DS2, age 11, struggles with Literacy.
He was assessed as being a 3A at the start of Y5, so was given 10 one hour 1:1 lessons, but I don't think they were well targeted.
He has been going to KipMcGrath for all of Y6 and has been attending a fairly SATS driven school.
He's OK with Maths and Science, 5 in both.
His overall KS2 English SATS result was a 4C.
The official reading test result was a 5C
The teacher assessment results went:
Speaking and listening 5
Reading 5
Writing 4
So we can see where the issue lies!
IF you set DS2 down with an exercise to turn something into more interesting writing, he's fine, eg:
Q: John was tired. John was hot. John had climbed a big hill.
A: Because John had climbed a big hill he was both tired and hot.
DS2 could do 10 of these in a row to a reasonable level. But then if you say, "OK, DS2, write a paragraph about a boy climbing a hill on a hot day', he will write:
"John was tired. John was hot. John had climbed a big hill." (except he'll have forgotten to put the 'J' as a capital once or twice; he would have misspelt 'climbed' and the punctuation might been random!). Argh!
Of DS, his teacher has written:
'DS has an excellent general knowledge to apply to his writing but variety is his biggest problem. He begins every sentence with a noun/pronoun followed by a verb. As you (me!) point out, he can perform exercises competently but when it comes to using these skills independently and without prompts, it's as if all prior knowledge has been forgotten. The best way to further his writing will be to revise the sentence types (passive, complex, compound) and get DS using them so his writing has variety and develops more fully'.
Now, what resource can I use to assist there? Can anyone name workbooks or online resources? Under these circumstances would you engage a 1:1 tutor, like maybe a 'moonlighting' 
Y6 teacher to help? Yes, I could knock some examples together but I would like something maybe more NC oriented so DS is doing 'more of the same' rather than me going off on a tangent, as I don't know what words, for instance, are commonly 'used'. What I mean is I might start looking for 'Notwithstanding the time of the day, John....' which would be considered way too complex. I don't want to well-meaningly muddy the waters further!
DS is heading for the academically top performing comp in the county in September where he won't have a teacher keeping tabs on him (DS's unwillingness to ask when he's not sure what's required of him is also noted in his report! Quiet, shy but lovely sums him up, 1's for effort in everything). So I want to try and 'keep it up' to a certain extent over the next few months as I know DS will have trouble at secondary with his writing skills being what they are!
Your thoughts greatly appreciated.