England · Key Stage 2 · Ages 7–11

Key Stage 2 maths:
four years, one thread,
two checks

A parent's map of Key Stage 2 maths in England — what each year from Year 3 to Year 6 adds, the two national checks along the way, and the handful of ideas that every later topic depends on.

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The short answer

What is Key Stage 2 maths?

Key Stage 2 is Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 in England — ages 7 to 11, the second half of primary school. The national curriculum splits it into lower key stage 2 (Years 3 and 4) and upper key stage 2 (Years 5 and 6), and sets out a programme of study for each year.

The curriculum describes the two halves differently. Lower key stage 2 is about becoming fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including the times tables up to 12 × 12, and meeting fractions and decimals as numbers. Upper key stage 2 extends the number system to much larger numbers and builds the connections between multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio — and by the end of Year 6 a child should be fluent in the written methods for all four operations, including long multiplication and long division.

There are two national checks. The multiplication tables check in June of Year 4, and the key stage 2 tests — the SATs — in May of Year 6. Years 3 and 5 have no national test.

Schools follow the programmes of study but choose their own order, and they are only required to have covered the whole of it by the end of key stage 2. Two children in the same year at different schools will meet topics at different times, and that is normal.

Source: the national curriculum mathematics programmes of study, published by the Department for Education.

Year by year

What each year of Key Stage 2 maths adds

The headline content of each year's programme of study, and the one thing from that year we most often find missing later.

Year 3 (ages 7–8)

Whole numbers to 1,000, the column methods for adding and subtracting, and the first times tables beyond the twos, fives and tens.

  • Place value in 3-digit numbers; compare and order numbers to 1,000
  • Column addition and subtraction with up to 3 digits, and checking with the inverse
  • The 3, 4 and 8 times tables, and multiplying a two-digit number by a one-digit number
  • Fractions as numbers: tenths, unit and non-unit fractions, equivalent fractions with small denominators, adding fractions with the same denominator
  • Measures in m, cm, mm, kg, g, l and ml; perimeter; money and giving change; telling the time to the minute, including 24-hour clocks
  • Right angles, perpendicular and parallel lines; bar charts, pictograms and tables
The thing that comes back

Telling the time.

Year 3 teaches it, Year 4 extends it to 12- and 24-hour clocks, and after that nothing re-teaches it — which is why it is still missing in some Year 6 children.

Where it usually goes wrong Column subtraction with exchanging. Taught in Year 3, it is the first method most children get wrong, and the error survives quietly into bigger numbers. Our Year 3 maths page covers the year in full.

Year 4 (ages 8–9)

Every times table to 12 × 12, checked nationally in June. Four-digit numbers, negative numbers for the first time, and decimals as a way of writing tenths and hundredths.

  • Place value in 4-digit numbers; rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000; counting through zero into negative numbers; Roman numerals to 100
  • Column addition and subtraction with up to 4 digits; two-step problems
  • Recall of all multiplication and division facts to 12 × 12; multiplying two- and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number
  • Families of equivalent fractions; hundredths; adding fractions with the same denominator; decimal equivalents of tenths, hundredths, ¼, ½ and ¾
  • Converting units; perimeter of rectilinear shapes; area by counting squares; 12- and 24-hour time
  • Classifying triangles and quadrilaterals; acute and obtuse angles; lines of symmetry; coordinates in the first quadrant; bar charts and time graphs
The thing that comes back

The times tables.

Everything in Years 5 and 6 — long multiplication, division, factors, equivalent fractions, ratio — runs on them. This is the year they are meant to become automatic.

Where it usually goes wrong Tables that are "known" in order but not out of order. 7 × 8 has to arrive without counting up from 7 × 1, or long multiplication in Year 5 becomes exhausting. Our Year 4 maths page covers the year and the tables check.

Year 5 (ages 9–10)

Numbers to a million, long multiplication, and a run of first meetings: percentages, primes, square and cube numbers, mixed numbers, decimals to three places, angles measured in degrees.

  • Place value to at least 1,000,000; rounding to any place; negative numbers in context
  • Column methods with more than 4 digits; long multiplication by a two-digit number; short division with remainders interpreted for the context
  • Factors, multiples, primes, squares and cubes
  • Mixed numbers and improper fractions; adding and subtracting fractions with related denominators; multiplying fractions by whole numbers
  • Decimals to 3 places; the meaning of a percentage and the simple equivalents
  • Metric conversions; perimeter of composite shapes; area of rectangles; measuring and drawing angles; reflection and translation; line graphs and timetables
The thing that comes back

Decimal place value.

A child who thinks 0.35 is bigger than 0.4 will make the same mistake again with money, measures and percentages in Year 6.

Where it usually goes wrong In our experience the biggest step-up in the key stage, with no national test to flag a gap. It is also the year with the most room to fix one. Our Year 5 maths page covers every topic.

Year 6 (ages 10–11)

Ratio, algebra and long division arrive; everything else is Year 5 taken further; and in May the whole key stage is tested.

