England · Key Stage 1 · Ages 6–7

Year 2 maths:
the last year before
the written methods

A parent's guide to the Year 2 maths curriculum in England — every topic, the times tables that start here, what the optional end-of-key-stage-1 tests actually are, and what "secure" looks like before Year 3 changes the pace.

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The short answer

What does a child learn in Year 2 maths?

Year 2 finishes key stage 1. Numbers go to 100 with the tens and ones properly understood, addition and subtraction facts to 20 have to become fluent rather than worked out, and the 2, 5 and 10 times tables arrive — the first times tables the curriculum asks for by recall.

Three other things start here: fractions with a denominator other than 2 or 4 (thirds, and two quarters as the same as a half), the <, > and = symbols, and statistics in the form of pictograms and tally charts. Time moves from o'clock and half past to five-minute intervals, which is a bigger jump than it sounds.

The curriculum's own summary is short and worth quoting: by the end of Year 2 pupils should know the number bonds to 20 and be precise in using and understanding place value.

The end-of-key-stage-1 tests — what people call KS1 SATs — became optional in the 2023 to 2024 school year. Schools may still use them in May, and it is up to the school whether and how it shares the results. There is no longer a statutory test at the end of Year 2.

Source: the Year 2 programme of study in the national curriculum for England, and the Standards and Testing Agency's guidance on the optional key stage 1 tests.

The curriculum, area by area

Every topic in the Year 2 maths curriculum

Seven areas, what each covers, and the thing that most often needs another go.

Number and place value

Two-digit numbers, understood as tens and ones rather than as two separate digits.

  • Count in steps of 2, 3 and 5 from 0, and in tens from any number, forwards and backwards
  • Recognise the place value of each digit in a two-digit number
  • Represent and estimate numbers in different ways, including on a number line
  • Compare and order numbers from 0 to 100 using <, > and =
  • Read and write numbers to at least 100 in numerals and in words
  • Use place value and number facts to solve problems
Example

Which is bigger, 47 or 74? Write it with a symbol.

47 < 74. Same digits, different value — which is what place value means.

Where it usually goes wrong Reading 47 as "four, seven". A child who says the digits rather than the number has not yet connected the symbol to a quantity of tens and ones.

Addition and subtraction

Facts to 20 become fluent, and the two operations are shown to be opposites you can check with.

  • Recall and use addition and subtraction facts to 20 fluently, and derive related facts up to 100
  • Add and subtract with objects, pictures and mentally: two-digit and ones, two-digit and tens, two two-digit numbers, and three one-digit numbers
  • Show that addition can be done in any order but subtraction cannot
  • Use the inverse relationship to check calculations and solve missing-number problems
  • Solve problems with addition and subtraction in a range of contexts
Example

34 + 20 = 54, and 54 − 20 = 34.

Adding a multiple of ten changes only the tens digit. Seeing that is worth more than any number of practice questions.

Where it usually goes wrong Facts to 20 that are still being counted out. Year 2 asks for recall, and Year 3's column methods assume it — this is the year it has to become automatic.

Multiplication and division

The first times tables, and the first use of × and ÷ as symbols.

  • Recall and use the multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times tables, including odd and even numbers
  • Write and calculate statements using ×, ÷ and =
  • Show that multiplication can be done in any order but division cannot
  • Solve problems using materials, arrays, repeated addition and known facts, including in contexts
Example

5 × 3 = 15, and 3 × 5 = 15, but 15 ÷ 3 is not the same as 3 ÷ 15.

Commutativity for multiplication, and its absence for division — both are Year 2 statutory content.

Where it usually goes wrong Tables recited in order but not known out of order. "What is 7 fives?" should not require starting at five.

Fractions

Short, but the ideas underneath are the ones that go all the way to GCSE.

  • Recognise, find, name and write ⅓, ¼, 2/4 and ¾ of a length, shape, set of objects or quantity
  • Write simple fractions such as ½ of 6 = 3, and recognise that 2/4 and ½ are equivalent
Example

½ of 6 = 3, and 2/4 of a shape is the same as ½.

The second is the first appearance of equivalent fractions — an idea Year 3 and Year 4 build on directly, and Year 6 depends on completely.

