KS2 · Ages 9–10
What should my Year 5 child know?
Year 5 is the widest year in primary maths — fractions, decimals and percentages all arrive and have to connect to each other. In English, the emphasis moves to writing at length with a controlled style.
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 4
Children are expected to plan, draft and edit rather than write once. That editing habit is the thing worth building at home.
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
- Plan, draft, edit and proofread
- Use relative clauses
- Use modal verbs to show possibility
- Compare how two writers treat the same subject
Maths
- Numbers to 1,000,000
- Prime, square and cube numbers
- Add and subtract fractions with different denominators
- Convert between fractions, decimals and percentages
- Volume of cubes and cuboids
Science
- Earth, Sun and Moon
- Forces: gravity, air and water resistance
- Reversible and irreversible changes
- Life cycles across animal groups
The full subject list for Year 5
Most UK children in Year 5 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 5 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 5 into 865 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.