This complete Autobiography KS2 scheme of work provides everything you need to guide your Year 6 class through the process of writing their own autobiographies — a meaningful and memorable project for their final year of primary school. Across five fully-planned lessons, children will reflect on their lives so far, exploring key memories, experiences and achievements.

The scheme begins with the Features of an Autobiography KS2 lesson, where pupils will read and analyse a variety of autobiography example texts to identify common features and techniques used in autobiographical writing. Subsequent lessons focus on structuring their autobiography effectively, understanding the difference between formal and informal writing, and learning how to make language choices suited to their audience. To finish, children will be encouraged to present their completed autobiographies as a keepsake of their time at primary school — either as a beautifully crafted booklet or by publishing them online.

This ready-to-teach pack includes detailed lesson plans, engaging slideshow presentations, and a variety of printable resources — everything you need to deliver a high-quality autobiography KS2 writing unit.

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Features of an Autobiography

This Features of an Autobiography KS2 lesson will begin the topic by allowing the children to read and discuss different examples of the genre. The children will discuss the differences between a biography and autobiography and how this affects the writing.

Children will either attempt the style of writing as they write an autobiography as a fictional character or read through different examples of autobiographies in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of the genre.

The resources in this lesson include a homework sheet which children can use to research information about themselves at home in preparation for writing their autobiographies.

View Lesson 1

Researching and Planning

This lesson allows the children time to reflect on their experiences in their lives and to make notes on these events to use in their autobiographies. A homework sheet is provided to allow children to research relevant information about themselves in preparation for this lesson.

The included lesson slides lead discussion on what sorts of things should be included in an autobiography and provides examples of different ways this information can be included in their writing.

The provided printable resources give children some support in organising their ideas into sections, ready for writing their first draft.

View Lesson 2

Formal Writing

The lesson slides included in this lesson help to lead discussion about how formality in writing can change based on the content of the writing and the audience.

Children will think carefully about what grammatical changes as well as vocabulary make writing more formal. They will then attempt to spot how writing can shift between more formal and informal tones in the context of an autobiographical piece of writing.

View Lesson 3

Writing an Autobiography

This lesson allows the children time to complete the first draft of their autobiography. The included lesson slides provide modelled examples as well as the model text provided in the printable resources for this lesson.

The children will spend time writing their autobiographies in line with the checklists and model texts they can use to inspire their own writing.

View Lesson 4

Editing and Presenting

This lesson requires children to revisit their writing in order to proofread and improve sections identified in the plenary of the previous lesson. The included printable resources provide you and the children with prompts and ideas on how they could improve their writing. Along with the lesson slides, these can be used to model how to improve their writing.

As well as editing, this lesson plan also provides you with different ideas on how the children could present their writing, turning their ideas into a scrapbook keepsake of their time in primary school or publishing their writing in an online book.

View Lesson 5