Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on Where The Poppies Now Grow by Hilary Robinson and Martin Impey, you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling.  This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in KS2.  

Where The Poppies Now Grow is a beautifully illustrated narrative poem about two boys growing up and fighting in The Great War. It is an accessible and poignantly told story that deals sensitively with the horror of war and the enduring nature of friendship. With echoes of some of the great war poems and reference to some of the poets who wrote them, it is the perfect book to accompany work about WWI and remembrance.

In this set of Starting Points we have offered extensive ideas to support reading and discussion of the text and have included suggestions for teaching the following grammar objectives:

• Correct choice and consistent use of present tense and past tense throughout writing

• Commas to separate items in a list

• Use of inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech

• Expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions, adverbs or prepositions

• Relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or an omitted relative pronoun.

• Use of commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity.

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

Assess Spoken Language is a suite of materials designed to support the assessment of children’s spoken language skills. The resource includes:

• detailed descriptors of the spoken language typical for each year group

• quick glance Assessment for Learning grids

• whole class grids for identifying trends and gaps.

It is complementary to the Primary English Progression in Spoken Language resource, and like that document takes the 12 spoken language objectives from the national curriculum and breaks them down into small steps.

This resource is based on the national curriculum and so covers Y1 - Y6.

Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on Memorial by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling.  This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in Year 6.  

In this set of Starting Points, we have planned for the following grammar learning:

• synonyms and antonyms

• formal and informal speech patterns

• commas for clarity and to avoid ambiguity

• direct speech and how it can be used to create character

• the use of dashes

• hyphens to avoid ambiguity

• ellipses

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on The Lion and The Unicorn by Shirley Hughes you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling.  This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in Upper KS2.  

In this set of Starting Points, we have planned for the following grammar learning:

• Use of commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity

• Linking ideas across and between paragraphs with adverbials

• Revise the use of direct speech and extend to develop character

• Use of single dashes to mark the boundary between independent clauses

• How hyphens can be used to avoid ambiguity

• Use of the passive (including the agentless passive) to affect the presentation of information in a sentence

The following resources are included in this pack:

• Commas Table

• Passive and agentless passive teacher slides

• Statutory words for Year 5 and Year 6

• Tell Me Grid

• Theme Tokens

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on Arthur and the Golden Rope by Joe Todd-Stanton. you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling. This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in Year 3 and Year 4.

In this set of Starting Points, you will find planning to support the following grammar objectives:

• Word families based on common nouns

• Expressing time, place and cause using adverbs and prepositions

• Use of the present perfect form of verbs

• The use of direct speech

• Noun phrases expanded by the addition of modifying adjectives, nouns and preposition phrases

• Fronted adverbials

• Appropriate choice of noun and pronoun

• Use of commas after fronted adverbials.

In this pack you will find the following resources:

• Expanded Noun Phrase teaching slides

• Expanded Noun Phase activity

• Prepositions pack

• Word builder activity

• Quest story checklist

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

A comprehensive pack of resources to support the teaching of Funnybones. Included in this pack are:

• A detailed lesson plan and unit overview

• A guided reading lesson plan in an editable word document format

• A set of prepositional sentences taken from the story

• A set of preposition cards for independent use by children

• A photocopiable set of comprehension questions for independent or teacher/ TA supported work

• A wordsearch suitable for independent work

Resources not included in this pack: sufficient copies of Funnybones for your guided reading group.

We’ve pitched this planning at children in Year 1 and Year 2.

The Primary English Progression in Spoken Language document has been created to help teachers plan progressive and age-appropriate spoken language experiences for their classes. The document takes the twelve spoken language objectives from the National Curriculum and breaks them down into progressive steps covering Years 1 – 6. Each year group objective is supported by exemplified language examples and classroom practice that are likely to occur in each year group.

In addition to progression across each objective, each year group has its own at a glance page where teachers can see what spoken language looks like in their year group.

A comprehensive pack of resources to support the teaching of Meg and Mog. Included in this pack are:

·      A guided reading lesson plan in an editable word document format

·      A picture of a witch

·      3 sets of picture cards for use in the guided reading lesson

·      A picture of a cauldron

·      A spell template for use in independent work

·      A photocopiable set of comprehension questions

·      A wordsearch suitable for independent work

(The book is not included in this pack).

