Year 3 maths: what your child learns and how to help

What do Year 3 children learn in maths?

This is everything in the national curriculum for England for Year 3, in plain words. Schools choose the order and the pace, so your child won't meet these in the order below.

Number and place value

• Count from 0 in 4s, 8s, 50s and 100s.
• Find 10 or 100 more or less than a number.
• Know what each digit in a three-digit number is worth: hundreds, tens and ones.
• Compare and order numbers up to 1,000.
• Read and write numbers up to 1,000 in numerals and in words.
• Show and estimate numbers in different ways, for example on a number line or with measures.
• Solve number problems and practical problems using all of these.

Addition and subtraction

• Add and subtract in their head: a three-digit number and ones, a three-digit number and tens, and a three-digit number and hundreds.
• Add and subtract numbers with up to 3 digits using column addition and column subtraction.
• Estimate answers, and use the inverse to check them: check a subtraction by adding.
• Solve problems, including missing number problems, using number facts and place value.

Multiplication and division

• Know the multiplication and division facts for the 3, 4 and 8 times tables.
• Write and work out multiplications and divisions using the tables they know, including a two-digit number times a one-digit number, first in their head and then with a written method.
• Solve problems, including missing number problems, scaling problems like "four times as high", and problems like "3 hats and 4 coats: how many different outfits?"

Fractions

• Count up and down in tenths, and know that tenths come from dividing something into 10 equal parts.
• Find and write fractions of a set of objects, like a quarter of 12 sweets or three quarters of them.
• See fractions as numbers in their own right, with a place on the number line.
• Use diagrams to show equivalent fractions with small denominators, like a half and two quarters.
• Add and subtract fractions with the same denominator within one whole, like five sevenths add one seventh makes six sevenths.
• Compare and order unit fractions (a half, a third, a quarter), and fractions with the same denominator.

Measurement

• Measure, compare, add and subtract lengths (m, cm and mm), mass (kg and g) and volume (l and ml).
• Measure the perimeter of simple 2-D shapes.
• Add and subtract amounts of money and work out change, using pounds and pence.
• Tell and write the time from an analogue clock, including clocks with Roman numerals from I to XII, and use 12-hour and 24-hour clocks.
• Read the time to the nearest minute, and use words like a.m., p.m., noon and midnight.
• Know there are 60 seconds in a minute, and how many days there are in each month, in a year and in a leap year.
• Compare how long things take.

Geometry: shapes

• Draw 2-D shapes and make 3-D shapes, and recognise 3-D shapes whichever way round they are.
• Know that an angle can describe a turn or be part of a shape.
• Spot right angles, and know that two right angles make a half turn, three make three quarters of a turn and four make a whole turn.
• Say whether an angle is bigger or smaller than a right angle.
• Spot horizontal and vertical lines, and pairs of perpendicular and parallel lines.

Statistics

• Read and draw bar charts, pictograms and tables.
• Answer questions like "How many more?" and "How many fewer?" using bar charts and pictograms with scales, and tables.

Mental maths and the move to written methods in Year 3

Year 3 is when children start writing calculations in columns. Before that, they need to be quick at mental maths: knowing what each digit is worth, and the addition facts that cross 10, like 8 + 6 = 14.

Partitioning. Children split numbers by place value, and the curriculum asks for more than one way: 146 is 100, 40 and 6, but it's also 130 and 16. Splitting a number in a different way is what makes exchanging in column subtraction make sense. Schools often show this with a part-whole model, a circle for the whole joined to circles for its parts.

Column addition. The numbers are written one under the other, ones under ones and tens under tens, and added from the ones. For 345 + 278, the ones make 5 + 8 = 13, so 3 goes in the ones column and the 1 ten is carried into the tens. The tens then make 4 + 7 + 1, which is 12 tens: write 2 and carry 1 hundred. The hundreds make 3 + 2 + 1, so the answer is 623.

Column subtraction. For 452 − 127, there aren't enough ones to take 7 from 2, so one of the 5 tens is exchanged for 10 ones. That leaves 4 tens and 12 ones. Then 12 − 7 = 5, 4 tens take away 2 tens leaves 2 tens, and 4 hundreds take away 1 hundred leaves 3 hundreds: the answer is 325.

Multiplying. Children work out a two-digit number times a one-digit number, first in their head and then on paper, by splitting the bigger number into tens and ones. For 23 × 4: 20 × 4 = 80 and 3 × 4 = 12, so the answer is 92. This leads to the column method for multiplication in Year 4.

Children also learn to estimate first and check with the inverse. 345 + 278 is about 350 + 280, so an answer near 630 makes sense, and 623 − 278 should take you back to 345.

