when are kids taught about decimal places in maths?

[blibblib]

I explained arithmetic with one decimal place to DS1. He seemed to have got it just fine. I then tried some stuff with two decimal places and I appear to have melted his brain. When is this covered in school?

DS has done some very basic stuff with decimals - think only 1 decimal place. He is Y3.

I've covered basics with some of my Y2 class I did more with last years class.

DS1 is in Y1 but does Y2 maths. I'll leave the topic alone unless he asks again as I think I didn't dwell on the place value aspects enough.

As with most maths it will be covered when the children are ready to learn the concept ( have prior learning in place to support it) so not easy to say which year etc that will be. I have covered it a little with my Year 2's (higher ability set) but they had very secure place value knowledge and also a good understanding of fractions first. Most Year 2's will touch on it in relation to money.

blibblib:

I'd agree about Y2 decimals start to be introduced: money problems and simple fractions (1/2 = 0.5 and 1/4 = 0.25).

Y3: simple addition/ subtraction problems with money (often word problems)
simple multiplication problems with money (often word problems - usually
doubling, x5 or x10)
more complicated fractions

Y4: this seems to be the year more complicated work with decimals has taken off for my DD1 (her year is slightly behind where I'd expect children to be though). more complicated addition/ subtraction problems and more complicated multiplication problems. Some simple division problems now introduced. More complicated fractions work - lots of conversions to decimals. Some work with irregular fractions (e.g. 3 3/4) and converting to fraction (e.g. 15/4) and then carrying out operation (+, -, x etc...) and then converting answer to irregular fraction and then to number with decimal places.

Not sure what takes place in Y5/ Y6.

Campaign for Real education lists 'ideal world' curriculum for maths and when things will be taught here: www.cre.org.uk/docs/primary_maths_curriculum.pdf (notably they show significant decimal work from Y4/ Y5).

HTH

In my school, it's part of the year 4 maths policy.

I've talked about 1/2 being the same as .5 with my year 3 class, but only a few can recall and reuse that information.

Children need a really good understanding of place value (multiplying and dividing by 10 - level 3) before they can really 'get' the idea of something being smaller than 1, and how small IMO.