England · Key Stage 2 · Ages 8–9

Year 4 maths:
every times table,
and the check in June

A parent's guide to the Year 4 maths curriculum in England — every topic, how the multiplication tables check actually works, and why the tables are the one thing worth putting real time into this year.

Start with a free class 55 minutes · no card required

What is ClassArc?

ClassArc is live one-to-one online maths tutoring for school-age children. One teacher and one child, for 55 minutes. The same teacher every week. Classes run inside our own classroom software, not a video call: a shared worksheet you both write on, a shared whiteboard, and answers that sync live.

How a class works · About ClassArc · Pricing

The short answer

What does a child learn in Year 4 maths?

Year 4 is the year the times tables have to be finished. By the end of it a child is expected to recall every multiplication and division fact up to 12 × 12, and there is a national check in June to see whether they can.

Around that, numbers go to 10,000, negative numbers appear for the first time by counting back through zero, decimals arrive as another way of writing tenths and hundredths, and children meet Roman numerals to 100, symmetry, coordinates in the first quadrant and area by counting squares.

It is a full year, and it is the second half of what the curriculum calls lower key stage 2: becoming increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, and developing efficient written and mental methods. Nothing in Years 5 and 6 works properly without it.

The multiplication tables check is statutory for Year 4 pupils in state-funded schools in England, taken in a three-week window in June. It has no pass mark. The guidance for parents says you do not need to do anything additional to prepare your child for it, while noting that teachers may ask you to practise tables at home as part of usual practice.

Sources: the Year 4 programme of study and the Standards and Testing Agency's guidance on the multiplication tables check.

The curriculum, area by area

Every topic in the Year 4 maths curriculum

Six areas, what each covers, and the mistake we see most often when we teach it.

Number and place value

Four-digit numbers, rounding, and the first negative numbers.

  • Count in multiples of 6, 7, 9, 25 and 1,000
  • Find 1,000 more or less than a given number
  • Count backwards through zero to include negative numbers
  • Identify, represent and estimate numbers using different representations; recognise the place value of each digit in a four-digit number
  • Order and compare numbers beyond 1,000; round any number to the nearest 10, 100 or 1,000
  • Read Roman numerals to 100 (I to C), and know that the numeral system later changed to include zero and place value; solve number and practical problems with increasingly large positive numbers
Example

Count back from 3: 3, 2, 1, 0, −1, −2.

The first time zero is a place to pass through rather than a place to stop.

Where it usually goes wrong Rounding 4,750 to the nearest 100. Children look at the wrong digit or apply a half-remembered rule about 5s; the fix is asking which two hundreds it sits between.

Addition and subtraction

The column methods extended to four digits, and two-step word problems.

  • Add and subtract numbers with up to 4 digits using the formal columnar methods where appropriate
  • Estimate and use inverse operations to check answers
  • Solve two-step addition and subtraction problems in context, deciding which operations and methods to use and why
Example

A shop had 3,412 items and sold 1,867. About how many are left?

Estimate first: 3,400 − 1,900 is about 1,500. Then calculate: 1,545. The estimate is what catches a wrong answer.

Where it usually goes wrong Two-step problems where the second step gets forgotten. A child who answers the first question in the sentence and stops has a reading problem, not a subtraction problem.

Multiplication and division

The centre of the year. Every table to 12 × 12, and short multiplication of two- and three-digit numbers.

  • Recall multiplication and division facts for tables up to 12 × 12
  • Use place value, known and derived facts to multiply and divide mentally, including multiplying by 0 and 1, dividing by 1, and multiplying three numbers together
  • Recognise and use factor pairs and commutativity in mental calculations
  • Multiply two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number using formal written layout
  • Solve problems involving multiplying and adding, including the distributive law, integer scaling and correspondence problems
Example

6 × 7 = 42, so 6 × 70 = 420 and 60 × 7 = 420.

One known fact, three answers. Derived facts are how a child gets fast without memorising more.

Where it usually goes wrong The 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s and 12s. The check deliberately asks more questions from those tables than from the others.

