Year 3: age, curriculum and assessments
Year 3 is the first year of Key Stage 2, and often the move from infants to juniors.
The answer
Children in Year 3 are 7 or 8 years old. Year 3 is in Key Stage 2, and every child turns 8 during the year.
Year 3 at a glance
Year 3 is the first year of Key Stage 2, in what schools call lower Key Stage 2. Key Stage 2 is Years 3 to 6, ages 7 to 11. Year 3 brings longer written work, column addition and subtraction, new times tables and, in most schools, a foreign language for the first time. There is no national test, so it is a genuine settling year.
- Age
- 7 to 8
- Key stage
- Key Stage 2
- Where
- Primary school
- National assessments
- None
What children learn in Year 3
Taken from the national curriculum in England (2014), Year 3 programme of study for mathematics, the Years 3 and 4 programme of study for English, and English Appendix 2.
Maths in Year 3
- Read, write, compare and order numbers to 1,000, and find 10 or 100 more or less than a number.
- Count in 4s, 8s, 50s and 100s, and recall the 3, 4 and 8 times tables.
- Add and subtract numbers with up to three digits using column addition and subtraction.
- Multiply a two-digit number by a one-digit number, moving from mental methods to written ones.
- Count in tenths, find fractions of a set, spot equivalent fractions, and add and subtract fractions with the same denominator within one whole, such as 5/7 + 1/7 = 6/7.
- Tell the time to the nearest minute on an analogue clock, including clocks with Roman numerals from I to XII, and use 12-hour and 24-hour clocks.
- Measure the perimeter of simple shapes, and recognise right angles and parallel and perpendicular lines.
- Read and make bar charts, pictograms and tables.
English in Year 3
- Use root words, prefixes and suffixes to read and spell new words, and start the statutory Years 3 and 4 spelling list.
- Use a dictionary to check meanings, finding words from their first two or three letters.
- Read fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction, find information, and work out how characters feel using evidence from the text.
- Use a or an correctly, and prefixes such as super-, anti- and auto-.
- Show time, place and cause with conjunctions (when, before, because), adverbs (then, soon) and prepositions (during, after).
- Group ideas into paragraphs, use headings, and use the present perfect: He has gone out to play.
- Start punctuating speech with inverted commas, and join handwriting.
Tests and assessments in Year 3
There is no statutory assessment in Year 3. Many schools use their own or published tests each term to track progress, and report to you at parents’ evenings and in the end of year report.
Where the 11+ fits in Year 3
Year 3 is too early for 11+ practice papers. In most selective areas the test is sat in September of Year 6, three years away.
What helps most now is what school is already teaching: reading widely, times tables and confident written methods. Every 11+ paper builds on those.
Telling the time
Year 3 is when children read clocks with Roman numerals from I to XII, and meet the 24-hour clock. Set a time and see it every way it can be written.
An interactive example loads here in your browser.
Is your child in Year 3?
Enter a date of birth to see the year group today, and the dates that matter from Reception to Year 7.
A school year finder loads here in your browser: enter a date of birth to see the year group.
How to help at home in Year 3
- Learn the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. They build on what your child knows: the 4s are double the 2s, and the 8s are double the 4s.
- Put an analogue clock in the kitchen, ideally one with Roman numerals, and ask the time at odd moments.
- Keep reading together, and ask why a character did something as well as what happened.
- Work through the Years 3 and 4 spelling list little and often: five words a week is plenty.
Read next
Other year groups
Questions parents ask
What age is Year 3?
Children in Year 3 are 7 or 8 years old. Children in the same year group are born between 1 September in one year and 31 August the next, so each child turns 8 at some point during Year 3.
What key stage is Year 3?
Year 3 is the first year of Key Stage 2, in what schools call lower Key Stage 2. Key Stage 2 is Years 3 to 6, ages 7 to 11.
Is there a national test in Year 3?
No. There is no statutory assessment in Year 3. The next national check is the multiplication tables check in June of Year 4.
Which times tables does Year 3 learn?
The 3, 4 and 8 times tables, on top of the 2, 5 and 10 times tables from Year 2. The rest, up to 12 × 12, follow in Year 4.
Is Year 3 too early to start 11+ preparation?
For formal practice, yes. Most areas test in September of Year 6. The best preparation in Year 3 is reading widely and learning times tables, which school already covers.
Curious how your Year 3 child is doing?
Our free diagnostic is built for Years 4 to 6, and confident Year 3 children can try it too. It checks maths, English and both kinds of reasoning, and shows what to practise next. No card is required.