The 3, 4 and 8 times tables in Year 3

The national curriculum adds the 3, 4 and 8 times tables in Year 3, with the division facts that go with them. Children already know the 2s, 5s and 10s from Year 2. The 2s, 4s and 8s are linked by doubling: double a fact in the 2 times table to get the 4s, and double again to get the 8s. 3 × 2 = 6, so 3 × 4 = 12 and 3 × 8 = 24.

Each table has its own page with the facts, patterns and a practice round: the 3 times table, the 4 times table and the 8 times table. Government guidance for teachers suggests making the 2, 4, 5, 8 and 10 times tables secure first, and groups the 3s with the tables learnt in Year 4, so don't worry if the 3s take a little longer. All the times tables up to 12 × 12 come together in Year 4.

What should a Year 3 child know by the summer?

The curriculum describes what children are taught across the year, and every child moves through it at their own pace. Government guidance for teachers picks out the ideas that the next year builds on most:

• that 10 tens make 100, and how many tens there are in a number like 340 (34)
• what each digit in a three-digit number is worth, and splitting it in more than one way
• where any three-digit number sits on a number line, and the tens and hundreds either side of it
• the addition and subtraction facts that cross 10, and pairs that make 100, like 64 + 36 = 100
• column addition and subtraction with up to three-digit numbers
• the 2, 4, 5, 8 and 10 times tables, with their division facts
• using a fact they know for bigger numbers: 3 × 4 = 12, so 30 × 4 = 120
• finding a unit fraction of an amount with a division fact: a quarter of 20 is 5, because 20 ÷ 4 = 5
• adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator, within one whole
• spotting right angles in shapes, and parallel and perpendicular sides

Are there Year 3 maths tests?

There's no national maths test in Year 3. Many schools use their own assessment tests during the year to see what to teach next, and your child's teacher can tell you how these are used and what they show.

The next national test is the multiplication tables check in June of Year 4. For children in Year 3 in 2026 to 2027, that's in the two weeks starting on Monday 5 June 2028. You can see what it's like with our free tables check practice.

Maths words for Year 3

Place value

What a digit is worth because of where it is. In 352, the 5 is worth 5 tens, or 50.

Hundreds, tens and ones

The first three columns of place value. 352 is 3 hundreds, 5 tens and 2 ones.

Partition

To split a number into parts, like 146 into 100, 40 and 6, or into 130 and 16.

Column addition and subtraction

The written methods where the numbers are lined up by place value, ones under ones and tens under tens.

Exchanging

Swapping 1 ten for 10 ones (or 1 hundred for 10 tens) so a column subtraction can be done.

Inverse

The operation that undoes another. Adding undoes subtracting, so you can check a subtraction by adding.

Multiple

A number in a times table. 24 is a multiple of 8.

Unit fraction

A fraction with 1 on top, like a half, a third or a quarter.

Numerator and denominator

The top and bottom numbers of a fraction. The denominator says how many equal parts the whole is split into.

Tenth

One part when something is split into 10 equal parts.

Equivalent fractions

Fractions that are worth the same, like a half and two quarters.

Perimeter

The distance all the way around the edge of a shape.

Right angle

A quarter turn, like the corner of a square.

Parallel and perpendicular

Parallel lines always stay the same distance apart. Perpendicular lines meet at a right angle.

Horizontal and vertical

Horizontal lines go straight across, like the horizon. Vertical lines go straight up and down.

a.m. and p.m.

a.m. is the time from midnight to noon, and p.m. is from noon to midnight.

Pictogram

A chart that uses pictures, where each picture can stand for more than one thing.

Year 3 maths questions to try

These are our own practice questions for Year 3, not a test from school, so there's no score to worry about. Try a few together, then open the answers to check.

1. 4 × 8
2. 345 + 278
3. 502 − 167
4. What is a quarter of 20?
5. What is two sevenths add three sevenths?
6. How many tens are there in 340?

Answers

1. 32
2. 623
3. 335
4. 5
5. Five sevenths
6. 34

How to help with Year 3 maths at home

• Times tables, little and often. A few minutes on the 3s, 4s or 8s most days does more than a long session at the weekend. Our guide on how to learn times tables has a 10 minute routine, and the times tables pages have practice for every table.
• Ask how they worked it out. Explaining a method out loud helps it stick, and shows you which method your child's school uses. It's worth sticking to that method rather than teaching a different one.
• Play with three-digit numbers. House numbers, page numbers and prices are good for saying what each digit is worth, and for finding 10 or 100 more.
• Let them handle money. Paying with coins and working out the change uses adding and taking away with pounds and pence.
• Tell the time together. Read an analogue clock through the day, and talk about how long things take, like a journey or a film.
• Share things fairly. Cutting a pizza into quarters, or sharing 12 grapes between 3, is fractions and division at once.