Fractions and decimals

Hundredths, the first decimals, and the connection between the two.

  • Recognise and show families of common equivalent fractions using diagrams
  • Count up and down in hundredths; recognise that hundredths come from dividing an object by 100, or a tenth by ten
  • Add and subtract fractions with the same denominator
  • Solve problems involving harder fractions to calculate quantities, and fractions to divide quantities
  • Recognise and write decimal equivalents of any number of tenths or hundredths, and of ¼, ½ and ¾
  • Find the effect of dividing a one- or two-digit number by 10 and 100
  • Round decimals with one decimal place to the nearest whole number; compare numbers with the same number of decimal places up to two places
  • Solve simple measure and money problems involving fractions and decimals to two decimal places
Example

¾ = 0.75 = 75 hundredths

Three ways to write one amount. Year 4 is where those three start being used interchangeably.

Where it usually goes wrong A decimal read as two separate numbers with a dot between them. Nothing exposes it until the two numbers have different lengths, which is often not until Year 5.

Measurement

Converting units, perimeter with numbers, and area for the first time.

  • Convert between different units of measure, for example kilometre to metre and hour to minute
  • Measure and calculate the perimeter of a rectilinear figure in centimetres and metres
  • Find the area of rectilinear shapes by counting squares
  • Estimate, compare and calculate different measures, including money in pounds and pence
  • Read, write and convert time between analogue and digital 12- and 24-hour clocks
  • Solve problems converting hours to minutes, minutes to seconds, years to months and weeks to days
Example

A rectangle 6 cm by 4 cm: perimeter 20 cm, area 24 squares.

The first time both are asked about the same shape — and the first time they get confused with each other.

Where it usually goes wrong Area and perimeter swapped. It starts here and it is still being fixed in Year 6. Ask what is being measured: the fence, or the grass.

Geometry and statistics

Angles compared, symmetry, coordinates in one quadrant, and graphs with scales.

  • Compare and classify geometric shapes, including quadrilaterals and triangles, by their properties and sizes
  • Identify acute and obtuse angles; compare and order angles up to two right angles
  • Identify lines of symmetry in 2-D shapes in different orientations, and complete a symmetric figure
  • Describe positions on a 2-D grid as coordinates in the first quadrant
  • Describe movements between positions as translations left, right, up and down; plot points and complete a polygon
  • Interpret and present discrete and continuous data using bar charts and time graphs, and solve comparison, sum and difference problems
Example

Plot (3, 5). Which number goes across?

The 3. Along the corridor and up the stairs — and the pair is written in that order every time.

Where it usually goes wrong Coordinates read the wrong way round. It is a convention, not a discovery, and it needs saying out loud until it sticks.

Statutory content from the national curriculum programme of study for Year 4 (Department for Education). Examples are ours, from teaching the year group, unless marked otherwise.

The check

How the multiplication tables check works

Statutory for Year 4 in state-funded schools in England, taken on screen, and much lower stakes than it sounds.

Detail
WhenA three-week window in June: a two-week administration period, plus a third week for pupils who were absent
FormatOn screen. Three practice questions, then 25 real ones
Timing6 seconds to answer each question, with a 3-second pause between them. The 6 seconds cannot be extended, but access arrangements exist — including a ‘Next’ button that removes the automatic pause, an audio version and larger fonts
ContentMultiplication only, up to 12 × 12. No division questions and no 1 times table. The 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 tables appear more often, because the assessment framework identifies them as the most difficult
LengthUnder 5 minutes in total
Pass markThere is none. The official guidance says there is no expected pass mark
ResultsA score out of 25. Your child does not see it on screen; the school receives it and must report it to you by the end of the summer term
What it is forTelling the school which children need more support with tables. School-level results are not published in performance tables, though the school and Ofsted can see them; national and local authority figures are published
PreparationThe guidance for parents says you do not need to do anything additional to prepare your child, and adds that teachers may ask you to practise tables with them as part of usual practice

Details from the Standards and Testing Agency's multiplication tables check guidance for schools and for parents. The check is for England only.

