, if you teach Y4 you might decide to focus on integrating speech into stories. When your class looks at a similar story, draw their attention to how the author uses speech and discuss how it advances the action and shows you more about the characters. During the sequence, your class can practise the technical side of writing speech (new line/new speaker, end punctuation, etc). When they come to write their own story, your success criteria will be focused on using speech effectively. By doing this, the skill of using speech is embedded. If you chose to focus on ALL the elements of story writing that a Y4 child should be using (fronted adverbials, conjunctions, expanded noun phrases, etc), this might lead to cognitive overload.
• Plan in chances to be creative Often teachers plan three writing opportunities: one where children retell the story, one with a slight difference (eg a different main character) and a final one where children invent their own story. However, in my experience, the third piece of writing often never happens because children have lost interest or time has run out. If we equip children with the skills, we must allow them time to use them.
• Utilise paired writing Children love to collaborate and by working in pairs it actually helps develop independence. Give it a go!  
• Find opportunities for real audiences Nothing is more motivating than knowing you will get to share your story with another class, a parent or the local nursing home.
• Use high-quality stimuli If your focus is speech, find a great novel for kids that uses speech effectively. There are so many excellent children’s stories available that there’s no need to write your own.
• Use magpie books This is somewhere where children can note down any great words or phrases they find from their reading. It will get them reading as a writer. 

Below is a rough outline of a planning format that leads to successful writing opportunities.

This sequence of learning takes around three weeks but may be longer or shorter, depending on the writing type.  

Before planning out the learning, decide on up to three key focuses for the sequence. Think about the potential learning opportunities that the stimuli supports (eg don’t focus on direct speech if you’re writing non-chronological reports ).  

Ways to overcome fear of creative writing

Many children are inhibited in their writing for a variety of reasons. These include the all-too-familiar ‘fear of the blank page’ (“I can’t think of anything to write about!” is a common lament), trying to get all the technical aspects right as they compose their work (a sense of being ‘overwhelmed’), and the fact that much of children’s success in school is underpinned by an ethos of competitiveness and comparison, which can lead to a fear of failure and a lack of desire to try.

Any steps we can take to diminish these anxieties means that children will feel increasingly motivated to write, and so enjoy their writing more. This in turn will lead to the development of skills in all areas of writing, with the broader benefits this brings more generally in children’s education.

Here are some easily applied and simple ideas from author and school workshop provider Steve Bowkett for boosting self-confidence in writing.

• Keep it creative Make creative writing a regular activity. High priority is given to spelling, punctuation and grammar, but these need a context to be properly understood. Teaching the technicalities of language without giving children meaningful opportunities to apply them is like telling people the names of a car engine’s parts without helping them learn to drive.
• Model the behaviour In other words, when you want your class to write a story or poem, have a go yourself and be upfront about the difficulties you encounter in trying to translate your thoughts into words.
• Go easy on the grammar Encourage children to write without them necessarily trying to remember and apply a raft of grammatical rules. An old saying has it that we should ‘learn the rules well and then forget them’. Learning how to use punctuation, for instance, is necessary and valuable, but when children try and apply the rules consciously and laboriously as they go along, the creative flow can be stifled. Consideration of rules should, however, be an important element of the editing process.
• Keep assessment focused Where you do require children to focus on rules during composition, pick just one or two they can bear in mind as they write. Explain that you will mark for these without necessarily correcting other areas of GaPS. Not only will this save you time, but also children will be spared the demotivating sight of their writing covered in corrections (which many are unlikely to read).
• Value effort If a child tries hard but produces work that is technically poor, celebrate his achievement in making an effort and apply the old ‘three stars and a wish’ technique to the work by finding three points you can praise followed by noting one area where improvements can be made.
• Leave room for improvement Make clear that it’s fine for children to change their minds, and that there is no expectation for them to ‘get it all right’ first time. Show the class before and after drafts from the work of well-known poets and extracts from stories. Where these have been hand written, they are often untidy and peppered with crossings out and other annotations as the writers tried to clarify their thoughts. If you have the facilities, invite children to word process their stories using the ‘track changes’ facility. Encourage children to show their workings out, as you would do in maths.
• Don’t strive for perfection Slay the ‘practice makes perfect’ dragon. It’s a glib phrase and also an inaccurate one. Telling children that practice makes better is a sound piece of advice. But how could we ever say that a story or poem is perfect? Even highly experienced authors strive to improve.
• Come back later Leave some time – a couple of days will do – between children writing a piece and editing or redrafting it. This is often known as the ‘cooling off’ period. Many children will find that they come back to their work with fresh eyes that enable them to pick out more errors, and with new ideas for improving the piece structurally.
• Try diamond 9 Use the diamond ranking tool to help children assess their own work. Give each child some scraps of paper or card and have them write on each an aspect of their writing, such as creating strong characters, controlling pace and tension, describing places and things, using ‘punchy’ verbs etc. Supply these elements as necessary, but allow children some leeway to think of examples of their own. Now ask each child to physically arrange these scraps according to how effectively they were used in the latest piece of work. So two writing elements that a child thinks are equally strong will be placed side by side, while an aspect of the work a child is pleased with will be placed above one that he / she is not so happy with.
• Keep it varied Vary the writing tasks. By this I mean it’s not necessary to ask children always to write a complete story. Get them to create just an opening scene for example, or a vivid character description, or an exciting story climax. If more-reluctant writers think they haven’t got to write much they might be more motivated to have a go. Varying the tasks also helps to keep the process of writing fresh, while the results can form resource banks (of characters, scenes, etc) for future use.
• Help each other Highlight the idea that everyone in the class, including yourself, forms a community of writers. Here, difficulties can be aired, advice can be shared and successes can be celebrated as we all strive to ‘dare to do it and do our best’.

Browse more ideas for National Writing Day .

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Year 6 Creative writing and fiction worksheets

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KS2 Creative Writing for Yr 4/5/6

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

Last updated

22 June 2020

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Powerpoint and worksheets for KS2 creative writing lessons. The tasks are designed to help students improve their creative writing. There is a task on developing characters, writing dialogue, describing emotions and describing setting.

There is a Powerpoint that links to the tasks and the final aim is to get students writing their own story about a hero going on a quest.

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