Key Stage 2 (Ages 7–11)

Problem

At the Key Stage 2, students often begin to experience a sharp jump in the complexity of their work — especially in Maths and English.
In Maths, many struggle with multi-step word problems, fractions, division, and reasoning questions where they must explain their thinking rather than just calculate. They may know how to find an answer, but not why it works, leading to confusion when questions are phrased differently (like in SATs or 11+ papers).
In English, common issues include weak reading comprehension, limited vocabulary, and difficulty structuring longer written responses. Students often lose marks not because they don’t understand the story, but because they can’t express their ideas clearly, use evidence, or organise their answers in a way examiners expect.

This stage is also where confidence gaps begin to widen, bright students who once loved learning can suddenly feel “bad at Maths” or “not good at English,” when in reality, they’ve just hit the first point where reasoning and clarity matter more than memorisation.

Solution

At Think Forward, we rebuild understanding from the ground up, focusing on clarity, reasoning, and real-world connection.
In Maths, we use structured “reasoning loops” i.e short verbal conversations where students explain their logic out loud before solving problems. This not only strengthens conceptual understanding but also prepares them for SATs reasoning papers and selective-school assessments. We use visual anchors like bar models, fraction walls, and ratio grids to make abstract ideas tangible, and apply question rephrasing drills to teach students how to recognise what a question is actually asking, even when the wording changes.

In English, we focus on language precision and structure. Through “paragraph ladders,” students learn how to build responses sentence by sentence, supporting each point with evidence, a crucial KS2 skill. We also build vocabulary through context-rich exercises rather than rote memorisation, helping students learn how to use new words naturally in writing and discussion.
Reading comprehension is practised through guided annotation techniques, teaching students to underline clues, infer emotions, and extract meaning systematically, just as they’ll need in SATs and 11+.