NZ Curriculum · Phase 2 (Years 4–6)

What your child learns in Year 6 Maths

Year 6 sits in the consolidation phase — multiplicative thinking, fractions and decimals, and increasingly formal geometry, measurement, and statistics. Below is every skill the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum (2025) expects a Year 6 student to practise — 64 objectives across 6 strands — exactly as our tutors track them.

Number

Number structures
  • Reading, writing, comparing, and ordering any whole number and representing them using base 10 structure
  • Finding factor pairs for numbers that result from multiplying any two whole numbers between 1 and 12
  • Rounding whole numbers to the nearest million, hundred thousand, ten thousand, thousand, hundred, or ten
  • Rounding hundredths to the nearest whole number or tenth
  • Recognising square and cube numbers and the notation for squared ( 2 ) and cubed ( 3 )
  • Memorising the square numbers to 144 and cube numbers to 125
  • Counting forwards and backwards with positive whole numbers, including working with negative numbers (e.g. starting at −6 and counting backwards in 2s)
Operations
  • Calculating expressions using the order of operations
  • Adding and subtracting any whole numbers
  • Multiplying any whole number by a two-digit number (e.g. 542 × 12)
  • Dividing up to five-digit whole numbers by a one-digit divisor, with a remainder (e.g. 1283 ÷ 5 = 256, remainder 3)
  • Connecting finding unit fractions of whole numbers to division (with remainders) (e.g. 1 — 6 of 31 is equivalent to 31 ÷ 6 = 5 1 — 6 )
  • Representing remainders from division as whole numbers, fractions, or rounded decimals, as appropriate to the context
Rational numbers
  • Reading, writing, and representing tenths, hundredths, and thousandths as fractions and decimals
  • Comparing and ordering numbers with up to three decimal places
  • Memorising decimal and percentage equivalents of common fractions ( 1 — 2 , 1 — 4 , 3 — 4 , 1 — 5 , 2 — 5 , 3 — 5 , 4 — 5 ) including fractions with denominators that are 10 or 100
  • Converting decimal tenths and hundredths to fractions and percentages (e.g. 0.31 = 31 — 100 = 31%)
  • Multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100, or 1,000 to make decimals and whole numbers (e.g. 1.3 × 10 = 13) and to identify tenths, hundredths, and thousandths places
  • Finding equivalent fractions
  • Comparing and ordering fractions where at least one denominator is a common multiple of all the others
  • Converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions
  • Adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers when one denominator is a multiple of the other
  • Adding and subtracting decimals to three decimal places
  • Finding a non-unit fraction of a whole number, using multiplication and division facts and where the answer is a whole number (e.g. 2 — 3 of 240)
  • Finding a whole set or amount when given a non-unit fraction, using multiplication and division facts (e.g. 3 — 4 of the set is 90, what is the whole set?)
  • Finding common percentages (1%, 10%, 20%, 25%, 50%, 75%) of whole numbers
  • Finding the whole (100%) when given a percentage (e.g. 75% is 24)
  • Reasoning proportionally with fractions, decimals, and percentages to compare two quantities and determine missing values
Financial mathematics
  • Calculating 10%, 25%, and 50% of whole dollar amounts (e.g. 50% of $280)
  • Investigating questions involving purchases (e.g. ensuring there’s enough money)

Algebra

Equations and relationships
  • Developing a rule for a growing pattern in words and making conjectures about further elements in the pattern
  • Checking the truth of and completing open number sentences that involve all four operations and that include the use of inequalities, respecting the order of operations (e.g. 8 × 7 ≤ 8 × 5 + 4 2 , true or false?)
  • Locating coordinate points on a coordinate plane, including points found on the x - or y -axis
  • Generating a table of values from a rule for a growing pattern and plotting these points on a coordinate plane

Measurement

Measuring
  • Accurately measuring length with a ruler, mass (weight) with scales, capacity with measuring jugs, temperature with a thermometer, and duration with a timer, using appropriate metric or time-based units or a combination of units (e.g. 2 hours and 30 minutes)
  • Estimating (using benchmarks) length, mass (weight), capacity, temperature, and duration, using appropriate metric or time-based units or a combination of units
  • Converting metric units of length (m and cm), mass (g and kg), and capacity (L and mL), including combining mixed units to produce units with up to 2 decimal places (e.g. 10 kg and 500 g = 10.5 kg)
  • Calculating, estimating, and comparing the volumes of cubes and rectangular prisms using standard units, including cubic centimetres (cm 3 ) and cubic metres (m 3 )
  • Visualising, estimating, and calculating (using multiplication) the areas of rectangles and right-angled triangles (in cm 2 and m 2 ) and the volumes of rectangular prisms (in cm 3 )
  • Classifying, measuring, and constructing angles up to 360°, using a protractor
  • Identifying and describing angles at a point, angles on a straight line, and vertically opposite angles, using angle notation
  • Reasoning about and finding unknown angles in situations involving angles at a point, angles on a straight line, and vertically opposite angles
  • Converting between units of time (h, min, s)
  • Measuring duration in both 12- and 24-hour time systems
  • Finding elapsed time in minutes across an hour (e.g. the difference between 2:53 pm and 3:28 pm)
  • Using and interpreting timetables to calculate the duration of events (e.g. bus and train schedules)

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Geometry

Shapes
  • Identifying, classifying, and explaining similarities and differences between 2D shapes (including different types of triangles and quadrilaterals) and between prisms and pyramids
  • Identifying and describing the interior angles of triangles and quadrilaterals
  • Identifying shapes with rotational symmetry and determining their order of rotational symmetry
Spatial reasoning
  • Visualising, creating, and describing 2D geometric patterns and tessellations using rotation, reflection, and translation, and identifying the properties of the shapes that do not change
  • Predicting the results of two-step transformations (reflections, translations, rotations) on 2D shapes
Pathways
  • Interpreting and creating grid references and simple scales on maps, using directional language including the four main compass points, turn (in degrees), and distance (in m, km) to locate and describe positions and pathways

Statistics

Developing knowledge from data
  • Collecting time-series data (e.g. how the mass of a kilogram of carrots varies over 5 days)
  • Calculating the mean for numerical data
  • Calculating the range for numerical data
Visualisation of data
  • Creating time-series graphs
  • Choosing and creating an appropriate data visualisation for a given set of data
Interpretation of data
  • Identifying whether a time-series graph shows a trend
  • Calculating an average and a range for continuous numerical data
  • Interpreting data visualisations, including those from contemporary media

Probability

Experimental probability
  • Listing the sample space of an event (e.g. the sample space for rolling a die is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  • Calculating the probabilities of individual outcomes
  • Calculating probabilities using a spinner, where each event is a fraction or combination of fractions on the spinner
  • Answering questions about the probability of combinations of outcomes, including checking that the sum of all the probabilities is 1

Want help getting there? Vertex Academy runs small-group Study Hubs in Avondale — one $59/week membership, aligned to these curriculum objectives, first session free.

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Learning objectives sourced from the New Zealand Curriculum (Mathematics and Statistics, 2025) © Ministry of Education, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Vertex Academy is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ministry of Education.