Money
In Year 3, children handle money in pounds and pence: counting a set of coins, adding amounts together, and working out how much change they should get. It is the everyday maths they meet in a shop or when saving their pocket money, and a real handful of coins makes it click far faster than numbers on a page.
Practise Money
Have a guess, even if you're not sure. Get one wrong and we'll show you why, so every miss is a chance to learn.
Timed practice
The same practice, just with a gentle clock. Pick a length and see how many you can answer.
Good to know
Coins and notes
These are the coins and notes you will really see, lined up from smallest to biggest.
For grown-ups
The idea that pulls this topic together is that 100p makes £1, so amounts have to be regrouped once the pence pass a pound, just as tens regroup into hundreds in place value. Working out change is where it gets richer: rather than subtracting, children learn to count up from the price to the money paid, which is gentler on the brain and matches how a real till hands money back. Swapping confidently between pounds and pence, and seeing that the same amount can be made from different coins, builds the flexible number sense that decimals lean on in Year 4 and beyond.
What is in this topic
- Counting a set of coins
- Adding amounts in pounds and pence
- Working out change from an amount
How to help at home
Real coins beat any worksheet for this topic, so raid the change jar and let them touch the money.
- Tip out a handful of real coins and play shop: put a price on a snack and have them pay for it, then work out the change by counting on from the price.
- Practise swapping between pounds and pence often, as this catches a lot of children out. Ask 'how many pence is £1 and 30p?' (130p) and 'what is 250p in pounds?' (£2 and 50p).
- Make the same amount in different ways. Ask them to make 77p, then make it again with different coins, so they learn that 50p+20p+5p+2p and 20p+20p+20p+10p+5p+2p both work.
- When you are out, give them a real coin to pay with and ask them to predict the change before the till shows it.
Where children get stuck
The biggest trip-up comes when the pence pass a pound, because children forget that 100p makes £1. A child adds 80p and 30p, gets 110p, and leaves it as 110p instead of changing it to £1 and 10p. Anchor it on 100p = £1: once the pence reach 100, swap a whole pound across, so 110p is one pound with 10p left over, and a quick 'have the pence gone past 100 yet?' catches it.
Giving change is the other sticky point, because children try to subtract in their heads and lose track of the exchanges. Teach 'shopkeeper's counting' instead: start at the price and count up to the money paid. For something costing 65p paid with £1, count on from 65 to 70, then 70 to 100, which is 5p then 30p, so 35p change. Counting up feels easier and matches how a real shop hands money back.