Reasoning skills are all about applying knowledge and understanding to solve new problems. The key feature of work in Year 6 has to be the KS2 Maths SATs which are held in May. There are three written papers. One is a calculation paper, concentrating on mental and written calculations. The other two are reasoning papers. To do well in these tests children need to have plenty of practice throughout the primary years of the style of questions found on these papers.

However, there is more to do in maths than just working towards tests. Once the tests are over there is still a half term where children can really enjoy their maths and work on interesting problem solving and investigations.

We have a great selection of ideas which are fun and challenging. The ‘Farmer’s Field’ investigation is one of my favourites and can lead to some quite complex maths. Investigating triangle numbers is also a great topic to look at.