Towards the end of Year 6, many parents start to wonder whether their child's maths is ready for secondary school. Year 7 maths builds on many of the topics your child is learning now, so you don't need to get them ahead over summer.
Between now and the first weeks of Term 1, 2027, you'll have three chances to ask how your child's maths is going.
Who can tell you about your child's maths, from now to Term 1, 2027
Now, Term 4 of Year 6
Their Year 6 teacher
“Which parts of maths is my child confident with, and which need more time?”
Orientation day, 8 December 2026
The secondary school
“What extra maths help does the school run for Year 7s, and how do students join?”
Summer holidays
First weeks of Term 1, 2027
Their maths teacher
“What's the best way to reach you if something comes up with maths?”
Now: the Year 6 topics to ask their teacher about
You can start with their Year 6 teacher, who has seen a whole year of your child's maths, and ask about the topics that come back in Year 7. Government and Catholic schools in Victoria teach maths from the Victorian Curriculum, which sets out what students learn each year up to Year 10. If your child is going to an independent school, the school can tell you what it follows.
Six Year 6 maths topics and where each one leads in Year 7
Negative numbers
Year 6: Placing negative numbers on a number line. Year 7: Adding and subtracting negative numbers.
Fractions and decimals
Year 6: Comparing and adding fractions. Year 7: Multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals.
Percentages
Year 6: Finding a percentage of an amount, like a discount. Year 7: Writing one amount as a percentage of another.
Squares and roots
Year 6: Square numbers. Year 7: Square roots.
Missing numbers
Year 6: Finding the missing number. Year 7: Using a letter for the missing number, where means 3 times that number.
Area
Year 6: The area of a rectangle. Year 7: The area of triangles and parallelograms.
If your child still finds one of these topics hard, their Year 6 teacher can suggest what to practise before secondary school starts.
More Year 6 maths topics
- Multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, 100 and 1,000 without a calculator
- Growing number patterns, and step-by-step rules that produce a list of numbers
- Converting units such as grams and kilograms, reading timetables to work out how long a trip takes, and angles on a straight line
- Marking positions on a grid using positive and negative numbers, and making repeating tile patterns by sliding, flipping and turning shapes
- Comparing sets of data in charts, and questioning statistics used in the news
- Describing chance using fractions or decimals from 0 to 1, or percentages from 0% to 100%, and running the same chance experiment many times
Orientation day and Term 1: help at the secondary school
When you ask about extra maths help at orientation, you might hear about a homework club, lunchtime help or small-group sessions. In Term 1, if a topic keeps causing trouble, you can talk with their maths teacher about which of these would suit your child.
You can also add one-to-one tutoring alongside the school's help. Our tutors work with primary maths and Years 7 to 10 maths, at home or online, and sessions follow what your child is doing in class, so a tutor can spend time on the topic that keeps coming back.
Over summer: maths in everyday life
Over the holidays, you're likely to come across Year 6 maths in ordinary moments: the discount on a jumper, the bus timetable that says when to leave, a recipe that needs halving, a chart in the news. When one comes up, you can ask your child to work it out and tell you how they got there, and notice where they're comfortable and where they guess or go quiet.
If your child halves $40 and halves it again to find 25% off, they've found their own way to work out the discount. You can mention a topic they keep avoiding to their maths teacher in Term 1.
Our Year 7 transition checklist covers the rest of the move, like uniforms, travel and the first-day bag, and you can tick items off together.
Your child doesn't have to start Year 7 with every topic sorted, and you don't need to have all the answers either. What you notice can help their new teachers understand where your child needs support.
More about Year 6 and the move to Year 7
Is there NAPLAN in Year 6?
No. NAPLAN is held in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, so your child's next tests are in Year 7, in a window from 10 to 22 March 2027. You can ask the school which days your child sits numeracy. Our Year 7 NAPLAN guide covers what to expect and how to read the results.
Should I tell the secondary school about a maths difficulty before Term 1?
Yes, if it would help them know your child. At the school's information sessions for new families, you can ask who to tell, and how any support your child gets at primary school carries over.
Official sources we used
We checked these official sources on 6 November 2026.