Where it usually goes wrong A third assumed to be the same as a half because both are "one bit". The number on the bottom says how many equal parts, and more parts means smaller ones.

Measurement

Standard units, money in pounds and pence, and time to five minutes.

  • Choose and use standard units for length and height (m/cm), mass (kg/g), temperature (°C) and capacity (litres/ml)
  • Compare and order lengths, mass and capacity using >, < and =
  • Use £ and p, combine amounts, find different coin combinations for the same amount, and give change
  • Compare and sequence intervals of time
  • Tell and write the time to five minutes, including quarter past and quarter to, and draw the hands on a clock face
  • Know the number of minutes in an hour and hours in a day
Example

Make 47p in two different ways.

20p + 20p + 5p + 2p, or 20p + 10p + 10p + 5p + 2p. Different coins, same value — a place value lesson wearing a purse.

Where it usually goes wrong Quarter to. Quarter past is easy because the hand has moved a quarter; quarter to asks a child to count backwards from the next hour, and that is a genuinely harder idea.

Geometry: shape, position and direction

Describing shapes by their properties rather than by what they look like.

  • Identify and describe the properties of 2-D shapes, including the number of sides and a vertical line of symmetry
  • Identify and describe the properties of 3-D shapes, including edges, vertices and faces
  • Identify 2-D shapes on the surface of 3-D shapes
  • Compare and sort common shapes and everyday objects
  • Order and arrange objects in patterns and sequences; describe position, direction and movement, including rotation as a turn and in terms of right angles for quarter, half and three-quarter turns, clockwise and anti-clockwise
Example

What 2-D shape do you find on the surface of a cylinder?

A circle. The connection between flat and solid shapes is the Year 2 step.

Where it usually goes wrong Naming by appearance rather than by properties: "it's a diamond". Ask how many sides, and whether they are equal — the properties settle it.

Statistics

New in Year 2, and the beginning of a thread that runs to pie charts in Year 6.

  • Interpret and construct simple pictograms, tally charts, block diagrams and tables
  • Ask and answer questions by counting objects in each category and sorting categories by quantity
  • Ask and answer questions about totalling and comparing categorical data
Example

In a pictogram where one picture means two children, how many does three and a half pictures show?

Seven. The key is the very first line: what one picture stands for.

Where it usually goes wrong Counting pictures instead of reading the key. It is the same mistake children make with scaled bar charts in Year 3.

Statutory content from the national curriculum programme of study for Year 2 (Department for Education). Examples marked as the curriculum's own come from its non-statutory guidance; the rest are ours, from teaching the year group.

The optional tests

Are KS1 SATs still a thing?

Not as a requirement. The end-of-key-stage-1 national curriculum tests became optional in the 2023 to 2024 school year. Before that they were statutory for every Year 2 pupil in a state school in England.

Schools that choose to use them administer them in May, at a time of their choosing, and the Standards and Testing Agency recommends that month. The maths papers are an arithmetic paper and a reasoning paper. All the papers are optional: two maths papers, two English reading papers, and two in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Because they are optional, the results are the school's to use. It is up to your child's school whether and how it shares them with you, and the results are no longer collected nationally. Your child's teacher will still form an overall judgement about where they are, which is the thing worth asking about at parents' evening.

Two things follow from that. First: if your school is not doing them, nothing is wrong. Second: even when they were statutory these tests were about school accountability — they were the baseline for the school's progress measure — rather than about anything that followed your child. Now they affect even less. They are not worth revising for at six.

Year 1 to Year 2

What is new this year

Year 2 mostly extends Year 1. Three things genuinely start here.

TopicStatus in Year 2What that means
Times tablesNewThe 2, 5 and 10 tables by recall, and both multiplication and division facts.
StatisticsNewPictograms, tally charts, block diagrams and tables. Nothing in Year 1 covers this.
<, > and = symbolsNewComparison written in symbols rather than words.
FractionsExtendedYear 1 had halves and quarters. Year 2 adds thirds, three quarters, and the first equivalence: 2/4 = ½.
Place valueExtendedFrom counting to 100 to understanding a two-digit number as tens and ones.
Number factsExtendedFrom using number bonds to recalling facts to 20 fluently and deriving related facts to 100.
TimeExtendedFrom o'clock and half past to five-minute intervals, quarter past and quarter to.
MoneyExtendedFrom recognising coins to combining them, finding equivalents and giving change.

