Year 6 maths · Key Stage 2 · Number – number and place value

Year 6 place value: numbers to 10,000,000 and negatives

In Year 6 children read, write, order and compare whole numbers up to 10,000,000 and say what each digit is worth. They round any whole number to the accuracy a question asks for, and use negative numbers in real situations, including finding the gap between two numbers on either side of zero. This place value work underpins much of the rest of Year 6 maths, including the tests in May.

Numbers to 10,000,000 and negatives, explained

The place value system works the same way at ten million as it does at a hundred. Each place is worth ten times the one to its right. After ones, tens and hundreds come thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions and ten millions. Digits are grouped in threes, separated by commas, which makes large numbers easier to read: 5,309,046 is five million, three hundred and nine thousand and forty-six. In that number the 3 is worth 300,000, the 9 is worth 9,000 and the 0 in the ten thousands place shows there are none there.

Children compare and order large numbers by first looking at how many digits each has, as more digits means a larger number. If the lengths match, they compare digit by digit from the left. So 4,850,000 is greater than 4,805,000, because the millions and hundred thousands are the same, but the next place has 5 ten thousands against none. They use the signs < and >, write numbers in words and numerals, and work out what is 10, 100, 1,000 or 1,000,000 more or less than a number.

Rounding means replacing a number with a simpler one that is close to it, to a degree of accuracy such as the nearest 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000. Find the digit in the place you are rounding to, then look at the digit just to its right: if it is 5 or more, round up, otherwise stay as it is. Every digit to the right of the rounding place then becomes a zero. Rounding is used for estimating, which helps catch mistakes, and for describing large amounts sensibly, such as a crowd of “about 50,000”.

Negative numbers are numbers below zero. Children meet them in temperatures, lifts that go below ground floor, depths below sea level and money that is owed. On a number line the further left a number is, the smaller it is, so −8 is less than −3. To find the difference between two numbers either side of zero, add the two distances to zero: from −6 to 4 is 6 + 4 = 10. If the temperature falls from 4 °C to −3 °C, it has dropped 7 degrees. Children also solve problems that combine these ideas.

Words your child will hear

Digit: One of the symbols 0 to 9 used to write numbers. 7,365,498 has seven digits.
Place value: What a digit is worth because of where it sits in a number.
Million: One thousand thousands: 1,000,000. Ten million is 10,000,000.
Round: Replace a number with a nearby, simpler one, such as 7,365,498 to 7,400,000.
Negative number: A number less than zero, written with a minus sign, such as −4.
Interval: The gap between two numbers. The interval between −6 and 4 is 10.
Order: Arrange numbers from smallest to largest, or largest to smallest.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 6, pupils should be taught to:

Read, write, order and compare numbers up to 10,000,000 and determine the value of each digit
Round any whole number to a required degree of accuracy
Use negative numbers in context, and calculate intervals across 0
Solve number and practical problems that involve all of the above

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A worked example

Read 7,365,498 aloud. Then round it to the nearest 100,000 and to the nearest 10,000.

Set the digits out by place value.

Millions:            7
Hundred thousands:   3
Ten thousands:       6
Thousands:           5
Hundreds:            4
Tens:                9
Ones:                8

To read it, split it into groups of three digits from the right: 7 | 365 | 498. That gives seven million, three hundred and sixty-five thousand, four hundred and ninety-eight.
Nearest 100,000: the hundred thousands digit is 3. Look at the digit to its right, the ten thousands digit, which is 6. That is 5 or more, so round up: the 3 becomes 4 and everything after it becomes zero. The answer is 7,400,000.
Nearest 10,000: the ten thousands digit is 6. The digit to its right, the thousands digit, is 5. That is 5 or more, so round up: the 6 becomes 7. The answer is 7,370,000.
Check on a number line. 7,365,498 is between 7,360,000 and 7,370,000, and the halfway point is 7,365,000. The number is above halfway, so it is closer to 7,370,000. In the same way it is above 7,350,000, so it is nearer to 7,400,000 than to 7,300,000.

To the nearest 100,000 it is 7,400,000, and to the nearest 10,000 it is 7,370,000.

Common mistakes and how to help

Putting zeros in the wrong place when writing large numbers

A child hears “four million, sixty-two thousand, three hundred” and writes 4,620,300 or 462,300. They write the parts they hear and don’t notice that there are no hundred thousands.

What helps: Write the number in groups of three: the millions group is 4, the thousands group is 062 and the last group is 300. That gives 4,062,300. A place value chart with each column filled in helps.

Changing only one digit when rounding

To round 7,365,498 to the nearest 100,000, a child writes 7,465,498. They have changed the 3 to a 4 but left the other digits as they were. Rounding up also causes trouble when the digit is a 9.

What helps: Remind them everything to the right of the rounding digit becomes zero. For 9s, 3,997,500 rounded to the nearest 10,000 is 4,000,000, because 399 ten thousands rounds up to 400 ten thousands.

Thinking −8 is greater than −3

With positive numbers, 8 is larger than 3, so the child assumes the sign makes no difference to the order.

What helps: Use a thermometer or a number line. −8 °C is colder than −3 °C, and further left on the line, so −8 is the smaller number.

Subtracting the wrong way across zero

To find the gap between −6 and 4, a child does 6 − 4 = 2. The signs get ignored, so the distance across zero is missed.

What helps: Jump to zero first: −6 to 0 is 6, then 0 to 4 is 4, so the difference is 10. Draw it as two jumps on a number line.

How to help at home

Read big numbers from the news. Look at city populations, stadium capacities or distances and read them out loud. Ask what a particular digit is worth, and how you would round the number to make it easy to say.
Make the biggest number. Write the digits 0 to 9 on scraps of paper, draw seven at random and ask your child to arrange them into the largest and the smallest number possible (a number can’t start with 0). They then read both aloud and find the difference.
Use the weather forecast for negatives. In cold weather, talk about temperatures below zero and ask how many degrees warmer it is at 3 °C than at −4 °C. The freezer, with a temperature of about −18 °C, is another real example.
Round for a quick answer. Ask for estimates in daily life: “About how many pages in 6 books of 288 pages each?” Rounding to 300 first gives about 1,800 straight away, and estimating like this is a quick way to check written calculations in the Year 6 tests.

Builds on

Year 5: Numbers to 1,000,000

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Place value, ordering and number properties
Key Stage 3: Powers, roots and standard form
Key Stage 3: Fractions, decimals and percentages
Key Stage 3: Rounding, estimation and error

Everything in Year 6 maths

Updated 20 October 2026.