Year 6 Percentages When introducing percentages children are usually asked to work out the percentage mentally e.g. 50% of 200 is 100 or 10% of 50 is 5. This uses the knowledge that 50% is the same as half and 10% is the same as one tenth. However, when presented with a question such as: 37% of £45 many children find it difficult to know what to do. What they tend to forget is that ‘percent’ means out of 100 and 37% means 37 out of 100, which can be written as a fraction: 37/100. To find 37/100 of a number multiply by 37 and divide by 100. So to find 37% of £45, multiply 45 by 37 which equals 1665 and then divide by 100, making 16.65 or £16.65 (A short way of doing this is to multiply 45 by 0.37) We have just published two new sets of worksheets on percentages, the second of which have some really tricky questions, such as (32%of £80) x 24 = ?? Not for the faint-hearted! Go to Year 6 Fractions, Decimals and Percentages