KS2 · Ages 7–8
What should my Year 3 child know?
Year 3 is the first year of Key Stage 2 and the biggest single jump in primary. Subjects start to feel like separate subjects, and children are expected to explain their reasoning rather than just give an answer.
First, the bit that takes the pressure off
If you home educate in England, the National Curriculum does not legally apply to you. You are required to provide an education suitable to your child's age, ability and aptitude — not to teach a particular list in a particular order. Your child does not have to be "on track" with anything below.
The list is here because it is genuinely useful to know what most children this age are doing, not because you owe anyone a match.
The step up from Year 2
This is the year many home-educating parents start worrying. The honest answer: the content is not much harder, but the expectation of independent work is.
Milestones you can actually check
Not exhaustive, and not a test. A child ahead in one area and behind in another is the normal case, not a warning sign.
English
- Read longer chapter books independently
- Use paragraphs to group related ideas
- Use conjunctions to express time and cause
- Look up spellings in a dictionary
Maths
- Place value to 1,000
- 3, 4 and 8 times tables
- Formal column addition and subtraction
- Add and subtract simple fractions with the same denominator
- Tell the time to the minute
Science
- Plant nutrition and life cycles
- Rocks, soils and fossils
- Light, shadows and reflection
- Set up a simple fair test
The full subject list for Year 3
Most UK children in Year 3 cover these 14 subjects. You do not have to teach all of them, and plenty of home-educating families deliberately do not.
- English
- Maths
- Science
- History
- Geography
- Art & design
- Computing
- Design & technology
- French
- PE
- PSHE
- Religious education
- Critical thinking
- Islamic RE (optional)
If it is the planning you are dreading
Knowing what a Year 3 child covers is one thing. Deciding what to do on a Tuesday morning, every week, for a year, is the part that actually wears people down.
StudyDen sequences Year 3 into 854 lessons across 14 subjects, week by week, built on Oak National Academy's curriculum. You open it and the day is already planned.
See how it works — 7-day free trialEngland-focused. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own curricula and their own home-education rules. This is information, not legal advice.