  • Numbers to 10,000,000; rounding to any degree of accuracy; intervals across zero
  • Long multiplication of 4-digit by 2-digit numbers; long division; order of operations; common factors, common multiples and primes
  • Fractions with different denominators; multiplying pairs of fractions; dividing a fraction by a whole number; decimals to 3 places in calculations; percentages of amounts
  • Ratio and proportion; simple formulae, sequences, missing-number problems written algebraically
  • Unit conversions including miles and kilometres; area of triangles and parallelograms; volume of cuboids
  • Angles at a point, on a line and vertically opposite; parts of a circle; coordinates in four quadrants; pie charts, line graphs and the mean
The thing that comes back

Fractions with different denominators.

Secure it here and Year 7 ratio, percentages and algebra all have something to stand on.

Where it usually goes wrong Revision that starts from Year 6 topics when the gap is earlier. The tests can ask about anything from Year 3 onwards. Our Year 6 maths page covers every topic, and the SATs maths page covers the papers.

Content from the national curriculum programmes of study for Years 3 to 6 (Department for Education). The "thing that comes back" notes are ours, from teaching all four years.

The two checks

The two national checks in Key Stage 2

Only two things in Key Stage 2 are tested nationally, and they are very different from each other.

Multiplication tables checkKey stage 2 tests (SATs)
YearYear 4Year 6
WhenA three-week window in JuneOne week in mid-May; maths on the last two days
WhatRecall of multiplication facts up to 12 × 12Maths (three papers), English reading, and English grammar, punctuation and spelling
FormatOn screen: 25 questions, multiplication only, 6 seconds each with a 3-second pause between themOn paper: arithmetic (30 min, 40 marks) and two reasoning papers (40 min, 35 marks each)
ResultA score out of 25. There is no pass mark; no score appears on screen, and the school must report it to parents by the end of the summer termA scaled score from 80 to 120 for each subject; 100 is the expected standard
Marked byAutomaticallyExternal markers, not the school
What it is forTelling the school which children need more work on tablesMeasuring attainment against the curriculum, identifying who needs support, and school performance reporting

Multiplication tables check details from the Standards and Testing Agency's administration guidance; test details from the STA's information for parents and the key stage 2 test framework. Exact dates for each year are published on GOV.UK. Writing and science at the end of Year 6 are teacher-assessed, not tested.

The thread

The five ideas that run through the whole of Key Stage 2 maths

Key Stage 2 is not four separate years of content. It is a small number of ideas, each visited every year at a higher level, and a gap in one of them in Year 3 is still a gap in Year 6 — just wearing different clothes.

Place value. Year 3 has hundreds, tens and ones. Year 4 adds thousands and negative numbers. Year 5 goes to a million and to thousandths. Year 6 goes to ten million and multiplies decimals. A child who does not really know what the digits mean can get through Year 3 and 4 by pattern and is found out in Year 5.

Times tables. Year 3 starts them, Year 4 finishes and checks them, and Years 5 and 6 use them inside almost everything: long multiplication, division, factors, primes, equivalent fractions, simplifying, ratio. Tables that are known slowly cost time in every one of those.

Fractions. Year 3 counts in tenths and meets equivalent fractions in diagrams. Year 4 builds families of them. Year 5 adds and subtracts them and turns them into mixed numbers. Year 6 adds them with different denominators, multiplies and divides them, and connects them to decimals, percentages and ratio. The Year 3 and 4 idea — equivalence — is the one that everything later stands on.

The written methods. Column addition and subtraction in Year 3, short multiplication across Years 3 and 4, long multiplication and short division in Year 5, long division in Year 6. The same layouts, extended. An error in the Year 3 method is still there in Year 6 if nobody went back.

Reasoning. Not a topic but a demand that grows every year: from one-step problems in Year 3 to multi-step problems in Year 6 and questions that ask a child to explain why an answer must be wrong. Two of the three Year 6 maths papers are reasoning papers. It cannot be revised in April; it is built by being asked "how do you know?" for four years.

Signs of a gap

How a Key Stage 2 gap shows itself, year by year

Not every wobble is a gap. These are the ones that tend to compound if they are left.

In Years 3 and 4

The foundations are being laid, so the signs are about fluency rather than understanding.

  • Counting on fingers for facts that should be known
  • Column subtraction that goes wrong whenever an exchange is needed
  • Telling the time only on a digital clock
  • "I don't get fractions" said about pictures, not calculations
Try this at home

Ask a few tables facts out of order, and ask the time from an analogue clock.

Two minutes, and both are things nothing after Year 4 will re-teach.

Where it usually goes wrong Worth help when tables are still not automatic by the end of Year 4. Everything in upper KS2 assumes they are.

In Years 5 and 6

The content jumps, so an earlier gap tends to show up as a new topic "not making sense" when the real problem is underneath it.

  • Long multiplication that is slow and error-prone: usually tables, not method
  • Decimals ordered as if they were whole numbers
  • Fractions that can be drawn but not added, compared or simplified
  • Word problems that are fine when read aloud and impossible on paper
  • "I'm just not a maths person" — the sign we act on soonest
Try this at home

Ask your child to put 0.5, 0.45 and 0.405 in order, and to explain one word problem in their own words before solving it.

