Year 6 Maths Worksheets for SATs Practice
Year 6 and the KS2 SATs
Year 6 ends with the KS2 SATs — the national tests taken by Year 6 pupils in England in May. There are three maths papers: Paper 1 is arithmetic (30 minutes, 40 marks), and Papers 2 and 3 are reasoning (40 minutes each, 35 marks each). Altogether, the maths SATs test covers nearly the entire primary curriculum.
Good preparation isn't about cramming in Year 6. It's about solid foundations built from Year 3 onwards, plus regular practice in Year 6 itself to keep skills sharp.
Browse our full library of free Year 6 maths worksheets — all printable, all with answer keys.
The Year 6 Curriculum
Year 6 covers and revisits:
- Number and place value — numbers to 10,000,000, rounding
- Four operations — all four operations with large numbers, including long multiplication and long division
- Fractions, decimals and percentages — operations, conversions, finding percentages of amounts
- Ratio and proportion — introduced as a new topic
- Algebra — introduced with simple expressions and equations
- Measurement — units, area, volume, perimeter
- Geometry — angles, properties of shapes, coordinates in four quadrants
- Statistics — pie charts, mean, interpreting graphs
The Arithmetic Paper (Paper 1)
The arithmetic paper tests pure calculation — no words, no reasoning. Pupils need fluent long multiplication, long division, fraction operations, decimal operations, and percentage calculations.
Daily arithmetic practice, even just 10 minutes, pays enormous dividends here. Download:
- Multiplication worksheet PDF for long multiplication
- Division worksheet PDF for long division with 2-digit divisors
- Fractions worksheet PDF for all four operations with fractions
- Decimals worksheet PDF for decimal operations
Speed matters on Paper 1 — there are 36-40 questions in 30 minutes. Practising little and often is the best way to build the fluency needed.
The Reasoning Papers (Papers 2 and 3)
The reasoning papers test applied maths. Most questions are word problems or multi-step problems that require pupils to translate a real-world situation into maths, then solve it.
Reasoning questions often combine topics — a single problem might use fractions, percentages, and measurement all at once. This is where strong foundations matter most.
The word problems worksheet PDF gives structured practice on multi-step problems similar to those on the reasoning papers.
Focus Areas for SATs
Based on past papers, these topics appear heavily in SATs:
- Long multiplication and long division
- Fraction operations (especially with different denominators)
- Percentages of amounts
- Ratio problems ("for every 3 blue, there are 2 red")
- Area, volume and perimeter
- Reading and interpreting charts and graphs
- Multi-step word problems
Make sure your child is fluent in all of these before May.
A SATs Revision Plan
Starting in January of Year 6, a solid revision plan runs for about 16 weeks. That's time for:
- 4 weeks on arithmetic fluency (long multiplication, long division, fractions, decimals)
- 4 weeks on reasoning and word problems
- 4 weeks on weaker topics identified from practice papers
- 4 weeks on mixed practice with past papers
Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, is the right dosage for most Year 6 pupils. Any more and you risk burnout before May.
Past Papers Are Gold
Practise with real past SATs papers once your child has revised the content. Start with papers from 4-5 years ago, then work towards more recent ones. Time them properly — 30 minutes for Paper 1, 40 minutes each for Papers 2 and 3.
After each paper, don't just mark it. Go through every wrong answer with your child and talk through what went wrong. That's where real progress happens.
Keep It in Proportion
The SATs are important but not life-defining. They don't determine secondary school placements in most areas, and they don't go on a permanent record. The real value is the practice itself — Year 6 pupils who revise properly arrive at secondary school with strong foundations that make Year 7 far easier.
Keep maths practice low-pressure. Celebrate effort, acknowledge improvement, and don't catastrophise mistakes. A calm, steady approach produces better results than a stressed, frantic one.
Free, Printable, Answer Keys Included
All our worksheets are free to print and come with full answer keys. Browse the Year 6 maths worksheet library to find the topic your child needs this week.
Consistent daily practice is the single biggest predictor of SATs success. Fifteen to twenty minutes a day, starting in January, gets most pupils where they need to be.