What children learn in Year 3
Year 3 is the first year of Key Stage 2. Most children start the year aged 7 and turn 8 during it. Here is what the national curriculum sets out for maths and English in Year 3, the national checks that fall this year and simple ways to help at home.
Daily challenges that keep pace with your child's school year
For Years 1 to 6, with an 11+ track when you're ready.
Maths in Year 3
- Number and place valueNumbers to 1,000.
- CalculationAdding and subtracting three-digit numbers. The 3, 4 and 8 times tables. Multiplying and dividing by a one-digit number.
- Fractions, decimals and percentagesFractions of amounts and equivalent fractions.
- MeasurementLength and perimeter. Mass and capacity. Adding and subtracting money, giving change. Time, including 24-hour clocks.
- Shape and positionAngles, lines and shapes.
- StatisticsBar charts, pictograms and tables.
Many schools teach maths in the order set by White Rose Maths. See the Year 3 blocks term by term.
Source: National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study (Department for Education).
English in Year 3
- ReadingFinding information and simple inference. Word meanings in context.
- SpellingYear 3 spelling rules, prefixes and suffixes. Homophones.
- Grammar and punctuationConjunctions, prepositions and adverbs. Inverted commas for speech.
Words to learn in Years 3 and 4
The national curriculum lists these words for children to spell by the end of Year 4. Brackets show a second form to learn too.
- accident(ally)
- actual(ly)
- address
- answer
- appear
- arrive
- believe
- bicycle
- breath
- breathe
- build
- busy/business
- calendar
- caught
- centre
- century
- certain
- circle
- complete
- consider
- continue
- decide
- describe
- different
- difficult
- disappear
- early
- earth
- eight/eighth
- enough
- exercise
- experience
- experiment
- extreme
- famous
- favourite
- February
- forward(s)
- fruit
- grammar
- group
- guard
- guide
- heard
- heart
- height
- history
- imagine
- increase
- important
- interest
- island
- knowledge
- learn
- length
- library
- material
- medicine
- mention
- minute
- natural
- naughty
- notice
- occasion(ally)
- often
- opposite
- ordinary
- particular
- peculiar
- perhaps
- popular
- position
- possess(ion)
- possible
- potatoes
- pressure
- probably
- promise
- purpose
- quarter
- question
- recent
- regular
- reign
- remember
- sentence
- separate
- special
- straight
- strange
- strength
- suppose
- surprise
- therefore
- though/although
- thought
- through
- various
- weight
- woman/women
Source: National curriculum in England: English programmes of study (Department for Education).
National checks in Year 3
There are no national tests in Year 3. The next one is the multiplication tables check at the end of Year 4, so this is the year the 3, 4 and 8 times tables come in.
Source: Primary assessments: future dates (Standards and Testing Agency, updated 12 October 2026).
Ways to help at home
The 3, 4 and 8 times tables
- Count legs: 4 on every dog, 8 on every spider, 3 on every stool.
- Ask one table fact a day at breakfast, then the matching division.
Length and time
- Measure things at home in millimetres, centimetres and metres, then find the perimeter of a table.
- Read the time to the minute, including on a clock with Roman numerals.
Speech and expression
- Find inverted commas in a book and read the speech aloud in each character's voice.
- Read a page aloud together with expression, as if for a radio show.
The CoachKite report shows which Year 3 topics your child has mastered and where they stand against their year. See what's in the report.
Daily challenges that keep pace with your child's school year
For Years 1 to 6, with an 11+ track when you're ready.