All twelve times tables should be secure by the end of this year, alongside decimals, area, and the national Multiplication Tables Check.
25 August 2026 · 6 min read
Year 4 has one very specific, well-known milestone attached to it: by the end of the year, children are expected to know all their times tables up to 12 × 12 fluently, and most schools in England administer the statutory Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) in June to confirm it. But that's only part of what's covered — decimals, area, and larger numbers all arrive this year too.
Children work with numbers up to 10,000, including negative numbers in context (temperature, for example), and are introduced to Roman numerals up to 100. Rounding to the nearest 10, 100 or 1,000 becomes a regular skill, not just an occasional exercise.
The formal column method extends to numbers with up to four digits, including where more than one exchange is needed. Estimating and using inverse operations to check answers continues to be expected as standard practice, not an optional extra.
This is the big one: recalling multiplication and division facts for all tables up to 12 × 12, fast and accurately. Children also use formal written layout (short multiplication) to multiply two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number, and start recognising factor pairs.
Fractions and decimals become properly connected this year: recognising and writing decimal equivalents of common fractions (1/4, 1/2, 3/4), counting up and down in hundredths, and comparing numbers with the same number of decimal places up to two decimal places. Children also add and subtract fractions with the same denominator, including fractions greater than one whole.
Area appears for the first time this year, starting with finding the area of rectilinear shapes by counting squares. Children convert between different units of measurement (kilometres to metres, hours to minutes), and continue working with money and time in more complex contexts. In geometry, they compare and classify angles as acute, obtuse or right angles, and are introduced to coordinates and simple translations. Statistics moves on to interpreting and presenting discrete and continuous data, including time graphs.
The 6, 7, 9 and 12 times tables tend to lag behind the rest, since they don't have the same obvious patterns as 2, 5 or 10 — this is genuinely normal and worth extra targeted practice rather than a sign of a wider problem. Connecting fractions to decimals (knowing that 1/4 and 0.25 are the same value) also causes real hesitation, since it asks children to see two very different-looking representations as identical, similar to the fraction-equivalence leap in Year 3.
Grasp Maths tracks all twelve times tables individually and flags exactly which specific facts are still slow or shaky, rather than treating "times tables" as one pass/fail skill — useful preparation for a national check that tests every fact, not just the easy ones.
Looking for printable practice too? See our Year 4 maths worksheets.
Try a free Grasp Maths practice session, matched to the Year 4 curriculum.