The unit is designed to support the transition of children from Year 5 to Year 6 through a bridged unit of work based on a familiar text. The concept of a bridged unit across the year groups is used to:

• take full account of children's prior learning
• support children in communicating their own writing targets to new teachers
• support Year 6 teachers to immediately address the learning needs of a new class
• secure the progress made in writing during Year 5
• support communication of learning needs between Year 5 and Year 6.

Utilising their knowledge from the previous poetry unit on the classic narrative poem The highwayman by Alfred Noyes, the class present a written paper and an oral presentation to a judge to persuade the authorities to reopen the case into the death of the Highwayman and the landlord's daughter, Bess. The children's role is to submit evidence that their deaths could and should have been avoided, with both characters being arrested and given the fair trial they did not receive.

• Building on the children's understanding of the basic text type, from non-fiction unit 4 in Year 4, the unit supports the children to progress as readers and writers of simple persuasive texts to the use of organisation devices.
• Links to the Year 5/6 targets for the key strands are clearly marked. Opportunities for moving children forward to achieve the targets are specifically referred to in the suggested shared, independent and guided sessions for reading and writing. Targeted use of guided reading and writing to address strands 7, 9, 10 and 11 are also exemplified.
• To provide clear audience and purpose for the writing, the unit is set in the context of the children working in role as 'cold case investigators'. It is their job, as the latest apprentices at the special investigation unit, to put together an initial paper designed to convince a judge that the deaths of Bess and the highwayman could have been prevented. The teacher works in role during the phases as the Head of Department charged with inducting the apprentices into the art of developing an effective, persuasive case.

At the end of Year 5, the final paper is then used as a discussion point to secure effective transition of the children's skills as writers into Year 6. Time to read and discuss the papers by both year-group teachers needs to be planned into the unit to ensure the transfer of information.