Daily missions. Brighter futures.
Your child doesn't need to arrive at secondary school already knowing secondary-school maths. But Year 7 builds quickly on what came before — and shaky foundations make new topics feel much harder than they need to.
The good news is you don't need to give your child an exam to find out how they're doing. Five short conversations can tell you a lot about how your child approaches maths — and they won't feel like a test.
Here are the five foundations worth checking, with a one-minute activity for each.
1 Times tables and basic number facts
Times tables look basic, but they sit underneath an enormous amount of maths. Children use multiplication facts for division, fractions, percentages, ratios, area, algebra and mental arithmetic.
A child who has to stop and work out every multiplication can still do the maths — but the rest of the question gets harder, because so much of their attention is being spent on the basic calculation.
They don't need to fire answers out at lightning speed. What matters is that the common facts are becoming automatic.
Then, without pausing: “If 7 × 8 is 56, what's 56 ÷ 7?” And then: “So what would 70 × 8 be?”
You're looking for more than three answers. Can they use something they already know to work out something they don't? That habit matters more and more as the maths gets harder.
2 Fractions, decimals and percentages
These look like three separate topics to most children. They're really three ways of describing the same thing — parts of a whole.
½ = 0.5 = 50%
Understanding that relationship is far more useful than memorising three separate sets of rules. Before secondary school it helps if your child is reasonably comfortable with the common ones — ½, ¼, ¾, and 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%.
They don't need to handle complicated percentage calculations. The foundation is understanding what the numbers actually represent.
Don't offer a method. The second half is the interesting one: a child who finds 10% and then triples it has understood something a child who starts again from scratch hasn't. Either way, ask “how did you work that out?” — the explanation tells you far more than the answer.
3 Multiplication and division
Secondary school brings bigger numbers and longer calculations. Your child doesn't have to do it all in their head — but they do need one reliable way of tackling something like 24 × 6 or 144 ÷ 12.
Which written method their school teaches matters far less than whether they understand what they're doing. And be careful here: a child can reproduce a method perfectly without understanding why it works. That's exactly why asking them to explain is so useful.
Then: “How do you know?” If the answer is “because 7 × 12 is 84,” that's excellent — they're connecting multiplication and division rather than treating them as two unrelated things.
4 Solving problems with maths
Knowing how to calculate is only half of it. Children also have to recognise which calculation to use.
A cinema ticket costs £7.50. How much would four tickets cost?
The multiplication isn't hard. The real skill is spotting what information matters and deciding what to do with it. Secondary-school questions increasingly combine reading, reasoning and calculation — they rarely say “multiply these two numbers.”
Then don't help. Ask: “What's the first thing you need to work out?”
You're watching the process, not the answer. Can they find the useful information? Decide which operation they need? Break it into steps? Even with a wrong final answer, good thinking is worth noticing out loud.
5 Estimating — and spotting an answer that doesn't look right
This one gets overlooked constantly. Children can become so focused on performing the calculation that they never stop to ask whether the answer is sensible.
£19.50 × 3 = £585
Something has clearly gone wrong. But a child with good number sense looks at £585 and thinks: that can't be right — three things at about £20 each is about £60.
That instinct is worth a great deal. It lets a child catch their own mistakes instead of waiting for a teacher or a parent to catch them.
A very good answer is “about 300, because 49 is nearly 50 and 50 × 6 is 300.” Then work out the real answer together. The point isn't speed. It's building a feel for numbers.
What if my child struggles with one of these?
Don't panic. Finding something your child can't confidently do is useful information. It doesn't mean they're bad at maths, and it certainly doesn't mean they aren't ready for secondary school. It shows you where a little practice would help.
The worst response is turning every gap into another stressful test. Pick one area and work on it in small amounts. Ten focused minutes a few times a week does far more than announcing “we're doing two hours of maths this weekend.” Small improvements build.
The Secondary School Ready checklist
One page, on the fridge. Every “try this” from across the series, so you've got them when you need them. Free, no strings.
One email with the checklist attached. Occasional tips afterwards, and you can unsubscribe in one click. We never pass your address to anyone.
A better question than “did you get it right?”
If you take one thing from this series, take this one. Ask, constantly:
“How did you work that out?”
It changes the conversation entirely. Sometimes you'll find a wrong answer sitting on top of a sensible method and one tiny slip. Sometimes you'll find a right answer with no understanding underneath it at all. Both are worth knowing, and neither shows up on a mark scheme.
Maths isn't really about producing answers. It's about learning to think your way through a problem.
So — is your child's maths ready for Year 7?
You don't need a score. Ask yourself:
Some strong and some not is completely normal. You've simply found the areas worth a little more attention between now and September.
- Number facts — are common multiplication and division facts becoming reasonably secure?
- Fractions and percentages — do they understand that ½ and 50% are the same thing?
- Calculation — can they tackle multiplication and division with a method they actually understand?
- Problem solving — can they decide what to do when nobody tells them which sum to use?
- Number sense — can they spot an answer that doesn't look right?
Where MindBlaze fits
One of the reasons I built MindBlaze around short daily practice is that children don't need another huge pile of work. They need chances to practise regularly, without it becoming a battle every evening.
The daily missions cover maths alongside English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, and the Learning Centre is there for when a child needs something explained rather than just marked.
The aim isn't to race ahead into secondary-school maths. It's to strengthen the foundations underneath it — because when the basics feel comfortable, children have far more confidence to take on whatever comes next.
Daily missions. Brighter futures.