Great Expectations | Year 6 English Unit | 15 Complete Lessons + Resources + Mark Scheme

A 3-week, fully resourced primary literacy unit based on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (adapted). KS2 Fiction. National-Curriculum-aligned grammar, WT/ARE/GD differentiation, and ready to teach.

What’s inside (35 files)

This complete English unit gives you everything for three weeks of high-quality teaching, designed to match the standard of leading primary schemes (Literacy Tree, Write Stuff, Power of Reading).

• 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 (WT/ARE/GD), 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 two-part composition: a richly descriptive narrative depicting the frozen, decaying interior of Satis House on the day Pip first meets Miss Havisham, followed by a formal letter of apology written by an older Pip to Joe Gargery, regretting the way ambition and class shame caused him to neglect the forge and the man who raised him.

Grammar features (Year 6 NC-aligned)

• The passive voice — used to background the agent and create a sense of stillness, decay and inevitability (e.g. ‘the curtains had been drawn’, ‘the cake had been left untouched’).
• Colons used to introduce a list, an explanation, or an idea that elaborates on the main clause — particularly to introduce Pip’s specific fears and observations after a general statement.

Themes explored

Class and social mobility, Ambition and the cost of self-reinvention, Regret, guilt and the loss of innocence.

Key vocabulary

Decay, ambition, benefactor, estrangement, remorse, stagnation, aspiration, subjugation.

Format & compatibility

• Editable PowerPoint (.pptx) and Word (.docx) files.
• UK English spelling.
• One printer-friendly A4 page per resource sheet.
• Compatible with Literacy Tree, Write Stuff, and Power of Reading planning approaches.

Year groups & key stage

• Year 6 (KS2).
• 15 sessions over 3 weeks (≈45–60 minutes per lesson).

Tags

KS2, Year 6, English, fiction, Charles Dickens (adapted), reading and writing, complete unit, differentiated, NC-aligned, lesson plans, resources, great expectations