The tables

How to actually learn the times tables

The check is not the reason to learn them. The reason is that everything in Years 5 and 6 — long multiplication, short and long division, factors, primes, equivalent fractions, simplifying, ratio, percentages — runs on instant recall, and a child who is still working each fact out is doing two jobs at once in every question.

What works: a few minutes a day rather than a long session at the weekend; asking facts out of order, because in order is reciting rather than recalling; and connecting tables instead of memorising twelve separate lists. The 4s are double the 2s, the 8s double the 4s, the 6s are double the 3s. The 9s have a pattern in the digits. That leaves a much shorter list of facts that genuinely have to be memorised.

The check itself over-samples the 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 times tables, because the assessment framework identifies those as the most difficult. Within them the facts we see cause the most trouble are 6 × 7, 6 × 8, 7 × 8, 7 × 9 and 8 × 9. If time is short, work on those.

What does not work: timed drills that make a child anxious, and cramming in May. The 6-second limit is deliberate — it is set so the check measures recall rather than working-out — and no amount of last-minute practice turns working-out into recall.

At home

How to help with Year 4 maths

One of these matters far more than the rest, and it is the first one.

Where children get stuck

The Year 4 maths difficulties we see most

Three, and the first one causes most of the others.

Tables that are worked out rather than known

A child who reaches 7 × 8 by counting up in sevens will get there, and will be exhausted by the end of a page of long multiplication next year.

Try this at home

Ask ten facts out of order and count how many take longer than about two seconds.

That short list is the work. It is usually a dozen facts, not a hundred.

Where it usually goes wrong Worth acting on in the autumn term, not in May. Recall takes months to build and no time at all to lose.

Decimals and place value

Decimals arrive properly this year, and a shaky understanding of tenths and hundredths goes on to cause trouble in every year that follows.

Try this at home

Which is bigger, 0.7 or 0.65?

0.7, because it is 0.70. A child who says 0.65 is reading the digits, not the value.

Where it usually goes wrong This is the misconception we most often find underneath a Year 6 problem. Fixing it in Year 4 takes a fraction of the time.

Area and perimeter

Both arrive with numbers attached in Year 4, and they get confused with each other for the next three years unless the difference is made concrete.

Try this at home

Walk around the edge of a rug, then count the squares of a tiled floor.

One is a journey, the other is a covering. That is the whole distinction.

Where it usually goes wrong In our experience mnemonics do not fix this. Asking what is being measured does.

How we help

How ClassArc supports a Year 4 student

Live one-to-one classes, taught to the England national curriculum, with the same teacher every week.

Tables in every class

A few minutes of out-of-order recall practice every week from September, built on connections rather than lists. It is, in our experience, the highest-value thing in the year.

No cramming for the check

There is no pass mark and the official guidance says no extra preparation is needed. We build recall across the year instead, which is what the check is looking for anyway.

Decimals taught with place value

Tenths and hundredths drawn and named, so a decimal is a number rather than two numbers with a dot between them.

Earlier gaps found first

Written multiplication that keeps going wrong is usually a tables or place value problem from an earlier year. The first classes go and find it.

The same teacher every week

One teacher who knows which facts your child avoids, and does not need to rediscover it each term.

Aimed at Years 5 and 6

The check is five minutes in June. The point of this year is the fluency that upper key stage 2 assumes, and that is what we teach for.

Choose your plan

Starter
Try the platform
£13
per class
8 classes · £104 total
  • 8 live 55-minute classes
  • KS1, KS2 & KS3 national curriculum
  • Weekly homework
  • Termly parent meeting
  • Same teacher every class
  • Free reschedule
Begin
Regular · Most chosen
Build real momentum
£12
per class
24 classes · £288 total
  • 24 live 55-minute classes
  • KS1, KS2 & KS3 national curriculum
  • Weekly homework
  • Termly parent meeting
  • Same teacher every class
  • Free reschedule
  • 8% saved vs Starter
Choose this
Committed
For the long road
£11
per class
~48 classes · £528 total
  • ~48 live 55-minute classes
  • KS1, KS2 & KS3 national curriculum
  • Weekly homework
  • Termly parent meeting
  • Same teacher every class
  • Free reschedule
  • 15% saved vs Starter
Best value

Prices in pounds. Every class is 55 minutes, one-to-one, with the same teacher. First class free, no card required.