We’ve pitched this planning at children in Year 1.

Spring and Summer 2026 book recommendations for the full primary age-range

Take a look at the latest round-up of high-quality books suitable for children across the primary age-range, expertly curated by Joy Court. This edition focuses on Spring 2026 and includes recommended titles for the following categories:

• Early Years Foundation Stage

• Key Stage 1

• Lower Key Stage 2

• Upper Key Stage 2

Joy's choices are carefully selected to engage young readers and support their learning across various subjects and themes and to promote reading for pleasure.

You can download this resource FREE of charge to explore Joy's top picks for 2026. Additionally, you may find her previous recommendations essential for continuing your reading for pleasure journey.

A bundle of easy to use assessment grids for making medium-term assessments of children’s writing in years 1 - 6. The grids take the national curriculum objectives for writing and present them in a manageable and logical format. Displayed in a term by term format, teachers can record children’s attainment at different points of the year. The objectives are broken down into smaller steps to allow children to move from novice to expert levels of knowledge over the year. Example words and phrases are used to clarify the meaning of many of the objectives and key words such as some, begins, many, can, understands and effectively are used to indicate the level of understanding of the children.

Created by our expert team, and trialled in real classrooms, we think you’ll love the Primary English Writing Assessment Grids.

Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling. This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in Year 5 and Year 6.

In additional to extensive ideas to support reading, this set of Starting Points also includes suggestions to teach the following grammar objectives:

• Passive voice including the agentless passive

• Indicating degrees of possibility using modal verbs and adverbs of possibility

• Use of dashes to mark the boundary between independent clauses

• How hyphens can be used to avoid ambiguity

• Use of cohesive devices such as repetition of a word or phrase and the effective use of nouns and pronouns

• The use of adverbials to build cohesion within paragraphs

• The use of the perfect form of verbs

• Brackets used for parenthesis

• The use of expanded noun phrases to add detail

• The use of relative clauses to add further information

• The use of adverbials (including fronted adverbials)

The following resources are included in this pack:

• Adverbials sorting table

• Cut out theme tokens

• Passive and agentless passive teaching slides

• Role on the Wall sheet

• Y5 and Y6 Statutory words

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

The Primary English Progression in Grammar and Punctuation document has been created to give teachers a simple view of the teaching order of grammar and punctuation in KS1 and KS2 by taking the grammar and punctuation objectives from the National Curriculum and presenting them in an easy to view format.

This document includes progression in cohesion and is supported by our Cohesion Roadmap.

This teaching sequence focuses on the skills of fluency, vocabulary and retrieval whilst also drawing in other skills relevant to the reading aspect of the national curriculum. The teaching sequence covers approximately two and a half weeks of reading sessions with time to allocate additional tasks to children. Discussion points are suggested throughout and where possible answers have been provided to support the teaching. We have indicated key vocabulary that you may want to explore with children before reading, during reading or after the text has been read.

This teaching sequence pack includes:

· Detailed lesson outlines

· Weekly comprehension quick quizzes

· A set of SAT style comprehension questions

· A wordsearch of key words from the text

· Summarising the Story sheet

· Theme Tokens

· A book recommendation sheet

We’ve pitched this planning at children in Year 3.

This teaching sequence focuses on the range of reading skills outlined in the national curriculum for children in key stage 2 including inferring meaning from what is stated and implied, understanding the words chosen by an author and how they impact on the effectiveness of a text as well as plentiful opportunities to practise reading fluently. The teaching sequence covers each chapter of the book. Discussion points are suggested throughout and where possible answers have been provided to support the teaching. We have indicated key vocabulary that you may want to explore with children before reading, during reading or after the text has been read.

Contents

This teaching sequence includes:

• Detailed lesson outlines

• Character name cards

• Figurative language grid

• Chapter summary sheet

• Character Study photocopiable master

• My thoughts/Author’s thoughts photocopiable master

• Role on the Wall photocopiable master

• Book Review photocopiable master

• Definition cards (for Chapter 7 vocabulary work)

• Place names cards

• Fireworks cards (fictional fireworks from the story)

We recommend this pack for use with children across key stage 2.

