Create compelling non-fiction with Prof. Robert Winston

In this writing unit, based around an episode of the Author in Your Classroom podcast, Professor Robert Winston chats about his approach to writing compelling non-fiction.

Through this virtual author visit, children hear how a scientist, broadcaster, and author brings fascinating ideas to life. This podcast episode is lively, inspiring, and perfect for sparking curiosity in young writers. You can play it in full or select extracts to guide each session, connecting students directly to a real author.

Teaching overview

This unit helps children research, plan, and write their own non-fiction pieces. The focus is on storytelling, quirky facts, and clear, engaging language. Children learn to think about their audience and structure their writing so it’s both interesting and understandable. Sessions explore choosing a topic, collecting research, and shaping information into narratives. Using planning sheets, working walls, and themed writing pages, students can organise their ideas visually and collaboratively.

Throughout the unit, children practice using precise verbs, simple explanations, and short paragraphs. They experiment with diagrams, illustrations, and annotated pictures to highlight key information. They also explore editing techniques, inspired by Robert Winston’s own tips, before preparing their writing for publication. Children can create individual pages, group books, or a whole-class book, celebrating their work with illustrations and shared displays.

By the end, students not only produce engaging non-fiction pages but also gain confidence in storytelling, research, and writing for pleasure. Listening to the podcast and reading Inventors: Incredible Stories of the World’s Most Ingenious Inventions gives them real-world examples, motivation, and inspiration to keep creating.