Next

Where to go from here

What Year 4 assumes, what follows it, and the key stage in one map.

Year 3 maths

Column methods, the 3, 4 and 8 times tables, and fractions as numbers — what Year 4 builds on.

The year before

Year 5 maths

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

What comes next

Key Stage 2 maths

Every year of the key stage side by side, with both national checks explained.

The KS2 overview

Year 4 maths questions

What topics are covered in Year 4 maths?
Place value to 10,000 including negative numbers, rounding and Roman numerals to 100; column addition and subtraction with up to four digits; all times tables to 12 × 12 and short multiplication; fractions and decimals including hundredths and decimal equivalents; measurement including unit conversion, perimeter, area by counting squares and 12- and 24-hour time; geometry including angles, symmetry and coordinates in the first quadrant; and statistics using bar charts and time graphs.
What is the multiplication tables check?
A statutory on-screen check for Year 4 pupils in state-funded 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, with 6 seconds to answer each and a 3-second pause between them. It takes about five minutes.
Is there a pass mark for the times tables check?
No. The official guidance states there is no expected pass mark. Your child is given a score out of 25, which the school receives and shares with you; the purpose is to help the school see who needs more support with tables. School-level results are not published.
How should my child prepare for the times tables check?
The official guidance says you do not need to do anything additional to prepare them. What helps is ordinary daily practice across the year: a few facts out of order, division as well as multiplication, and connections between tables rather than twelve lists to memorise. Cramming in May does not work and makes children anxious.
Which times tables do children find hardest?
Reliably the same ones: 6 × 7, 6 × 8, 7 × 8, 7 × 9, 8 × 9, and the larger 12s. If time is short, those are the facts worth working on — the rest are usually already there or can be derived quickly.
Does Year 4 include decimals?
Yes. Children recognise hundredths, write decimal equivalents of tenths and hundredths and of a quarter, a half and three quarters, find the effect of dividing by 10 and 100, round decimals with one decimal place, and compare decimals with up to two places. Decimals to three places are Year 5.
Is there anything else assessed in Year 4?
No. The multiplication tables check is the only statutory assessment in the year. The key stage 2 tests are in Year 6.
How can a tutor help a Year 4 child?
Mostly by making the tables automatic in a way a class of thirty cannot — short daily recall built on connections, tracked week by week — and by finding the earlier gap behind a written method that keeps going wrong. It is also the year to catch a decimals misconception, because it is much cheaper to fix here than in Year 6.
Does a Year 4 child need a maths tutor because of the tables check?
Not because of the check. It has no pass mark, no consequences for your child, and the official guidance says no additional preparation is needed — a few minutes of daily tables practice at home does more than any tutoring bought for it. Tutoring is worth considering for other reasons: written methods that keep going wrong, a decimals or place value misconception, or a child who has started to dread maths lessons. We will say honestly after the free class if we do not think weekly lessons are the answer.
What does ClassArc cost for a Year 4 student?
Year 4 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.
free

First class

On us, always

55 minutes. The real classroom. No card. We confirm details on email and WhatsApp within a day.

1
A full 55-minute class, exactly like a real lesson, not a sales pitch.
2
Schedule details sent via email and WhatsApp within 24 hours.
3
If it doesn't click, you owe nothing. No card, no commitment.
WhatsApp

Book your first class

We'll respond by email + WhatsApp.

We'll never share your info. No spam.

Got it.

We'll WhatsApp and email you within a day to set up your free class. In the meantime, feel free to email hello@theclassarc.com with anything specific you'd like the teacher to focus on.

Something went wrong. Please try again, or just email us directly at hello@theclassarc.com and we'll set up your class manually.