(Not included in this pack: copies of The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman)

UPDATED AND IMPROVED

This teaching sequence focuses primarily on the key skills of inference, retrieval and vocabulary. The teaching sequence covers 20 taught sessions with the flexibility to add up to 5 additional sessions if required. Throughout the sequence, you will find extension and support activities, independent reading tasks and a range of creative activities based on the text. Where possible, example answers have been provided to support the teaching and learning.

Contents

• A detailed teaching sequence with questions, answers and prompts for daily lessons

• A photocopiable Role on the Wall resources

• A Zone of Relevance resource

• A set of Quick Quiz comprehension questions for each week of the sequence

Not included in this pack copies of Kensuke’s Kingdom ISBN: 978-1405221740

We’ve pitched this planning at children in Year 5 and Year 6.

About this resource

This teaching sequence focuses on inference. The teaching time needed to deliver each component of this teaching sequence is 15 - 20 minutes. It is intended that there are sufficient activities in this teaching sequence to engage your children in meaningful learning for one week of guided reading lessons.

This teaching sequence includes:

• A guided reading lesson plan in an editable word document format

• A role on the wall template

• A writing template for independent writing

• A photocopiable set of comprehension questions for independent or teacher/ TA supported work

• A wordsearch suitable for independent work

  ·

(Resources not included in this pack: sufficient copies of Storm for your guided reading group).

Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling.  This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in Year 1.

In this set of Starting Points, we have planned for the following grammar objectives:

• Regular plural noun suffixes –s or -es

• Sequencing sentences to form short narratives

• Separation of words with spaces

• Introduction to capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences

• Joining words and joining clauses using and

• Capital letters for names and the personal pronoun I.

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

This teaching sequence focuses primarily on the key skills of inference, retrieval and vocabulary. The teaching sequence covers 20 taught sessions with the flexibility to add up to 5 additional sessions if required. Throughout the sequence, you will find extension and support activities, independent reading tasks and a range of creative activities based on the text. Where possible, example answers have been provided to support the teaching and learning.

Contents

• A detailed teaching sequence with questions, answers and prompts for daily lessons

• Weekly comprehension quick quizzes with answers

• A photocopiable Role on the Wall sheet

We’ve pitched this planning at children in Year 5 and Year 6.

Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling.  This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in Year 2.  

In this set of Starting Points we have included ideas to support the following grammar learning:

• Use of the suffix –ed to write consistently in the past tense

• Expanded noun phrases for description and specification

• Co-ordination (using or, and, but)

• Use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences

• Apostrophes to mark where letters are missing in spelling

You will find the following resources in this pack:

• Apostrophe cards

• Emotion graph

• Expanded noun phrase cards

• Senses board

• Verbs worksheet

• Starting Points planning ideas

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

Starting Points are written to help you plan book-based units of work. In this set based on The Rhythm of the Rain by Grahame Baker-Smith you’ll find ideas to support spoken language, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling. This Starting Points resource will give you everything you need to plan a beautiful book-based unit of work for children in Year 3 and Year 4.

In this set of Starting Points you will find ideas to support the following grammar objectives:

• Revision of present and past tense (present tense)

• Perfect form of verbs

• Prepositions and adverbials used to indicate where, when and how

• Noun phrases for description and specification

• Cohesion created through the use of nouns and pronouns

Also included are:

• Vocabulary cards

• Prepositions and prepositional phrases cards

• Homophones cards

• A diamante poem example

Starting Points are sets of book-based planning ideas. The books are not included in the packs.

This teaching sequence focuses on the skills of predicting and reading with fluency whilst also drawing in other skills relevant to the reading aspect of the national curriculum. The teaching sequence covers approximately three and a half weeks of reading sessions with time to allocate additional tasks to children. Discussion points are suggested throughout and where possible answers have been provided to support the teaching. We have indicated key vocabulary that you may want to explore with children before reading, during reading or after the text has been read.

This teaching sequence pack includes:

· Detailed lesson outlines

· Weekly comprehension Quick Quizzes

· My Thoughts/Author’s Thoughts photocopiable master

· Book Review photocopiable master

· Tell Me graphic organiser

· The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me vocabulary wordsearch

This is a truly creative set of planning that will delight you and your children.

We’ve pitched this planning at children in Year 3 and Year 4.