From facts to borrowing
- Within 10 and 20. Subtraction facts, like 13 – 5, a whole sheet at a time.
- Two digits, no regrouping. Every top digit is big enough: subtract the ones, then the tens.
- Two digits with regrouping. When the top ones digit is smaller, take one ten and make ten more ones.
- Three digits. The same steps across tens and hundreds.
Check by adding
Every subtraction has an addition hiding in it: if 72 – 38 = 34, then 34 + 38 = 72. Children who check their answers this way catch their own mistakes and learn how the two operations fit together. The addition worksheetsuse the same levels.
Curriculum links in England
- Year 1Subtraction facts within 20 are learned with the matching number bonds, and missing number problems such as 7 = ? – 9 appear.
- Year 2Children learn that subtraction undoes addition and that, unlike addition, it can’t be done in any order.
- Year 3Formal columnar subtraction is taught for numbers with up to three digits.
- Year 4The same written method extends to numbers with up to four digits.
English schools usually describe the “borrowing” step as exchanging: one ten is exchanged for ten ones, and many teachers prefer that word because nothing is paid back. Before the column method, Year 2 pupils often subtract by counting back or by finding the difference on a number line, and the curriculum guidance asks them to split numbers in more than one way to make subtraction easier.
Negative answers don’t appear here, and the curriculum doesn’t bring in negative numbers until Year 4 and Year 5.
Summarised in our own words from the National Curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study (DfE).
