What your child learns in Year 6 maths, English and science
Take some of the stress out of the SATs hype by helping your child build their confidence in maths and English. Although your child may not be tested formally in science, they’ll still need to show a good understanding of each key area – life processes and living things, materials and their properties, and physical processes.
In addition to making sure your child is confident in the areas they’ve learned up to now, it’s also important that they’re familiar with how Key Stage 2 SATs assessments work. You can print off past KS2 SATs papers for them to practise with and read our guides on how to use SATs past papers for English, maths and science.
Download TheSchoolRun's Year 6 Taster Pack for free for an overview of what your child will learn and some English, maths and science activities to try at home with them.
Year 6 maths
Year 6 children will learn about square, prime and negative numbers. They will be multiplying and dividing with numbers up to four digits, using formal, efficient methods. They will be doing more complicated work with fractions, decimals and percentages. Children will also start to learn about ratio and proportion and will be introduced to algebra. They will need to measure the perimeter, area and volume of different shapes, plus convert between units of measurement. Coordinates in all four quadrants are introduced in Year 6, as is the interpretation and construction of pie charts.
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Find out more about the Year 6 maths curriculum in our guide for parents.
Download free Year 6 maths worksheets for your child to do at home, and help reinforce what they’re learning in class.
Year 6 English
In Year 6, children will read a range of different genres. They will enhance their inference of characters' motives and feelings and be able to discuss and evaluate how authors use figurative language. They will learn to spell a variety of more sophisticated words with different prefixes and suffixes. They will also think about how words are related by learning about synonyms and antonyms. When writing a text, they will carefully select vocabulary and use a variety of presentational devices (including adverbials) to structure text. They will use a range of punctuation correctly, including semi-colons, colons, dashes and hyphens.
Our parents' guide to the Year 6 English curriculum offers a more detailed guide to what is taught as part of Y6 literacy.
You can strengthen your child’s storytelling and writing skills with our selection of free Year 6 English worksheets.
Year 6 science
This year, children will learn about:
- Living things and their habitats, including classifying micro-organisms, plants and animals
- Animals including humans, focussing mainly on diet and exercise
- Evolution and inheritance, looking at fossils, reproduction and adaptation
- Light, looking closely at how it travels and how shadows are made
- Electricity, analysing the function of lamps, buzzers, cells and switches
Struggling to help your child with science revision? Read more about the Year 6 science curriculum and download and print off our free Year 6 science worksheets for them to do at home.
When revising for SATs, sit down with your child and review the key curriculum targets for Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5. You can also check up on what’s already been covered in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
Visit our special KS2 SATs resource area for more advice, information and study aids.
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