KS2 · Ages 8–9
What should my Year 4 child know?
Year 4 is the times-tables year. There is a national multiplication tables check in England for school pupils at the end of it, and the whole year quietly builds towards fluency to 12×12.
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 3
Recall speed matters more than in any previous year — not because of the check itself, but because every Year 5 topic assumes tables are automatic.
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
- Use fronted adverbials with a comma
- Understand and use apostrophes for possession
- Summarise a paragraph in one sentence
- Read aloud with expression
Maths
- All times tables to 12×12, recalled quickly
- Place value to 10,000
- Equivalent fractions
- Hundredths and simple decimals
- Perimeter and area of rectangles
Science
- States of matter and the water cycle
- Sound and vibration
- Simple electrical circuits
- Classify living things
The full subject list for Year 4
Most UK children in Year 4 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 4 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 4 into 845 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.