Year 7 maths is mostly primary-school number work made more exact, plus two big new steps: calculating with negative numbers (children meet them only briefly in primary) and algebra. The most useful thing you can do at home is ask short questions that make your child explain their thinking, rather than showing them a method.
One honest caveat before anything else. The national curriculum for England does not set maths content year by year. It sets it for the whole of Key Stage 3, which covers Years 7, 8 and 9. The order is decided by each school, so what follows is the typical shape of a Year 7, not a guarantee. The school's scheme of work, which most will share if you ask, is the real list.
What the curriculum asks for in Key Stage 3
The Department for Education organises KS3 maths into six areas: number; algebra; ratio, proportion and rates of change; geometry and measures; probability; and statistics. Its introduction also says pupils should move fluently between representations (for example fractions, decimals and percentages, or equations and graphs) and should reason and solve problems, not only follow procedures.
In Year 7, the areas that usually do most of the work are these:
- Number: place value with decimals, ordering positive and negative numbers, the four operations with fractions and decimals, factors, multiples and primes, and the order of operations.
- Algebra, first steps: algebraic notation, substituting numbers into an expression, collecting like terms, and solving simple equations.
- Geometry and measures: angles, perimeter and area, and drawing and measuring accurately.
- Statistics: tables, charts and averages such as the mean, median and mode.
Ratio and proportion, more formal geometry and probability tend to arrive across Years 8 and 9, though schools vary.
- NumberDecimals, fractions, negatives, order of operations
- First algebraNotation, substitution, like terms
- GeometryAngles, perimeter, area
- StatisticsCharts, mean, median, mode
Order varies by school; ask for the scheme of work.
Where children get stuck
Three places catch most families out, and they all share a pattern: the child applies a rule that worked earlier in a situation where it no longer fits.
Fractions
Try this question: what is 2/3 + 1/4?
The common wrong turn is adding the tops and the bottoms to get 3/7. Do not say it is wrong. Ask: "Is 3/7 bigger or smaller than 2/3?" A child who sees that adding something to 2/3 has produced a smaller number has found the error themselves. Then ask what the pieces would need in common before they can be counted together. (The answer is 11/12.)
Negative numbers
Try this question: what is −3 − 5?
Children often say −2, or flip it to 2, because "two minuses make a plus" has stuck as a slogan. Draw a number line, ask them to stand on −3, and walk five steps the way the minus sign says. The picture usually does what the slogan never could. (The answer is −8.)
The first algebra
Try this question: simplify 3a + 2 + 4a.
The wrong turn is 9a, because the 2 gets folded into a letter term. Give them a test: "Let a be 10. What does the original give you? What does 9a give you?" The two numbers disagree, and they can work out why. (The answer is 7a + 2.) Substituting a number to check an answer is a habit worth building early, because it works for almost all algebra.
How to help without doing it for them
A rough ladder of help, from least to most:
- Orient. "What is the question actually asking you to find?" A surprising number of stuck moments are misreadings.
- Narrow. "Ignore the rest. What does just this part tell you?"
- Name the tool. "This is a common-denominator problem" or "this is a number-line problem", without carrying it out.
- Work a twin. Solve a different example with different numbers, every line written down, then say: "Now go back to yours."
The last step matters most. If you finish the question they brought you, they have seen an answer but have not done anything. The same ladder, in app form, is how Heddy's tutors hint.
- 4Work a twinDifferent numbers, then: now go back to yours
- 3Name the toolSay which kind of problem, do not do it
- 2NarrowJust this part: what does it tell you?
- 1OrientWhat is it asking you to find?
The last step always stays with your child.
What to try tonight
- Ask your child to teach you one thing from today's lesson, as if you were the one who did not get it.
- Pick one of the three stuck points above and try the example question. Keep it to five minutes.
- Whenever they give an answer, ask "how could you check that?" before you say whether it is right.
- Ask them to write down one mistake they made this week and why it made sense at the time. Mistakes become useful once they are named.
- If you see a pattern across several questions, tell their teacher. One class comment, like "my child still adds fractions across", is worth more than a dozen vague worries.
Where Heddy fits, gently
Heddy is an iOS tutoring app with Professor Pi for maths. It works on the ladder above and never gives the answer to a child's own question. It is built for students aged 13 and over, so a Year 7 child is usually a little young for it; aitutors.me is the parent-provisioned route for younger pupils. Either way, the questions in this article work with a pencil and the back of an envelope. Next up is Year 8 maths, where ratio and algebra get heavier.
Updated 30 Sep 2026. Written by Duke Harewood, who builds the tutors at aitutors.me.
Questions people ask
What do children learn in Year 7 maths?
The national curriculum sets maths content for the whole of Key Stage 3 (Years 7 to 9), not year by year, so each school decides the order. Year 7 typically consolidates number work from primary school, including fractions, decimals and percentages, calculates with negative numbers for the first time, and introduces algebra, shape and angle work, and basic statistics. Ask the school for its scheme of work to see the exact order.
Why does my child find Year 7 maths harder than primary?
Mostly because the curriculum asks pupils to move between representations, such as fractions, decimals and equations, and to explain why a method works. Algebra also uses letters for numbers, which is a real change of thinking rather than just harder sums.
Should I show my child the method or let them struggle?
Neither extreme works. Ask a question that narrows the problem first, then, if they are still stuck, work a different but similar example in front of them and ask them to redo their own. The aim is that they carry out the final step themselves.
Is Heddy suitable for a Year 7 child?
Heddy is built for students aged 13 and over, so most Year 7 pupils are below its age floor. The habits in this article work with or without any app, and aitutors.me is the parent-provisioned route for younger children.