Primary English: News Report Writing Tutor Prep Guide | 5W1H, Headlines, Inverted Pyramid and Quotes

2026-11-14

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Primary English

A pupil asked to write a news report usually writes a story: it starts with waking up and eating breakfast, and the real news sits in the last paragraph. This chapter does three things only: sort the facts into six boxes, cut the headline to eight words, and put the most important fact in paragraph one with one direct quote.

Objectives — Students can: (1) sort the facts of an event into the who, what, when, where, why and how boxes and say which box may stay empty; (2) write an eight to twelve word headline that is not a full sentence, and explain why headlines use the present tense; (3) order three paragraphs by the inverted pyramid and add one correctly punctuated direct quote in paragraph two.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Past simple	The fire ___ (start) at six.	started, the event is over
Passive voice	Two people ___ (injure).	were injured, the people did not injure themselves
Quotation marks	How do you quote a speaker word for word?	Open and close the marks, full stop inside

02 Lesson flow (45 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-5 min	Two versions	The story version and the report version of one event	Say which one shows the news at once
5-15 min	5W1H grid	Six boxes, and which box may stay empty	Fill all six boxes for one event
15-25 min	Headline	Three real headlines, counted and read for tense	Write three headlines from the grid
25-35 min	Pyramid and quote	Three paragraphs, heaviest first, quote in paragraph two	Reorder paragraphs and add a quote
35-43 min	Rewrite	Turn the story version into a report version	Rewrite one paragraph alone
43-45 min	Exit check	Three questions collected and marked	Work independently

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: The 5W1H grid: sort the facts before writing a sentence

A report reads badly because the writer starts with sentences. The order that works is a grid first: put every fact into who, what, when, where, why or how, and keep each box to a noun, a number or a short phrase, never a full sentence. Four boxes nearly always fill: who, what, when and where. Why and how often stay empty, because the cause is not yet known, and the correct move is to leave them empty rather than invent a cause. Teach the difference between what and how: what is what happened (a fire broke out), how is how it happened (it started from a short circuit). Show one event filled in, and pupils will see that the three sentences they first wrote, about waking up and eating breakfast, have no box and can be deleted. Only after the grid is full do you join the boxes into sentences, in the order who plus what plus when plus where.
Students do: fill a six-box grid for one school event, eight words per box at most. Students say: why the why box may stay empty, and how what differs from how.

Scene 2: The headline: eight to twelve words, present tense for a past event

The headline is the hardest sentence in the report because it obeys three rules. The first is length: 4, 5, 4 words per headline, a mean of 4.3, and anything over 12 words has to be cut. The second is omission: headlines drop a and the, and drop is and are, so A fire destroys three market stalls becomes Fire destroys market stalls. The third is tense: headlines use the present tense for events that already happened, because a newspaper sells this moment, and the present tense makes the news feel fresh. The three rules add up to one routine a pupil can follow: main verb in the present tense, drop articles and the verb to be, put the strongest noun first. Comparing three headlines for the same event teaches this faster than any definition, because the pupil can see which one names who and what first.
Students do: write three headlines from their grid and count the words and check the tense in each. Students say: why headlines use the present tense, and why the and is are dropped.

Scene 3: The inverted pyramid and one direct quote

A report is arranged the other way round from a story. A story saves the most exciting part for the end; a report puts the most important part first, because a reader may read only the first paragraph. Paragraph one must answer who, what, when and where on its own, usually in two or three sentences. Paragraph two carries detail and one direct quote. Paragraph three carries background or what happens next. A direct quote has three formatting rules: a comma introduces it, the reporting verb is one of said, told, explained, added, and the words inside the marks keep the speaker meaning while the tense follows the reporting time. Model one: The head teacher said, “We will review the safety rules next week.” The will stays because the action was still in the future when she spoke; in reported speech it becomes would. Warn pupils that one quote is enough. Three quotes turn a report into an interview and push the news itself out of the page.
Students do: reorder three paragraphs by the inverted pyramid and add one quote to paragraph two. Students say: why paragraph one must stand alone, and why only one quote is used.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Grid question	Fill who, what, when and where from a paragraph	Find the verb for what, then the people and the time	Copying irrelevant detail into a box
Headline question	Write a headline for a report	Present tense, no articles, under twelve words	Writing a full sentence with a full stop
Ordering question	Four paragraphs out of order	Whichever paragraph stands alone goes first	Ordering them by time
Correction question	Wrong quote tense and punctuation	Compare the tense inside and outside the marks	Putting the full stop outside the marks

Sanity check (teach this): This chapter does only three jobs: the grid, the headline and the pyramid. News values are left out because a P6 pupil only needs to produce one complete report. Headline length is computed from real headlines so that short becomes a number a pupil can count. Only one quote is taught, which keeps the report from turning into an interview. Allowing the why and how boxes to stay empty is what stops pupils from inventing a cause.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Grid	Fill six boxes for one school event	Check that what and how are not mixed up
Headline	Write three headlines under twelve words	Count words and check tense
Pyramid	Reorder three paragraphs, add a quote	Check that paragraph one stands alone

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Writing a story	Paragraph one begins with waking up and eating breakfast	A reader only wants to know what happened. Your first sentence needs who and what.
Headline as a sentence	A fire destroyed the market yesterday.	No past tense and no full stop in a headline: Fire destroys market stalls.
Too many quotes	Three direct quotes in a row	One quote is enough. Turn the rest into reported speech or the news gets buried.
Inventing a cause	The fire started because of old wiring, when nobody knows	If the cause is unknown, write cause unknown. Inventing a cause is a serious fault in news writing.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Primary English chapter index — All chapters in this subject
Prep guide master index — Similar chapters in other subjects
Redo this chapter — Practice section questions 1, 2 and 4: grid, headline, correction

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Grid	who, what, when, where filled first	Missing what means reteaching act one
Headline	under twelve words, present tense, no full stop	A full sentence means redo practice question 2
Pyramid	paragraph one stands alone, one quote	More than one quote means back to act three

09 Tutor FAQ

Do headlines use the present tense in Chinese too?

Chinese headlines usually use a verb phrase rather than a tense. What both languages share is cutting filler words and putting the key noun first.

Do I count words or letters?

Words. English headlines run eight to twelve words, and Chinese ones run eight to fourteen characters, so the same story will not be the same length in both languages.

What if a pupil refuses to cut detail?

Ask him to read paragraph one to a classmate and see whether the classmate can say what happened. Peer reaction persuades faster than a tutor repeating the rule.

Find a tutor — free Tutor Registration →

A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.