Column methods, the 3, 4 and 8 times tables and numbers beyond 100 are all Year 3. Year 2 is the last year before written methods arrive.

At home

How to help with Year 2 maths

Everything here takes under ten minutes and none of it needs printing.

How we help

How ClassArc supports a Year 2 student

Live one-to-one classes, taught to the England national curriculum, when a child needs more than school and home can give.

Fluency before speed

Facts to 20 and the 2, 5 and 10 tables practised until they are recalled rather than counted — because Year 3 assumes exactly that.

Place value you can see

Place value drawn on the shared worksheet with base-ten pictures, so a two-digit number stops being two separate digits.

Short bursts, not one long push

Six-year-olds do not sit still for 55 unbroken minutes, so the class is built in short pieces and the teacher changes tack the moment focus slips.

The same teacher every week

At six, a child works better for someone they know. Keeping the same teacher removes the settling-in that a new face costs every time.

Ready for Year 3, not for a test

The optional papers are not something we coach. The work is the number facts, the tens and ones, and the vocabulary that Year 3's written methods will assume.

An honest answer first

After the free class we tell you what we found. Plenty of Year 2 children do not need weekly tutoring, and we say so.

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Next

Where to go from here

Both neighbours, and the key stage they sit inside.

Year 1 maths

Counting to 100, number bonds within 20, halves and quarters — what Year 2 assumes is already there.

The year before

Year 3 maths

Column methods, the 3, 4 and 8 times tables, and the start of key stage 2.

What comes next

Key Stage 1 maths

Years 1 and 2 together, and what being secure at the end of key stage 1 actually means.

The KS1 overview

Year 2 maths questions

What maths should a Year 2 child know?
By the end of Year 2 a child should know number bonds to 20 fluently, understand two-digit numbers as tens and ones, add and subtract two-digit numbers, recall the 2, 5 and 10 times tables and their division facts, find thirds and quarters and know that 2/4 is a half, measure in standard units, use pounds and pence and give change, tell the time to five minutes, describe shapes by their properties, and read and make simple charts.
Which times tables are in Year 2?
The 2, 5 and 10 times tables, including the division facts that go with them, and recognising odd and even numbers. The 3, 4 and 8 tables come in Year 3, and all tables up to 12 × 12 are expected by the end of Year 4, when there is a national multiplication tables check.
Are KS1 SATs still compulsory?
No. The end-of-key-stage-1 tests became optional in the 2023 to 2024 school year. Schools may still use them, usually in May, and it is up to each school whether and how it shares the results with parents. There is no longer a statutory test at the end of Year 2.
Should my child revise for the KS1 tests?
No. They are optional, they are not reported nationally, and at six or seven the useful preparation is exactly the same as the useful everyday maths: number facts, place value and talking about how you know. Revision is not a sensible use of a Year 2 child's evenings.
Does Year 2 include fractions?
Yes. Children recognise, find, name and write a third, a quarter, two quarters and three quarters of a length, shape, set of objects or quantity, write simple statements such as a half of 6 = 3, and meet the first equivalence — that two quarters and a half are the same.
What is the difference between Year 2 and Year 3 maths?
Year 3 starts key stage 2 and brings the formal written methods for column addition and subtraction, numbers to 1,000, the 3, 4 and 8 times tables, and fractions as numbers rather than as parts of a picture. Year 2 is the last year of practical, mostly mental maths — which is why fluency with the facts matters so much this year.
How can I help my Year 2 child at home?
Make the addition and subtraction facts to 20 automatic, count in 2s, 5s and 10s in both directions, let them handle money and give change, ask the time on an analogue clock including quarter to, and split things into thirds as well as halves. Short and frequent beats long and formal.
Does a Year 2 child need a tutor?
Often not. Most children this age get what they need from school and a bit of everyday maths at home. It is worth a conversation if the school has flagged something it cannot resource, if your child has changed school or country mid-key-stage, or if they have started saying they cannot do maths. The free class is how to find out, and the answer is sometimes no.
What does ClassArc cost for a Year 2 student?
Year 2 sits 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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