At this level the focus should be on reinforcing existing knowledge and skills and building confidence in tackling word problems. Plenty of division can still be done mentally but written division is also very important.

There are two main methods in Year 6 in relation to written division: the long and short methods. Children tend to have a favourite, preferring one to the other but both appear in the KS2 SAT Papers. The target for short division is:

“Divide numbers up to 4-digits by a two-digit number using the formal written method of short division, where appropriate.”

We would like to highlight our sets of worksheets on this, keeping to straightforward two-digit numbers such as 21, 35 etc. All remainders are written as whole numbers. There is an awful lot of estimating to be done when using the short division method, so we have included a large area which children can use to confirm their mental calculations.

For example:

“How many 35s are there in 290?”

Children could try jotting down 35 x 9 and working out the answer (315), too many; then try 35 x 8 (280) yes! etc.