Percentages Year 6 — KS2 SATs Guide with Examples

What Is a Percentage?

A percentage is just a fraction out of 100. That’s it. The word itself comes from “per cent” — per hundred. So 50% means 50 out of 100, which is a half. 25% is a quarter. 10% is a tenth.

Your child has seen these their whole life. “50% off” in a shop window? That’s half price. A phone at 25% battery? A quarter left. Once they realise percentages are just fractions they already know, the whole topic feels much less scary.

Finding Percentages of Amounts

This is the big one for SATs. The trick is learning three building blocks and combining them:

• 10% — divide by 10
• 5% — find 10%, then halve it
• 1% — divide by 100

From those three, you can build any percentage. Let’s try 35% of 80:

Once they’ve nailed this method, they can tackle any percentage question the SATs throw at them. No calculator needed.

Converting Between Fractions, Decimals and Percentages

Kids sometimes call this the “triangle of doom”. It sounds harder than it is. Here are the key conversions they need to memorise:

The quick rules: fraction to decimal — divide top by bottom. Decimal to percentage — multiply by 100. Percentage to fraction — put it over 100 and simplify.

Percentage Word Problems

SATs reasoning papers love putting percentages into real-world stories. Here’s a typical one:

The key step kids often miss: the question asks for the sale price, not the discount. They need to subtract at the end. Remind them to read the question twice.

Percentages in SATs

Percentages appear in both papers, but differently:

• Arithmetic paper: Straightforward “find X% of Y” questions. Pure calculation, no context.
• Reasoning papers: Real-world word problems — discounts, comparing percentages, percentage increase and decrease. These need careful reading as well as maths.

Common Mistakes

This is where lots of children come unstuck:

• Confusing “percentage of” with “percentage increase” — 15% of £40 is £6, but a 15% increase on £40 is £46. Big difference.
• Moving the decimal point the wrong way — to find 10%, divide by 10 (move the point left). Some kids multiply by 10 instead.
• Forgetting to answer the actual question — they find the discount but forget to subtract it from the original price.

Quick Practice Tip

Percentages are everywhere in daily life. Get your child spotting them: restaurant tips, battery levels on their tablet, game loading bars, sale signs in shops. Ask them “what’s 10% of that?” when you’re out and about. It turns revision into something that happens naturally, without them even noticing.