Year 4 is the year that decides whether the rest of primary maths feels hard or easy. The arithmetic gets longer. The word problems start hiding the operation behind a story. And in June, the Multiplication Tables Check lands. If a child arrives at Year 5 fluent in tables and comfortable with multi-step problems, Years 5 and 6 are mostly consolidation. If they don't, Years 5 and 6 are spent catching up.
So it is worth being deliberate about what to focus on in Year 4. There are four priorities. In order:
1. Times tables — fluent by spring
This is the obvious one and the most important. The MTC in June expects every child to answer 25 questions, each inside six seconds. "Knowing" the tables does not pass — recalling them under time does.
If your child is in Year 4 and cannot yet answer 7×8 in under four seconds, that is the single highest-leverage thing to fix. Five minutes a day on an adaptive times-tables app that targets the gaps will get there faster than weekly catch-up sessions. Our Year 4 practice hub covers the priorities, but the daily habit is what carries the work.
2. Written methods for + and −
Year 4 is when most schools teach the formal column methods for addition and subtraction of three- and four-digit numbers. It is a year of transition: mental arithmetic and informal methods still work for the easier cases, but the longer ones need a written approach.
The thing to focus on is not the method itself — children can be taught that in an afternoon. The thing to focus on is accuracy. A child who carries the wrong digit, or forgets to subtract the borrowed ten, gets the wrong answer with confidence. Slowing down on early questions, then speeding up, builds accuracy first and speed second.
- Practise one column addition per day, alongside tables.
- Check the answer by doing it a different way — estimate first, then check the units digit.
- Do not introduce long multiplication or long division this year. Both come in Year 5.
3. Fractions, the basics
Fractions are where Year 4 maths starts to feel different from Years 1–3. Until now, most of the work has been on whole numbers; now there is a new kind of number, with new rules.
The four facts that get a child through Year 4 fractions:
- A fraction is part of a whole — and the bottom number tells you how many equal parts the whole is split into.
- Equivalent fractions look different but mean the same thing (1/2 = 2/4 = 4/8).
- You can only add or subtract fractions when they share the same denominator. This is why equivalent fractions matter.
- A fraction of a number means multiplication: 1/4 of 20 is 5, not "20 divided by 4 stuff."
If your child is comfortable with these four, Year 4 fractions work is manageable. If any of them is unclear, that is where to spend ten extra minutes.
4. Multi-step word problems
Year 4 word problems stop being "Sam has 12 apples, Anne has 5 more. How many altogether?" They start looking like "Sam has 12 apples. Anne has 5 more than Sam. Tom has half of Anne. How many do they have altogether?" — three operations in three different directions.
The skill is not calculation. The skill is reading the problem once, working out what the question is actually asking, and identifying which operations to do, in which order.
- Practise by reading the problem aloud. The child closes the book, then retells it: "Sam has 12. Anne has 5 more. Tom has half. Find the total."
- If they can retell the problem, they can solve it. If they cannot, they were never reading the question.
- One multi-step problem a day, deliberately, builds the skill much faster than a worksheet once a week.
A reasonable weekly plan
If you are trying to get all four priorities into the week without it feeling like a second school:
- Five minutes daily — times tables practice. The MTC is unforgiving.
- Two column sums a week — one addition, one subtraction. Five minutes combined.
- One fractions fact — drill equivalent fractions or "fraction of a number" for ten minutes.
- One multi-step word problem — read aloud, retell, solve.
That is three to four short sessions a week plus the daily five minutes. Under an hour total. Most children, given a term, will move up a level on the school assessment by Christmas.
The Year 4 practice page lays out the same priorities with the kinds of questions the term will cover, if you would like a structured version to follow.
Tracking what matters
Knowing what to practise is the easy part. Knowing whether it is working is harder. The parent's job is to notice: is the problem the calculation, the recall, or the reading?
If you want that work done for you — accuracy, recall speed, and a sense of what is getting better week-on-week — a free MathSprout account tracks all of it. Three to four short sessions a week plus one daily habit, and the Year 4 jump stops being something to worry about.