What will my child learn in Year 5?

What's new this year

Year 5 is the first year of upper Key Stage 2, and there are no national tests. The big step is in maths: numbers get much larger, written methods get longer, and fractions, decimals and percentages start to connect. In English, writing becomes more varied and more deliberate, and reading moves on to longer, more complex books.

Children are often given more responsibility for homework and organising themselves, which is good preparation for Year 6 and secondary school. If your child finds the step up hard, mention it to the class teacher early; small gaps are easier to close now than later.

Maths in Year 5

• Numbers to at least 1,000,000, rounding, negative numbers and Roman numerals to 1,000.
• Factors, multiples, prime numbers, and square and cube numbers.
• Long multiplication by a two-digit number, short division with remainders, and multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000.
• Fractions: equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, adding and subtracting with related denominators, and multiplying fractions by whole numbers.
• Decimals to three places, and percentages linked to fractions and decimals.
• Measuring angles in degrees, the area of rectangles, converting units, and reading line graphs and timetables.

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Place Value to a Million: A Rocket Mission with Pip

Learn place value to a million and how to count in powers of 10. Build blocks, set digits on a place value ch… Ages 8–1125 min ♡

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Year 5 Multiplication and Division: Harbour of Numbers

Learn Year 5 multiplication and division: long multiplication, short division and remainders, by loading boat… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1175 min ♡

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Multiply and Divide by 10, 100 and 1,000: Digit Slide Lab

Learn to multiply and divide whole numbers and decimals by 10, 100 and 1,000 by sliding digits across a place… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1145 min ♡

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Adding and Subtracting Fractions: Bake with Pip the Penguin

Learn adding and subtracting fractions, mixed numbers included, then simplify, compare and order them by cutt… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1150 min ♡

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Percentages for Kids: Explore Percent Island with Percy

Learn what per cent means and how percentages, fractions and decimals match. Shade hundred squares, run a fra… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 8–1160 min ♡

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Measuring Angles: A Lighthouse Adventure with Pip

Learn about measuring angles in degrees with a protractor, then turn a lighthouse beam to estimate, draw and… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1170 min ♡

English in Year 5

• Reading: a wider range of books, including myths, plays and older stories; summarising, inferring and explaining the effect of figurative language.
• Grammar: relative clauses ("the girl, who was late, ran"), and modal verbs and adverbs that show possibility (might, should, perhaps).
• Punctuation: brackets, dashes and commas for extra information, and commas to make meaning clear.
• Writing: linking ideas across paragraphs with words like later, nearby and secondly.
• Spelling: the Year 5 and 6 statutory word list, and prefixes and suffixes such as dis-, mis-, -ise and -ify.

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Year 5 and 6 Spelling Words: Sail the Spelling Isles

Learn the 100 Year 5 and 6 spelling words using word roots, word origins and memory tricks, then type them in… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1160 min ♡

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Relative Clauses: All Aboard the Relative Railway

Learn how relative clauses add information with who, which, where, when, whose and that by hooking word carri… Ages 9–1145 min ♡

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Modal Verbs and Possibility: The Maybe-Meter Game

Learn how modal verbs like might, should, will and must, and adverbs like perhaps and surely, show possibilit… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1140 min ♡

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Parenthesis: Brackets, Dashes and Commas on a Word Train

Learn how to use parenthesis with brackets, dashes and commas, then add extra information to sentences by cou… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1145 min ♡

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Linking Paragraphs: Build Bridges in Link Lagoon

Learn how linking paragraphs works: build cohesion with firstly, then, this, later, nearby and had by laying… Members · chapter 1 freeAges 9–1145 min ♡

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Figurative Language: Paint Word Pictures with Quill

Learn figurative language: spot similes, metaphors and personification, then explain their effect on the read… Ages 9–1145 min ♡

Science and other subjects

Year 5 science covers life cycles and reproduction in plants and animals, how humans change as they grow older, dissolving, separating mixtures and reversible and irreversible changes, Earth and space, and forces including gravity, friction, levers and gears. History and geography vary by school, for example Ancient Greece or mountains and climate zones.

This year's topics, subject by subject

The roadmaps below show the order in which topics usually build up through Year 5, subject by subject. Schools teach in different orders, so treat them as a guide to what's coming rather than a timetable.

How you can help at home

• Use real numbers: populations, distances, football crowds. Ask which is bigger and by roughly how much.
• Look for percentages in sales and ask what the price would be.
• Ask your child to sum up a chapter in three sentences. Summarising is a key Year 5 reading skill.
• Keep times tables ticking over; they underpin almost everything in Year 5 maths.
• If a method is new to you, ask your child to teach it. Our guide to how maths is taught explains the common ones.