The first finds a place value gap; the second finds a reasoning one.

Where it usually goes wrong Worth help when the same kind of mistake keeps appearing across different topics. That is one gap, not many, and one gap is a much smaller job than it looks.

At home

How to support Key Stage 2 maths across four years

The habits that help are the same in Year 3 and Year 6. Only the numbers get bigger.

How we help

How ClassArc supports a Key Stage 2 student

Live one-to-one classes, taught to the England national curriculum, with the same teacher every week — from Year 3 to Year 6 and on into secondary school.

The same teacher, year after year

Wherever we can arrange it, one teacher stays with a child through the key stage — and a teacher who taught the Year 3 methods knows exactly which one is causing the Year 6 problem.

We find the year the gap started

A Year 5 decimals problem is usually a Year 3 place value problem. The first classes trace it back to the year it began and repair it there.

Tables until they are automatic

Out-of-order practice inside every class from Year 3 onwards, a few minutes at a time. Unglamorous, and the first thing we would do with any child in the key stage.

Lessons follow the national curriculum

We teach each year's programme of study and work alongside what your child's school is covering, not a separate syllabus.

Reasoning from the start

"Why?" is asked every few minutes from Year 3, so by Year 6 explaining a method is ordinary rather than frightening.

No score promises

We will not tell you a tables-check score or a SATs number. We will tell you what your child can and cannot yet do, every term, and what we are working on.

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Go deeper

The year your child is in

Each year page covers every topic, what is new, where children get stuck, and how to help at home.

Year 3 maths

Column methods, the 3, 4 and 8 times tables, and fractions as numbers. The first year of key stage 2.

Year 3 in full

Year 4 maths

Every times table to 12 × 12, the national check in June, negative numbers and the first decimals.

Year 4 in full

Year 5 maths

Numbers to a million, long multiplication, percentages and primes — the year with the most room.

Year 5 in full

Year 6 maths

Ratio, algebra and long division arrive, and the whole key stage is tested in May.

Year 6 in full

Year 6 SATs maths

The three papers, what the score means, where the real papers are free, and a revision plan.

The SATs guide

Key Stage 1 maths

The key stage before: Years 1 and 2, number bonds, place value and the optional tests.

Before Key Stage 2

Key Stage 2 maths questions

What years are Key Stage 2?
Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 in England, ages 7 to 11. The national curriculum treats Years 3 and 4 as lower key stage 2 and Years 5 and 6 as upper key stage 2, with a programme of study for each year.
What maths is taught in Key Stage 2?
Number and place value up to ten million; the four operations with formal written methods, ending with long multiplication and long division; fractions, decimals and percentages; ratio and proportion and simple algebra in Year 6; measurement including perimeter, area, volume and unit conversion; geometry including angles, shape properties and coordinates; and statistics including bar charts, line graphs, pie charts and the mean.
What tests are there in Key Stage 2?
Two. The multiplication tables check in June of Year 4, an on-screen check of 25 multiplication facts with 6 seconds per question and no pass mark; and the key stage 2 tests, or SATs, in May of Year 6, with three maths papers plus English reading and grammar, punctuation and spelling, reported as scaled scores. Years 3 and 5 have no national test.
What is the multiplication tables check?
A statutory on-screen check for all Year 4 pupils in state schools in England, taken in a three-week window in June. After three practice questions there are 25 questions on tables up to 12 × 12, each with 6 seconds to answer and a 3-second pause. There is no pass mark; no score is shown on screen, the school receives it and must report it to parents by the end of the summer term, and the purpose is to tell the school which children need more work on tables.
Which Key Stage 2 year is the most important for maths?
Each one depends on the last, so none can be skipped, but Year 4 is where the times tables have to become automatic and Year 5 is, in our experience, the biggest jump in content. A gap in either tends to be what a Year 6 child is actually struggling with when the SATs arrive.
What should a child know in maths by the end of Key Stage 2?
The curriculum's own summary is that by the end of Year 6 a child should be fluent in written methods for all four operations, including long multiplication and division, and in working with fractions, decimals and percentages. They should also be able to solve multi-step problems and explain their reasoning, which is what two of the three Year 6 maths papers test.
My child is in Year 3 or Year 4. Is it too early for a tutor?
It is early enough that a small amount of help does a lot. The Year 3 and 4 foundations — place value, the column methods, the times tables, fractions as numbers — are what every later year stands on, and in our experience they are quicker to fix at eight than at eleven. Whether your child needs it is a different question, and the free first class is a good way to find out.
How can a tutor help across Key Stage 2?
One to one, a teacher can find the year a gap began and fix it there rather than on top; keep the tables and written methods fluent as the numbers grow; and build the habit of explaining, which the Year 6 papers reward. With the same teacher over several years, nothing has to be rediscovered each September.
What does ClassArc cost in Key Stage 2?
Years 3 to 6 sit in our Years 1–8 band, from £11 per 55-minute one-to-one class on the largest plan. Nothing is charged for joining or for materials. Full details are on the UK pricing page.
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