A 3-week, fully resourced primary literacy unit based on The Thames and Tide Club by Katya Balen. KS2 Fiction. National-Curriculum-aligned grammar, WT/ARE/GD differentiation, and ready to teach.

What’s inside

This complete English unit gives you everything for three weeks of high-quality teaching, designed to match the standard of the National Curriculum for English at KS1 and KS2.

• 15 lesson PowerPoints — illustrated cover slides, success criteria, vocabulary previews, modelled writing, “big questions” (Bloom’s-laddered), differentiation tiers, plenary, and reflection.
• 15 differentiated resource sheets — Working Towards, Age-Related Expectations, and Greater Depth, with sentence frames, word banks, and writing frames.
• Complete teacher unit plan — unit overview, key themes, model texts, full session-by-session plans, key questions, assessment focus, and vocabulary focus.
• Child-friendly mark scheme — “I can…” success criteria for the final writing piece, ready for self- and peer-assessment.
• 3 weekly exit tickets — 5 multiple-choice questions per week, with teacher answer keys.

Final writing outcome

A polished extended narrative piece set in or inspired by the Thames, exploring how characters show courage and caution.

Grammar features (Year 3 NC-aligned)

• Adverbials of manner (carefully, quietly, bravely, nervously).
• Inverted commas for direct speech.

Themes explored

Confidence and caution, friendship and courage, trust and risk-taking, nature as both beautiful and mysterious.

Key vocabulary

Cautious, confident, infer, narrate, riverside, mysterious, hesitate, beacon.

Format & compatibility

• Editable PowerPoint (.pptx) and Word (.docx) files.
• UK English spelling.
• One printer-friendly A4 page per resource sheet.
• Aligned with the National Curriculum for English (KS1/KS2).

Year groups & key stage

• Year 3 (KS2).
• 15 sessions over 3 weeks (≈45–60 minutes per lesson).

Tags

KS2, Year 3, English, fiction, Katya Balen, reading and writing, complete unit, differentiated, NC-aligned, lesson plans, resources, the thames and tide club