The Year 4 maths curriculum is the standard for all primary schools. Here’s what kids can expect to learn in Year 4 maths!
Author
Marcel Deer
Published
February 2024
The Year 4 maths curriculum is the standard for all primary schools. Here’s what kids can expect to learn in Year 4 maths!
Author
Marcel Deer
Published
February 2024
Author
Marcel Deer
Published
February 2024
The Year 4 maths curriculum is the standard for all primary schools. Here’s what kids can expect to learn in Year 4 maths!
Key Takeaways
Table of contents
If you’ve got a child entering Year 4, they’ve reached a pivotal point in their learning. The Year 4 maths curriculum builds upon what they’ve learned the previous year to increase their confidence with numbers and other mathematical concepts.
Entering Year 4 also marks the midway point of the Key Stage 2 Curriculum, but not every child has the same confidence at this stage in their learning journeys.
According to the latest UK government statistics, just 59% of pupils met the expected reading, writing, and maths standard. It shows that millions of kids aren’t coming away from Key Stage 2 with the skills needed to excel as they grow up.
We’re believers that learning doesn’t end with the school bell. Parents and home tutoring are vital in helping kids succeed as they tackle their SATs later in primary school and move on to GCSEs in secondary school.
With this in mind, let’s explore what the maths national curriculum Year 4 covers!
It’s no secret that children and adults in the UK struggle with maths. According to KPMG, over a third of adults said maths made them anxious. Most of these feelings begin with how people approached maths during their formative years.
Sadly, many parents are at a loss for how to help their children because of their own experiences. As many as one in four students fear maths and don’t believe in their abilities to succeed.
That’s why covering the Year 4 maths national curriculum at home and with helpful tools like the DoodleMaths maths help app can empower your kids to reach their potential!
Here’s what you need to know about the UK Year 4 maths curriculum.
The main goal of the maths national curriculum Year 4 is to develop students’ mathematical reasoning. It builds on the concepts that were introduced in the previous year.
For example, kids begin working with larger numbers, up to 1,000, and are expected to master their times tables.
Here’s what your kids can expect to learn about numbers.
In the Year 4 maths national curriculum, your child will encounter negative numbers for the first time. They’ll also be expected to solve two-step problems revolving around real-life scenarios.
Here’s what your child will be expected to do at the end of the year:
The Year 4 maths national curriculum continues to build your child’s confidence with addition and subtraction.
Their teacher will show them column addition and subtraction, which will involve learning to work with bigger numbers, including four digits. They’ll also be asked to estimate answers and use inverse operations to check their answers.
Pupils also learn how to choose the best methods for solving two-step problems, introducing them to how maths might be used in the real world.
By the end of the school year, pupils are expected to be confident in working with multiplications. They should know all their times tables before moving on to year five, including 12 x 12.
They’ll also start working with three-digit numbers as they become proficient in multiplying them by one to nine. Plus, they’ll be expected to know about and how to use factor pairs.
During the Year 4 maths curriculum, students are also expected to know how to multiply and divide by simple numbers in their heads.
Fractions form yet another aspect of the Year 4 maths curriculum. Your child will learn how to count up and down in hundredths, write fractions as numbers, convert common fractions into decimals, and vice-versa.
This is also when kids are taught to add and subtract fractions while dividing two-digit numbers by 10 and 100.
Learning fractions will also involve skills from other core sections, including addition, subtraction and rounding.
Measurements are another facet of this part of the curriculum, as part of introducing younger minds to maths in everyday life. The Year 4 maths curriculum includes sections on:
UK pupils gain confidence in working with shapes. This will involve classifying three and four-sided shapes. Plus, they’ll learn about acute and obtuse angles and symmetry within 3D shapes.
They’ll also expand their minds by translating shapes across four directions and plotting coordinates on grids.
With stats being such an essential part of the modern world, it’s no surprise that the Year 4 maths curriculum includes an introduction to real-world statistics.
As part of this year’s introduction to statistics, children begin studying how to interpret and present data in bar and line graphs/charts. They’ll also learn about solving problems using tables and pictograms
Did you know?
DoodleMaths is standards-aligned to the national KS2 maths curriculum. With our maths app, your child can practise Year 4 maths problems & play fun maths games anytime!
The Year 4 maths national curriculum doesn’t require a formal sit-down test at the end of the year. Your child won’t be expected to tackle one of these until the end of Year 6.
Instead, teachers assess children throughout the year and compare their performance to key objectives set by the current incarnation of the national curriculum.
However, since the 2021/2022 academic year, the government has introduced a Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) for all Year 4 pupils.
This will involve an online test with 25 random times tables questions. Each question gives pupils six seconds to answer, with a three-second rest before the next question.
It’s not a pass/fail test and takes less than five minutes to complete, but pupils are expected to be confident in their times tables, including 12 x 12.
Supporting your child with Year 4 maths questions at home can feel overwhelming, especially if maths isn’t your strong suit. But maths is used in our everyday lives and taking advantage of that can increase your child’s confidence in the subject.
Some ideas to help them include:
It’s also important for parents to take an active interest in their child’s learning by regularly supporting them with their homework and talking to their teacher. If there are any areas they struggle with, early intervention can help them grow in confidence.
We also have a handy app for Year 4 maths help on tablets and smartphones to support revision on fractions, multiplication, and more.
Discover DoodleMaths to help become the maths wizard they were born to be and make the Year 4 maths curriculum a breeze!
Parents, sign up for a DoodleMaths subscription and see your child become a maths wizard!
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