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National Curriculum Resource Tool

Materials to support teachers and schools in embedding the National Curriculum

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Year 6 - Statistics

New Curriculum

  • interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs and use these to solve problems
  • calculate and interpret the mean as an average

Non-Statutory Guidance

Pupils connect their work on angles, fractions and percentages to the interpretation of pie charts.

Pupils both encounter and draw graphs relating two variables, arising from their own enquiry and in other subjects.

They should connect conversion from kilometres to miles in measurement to its graphical representation.

Pupils know when it is appropriate to find the mean of a data set.

Links and Resources

Connections within Mathematics

The construction of pie charts will provide an essential link with work on angles and fractions, as well as calculation.

The use of conversion graphs when carrying out work on line graphs provides a nice link to converting different units of measure.

When carrying out measuring activities in the classroom, it is likely that the mean average will be useful.

Making connections to this topic in adjacent year groups

Year 5

  • solve comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in a line graph
  • complete, read and interpret information in tables, including timetables.

Key Stage 3

  • construct and interpret appropriate tables, charts, and diagrams, including frequency tables, bar charts, pie charts, and pictograms for categorical data, and vertical line (or bar) charts for ungrouped and grouped numerical data

Cross-curricular and real life connections

There are many, many examples of ‘real life’ situations where a wealth of data needs to be digested, sorted, presented or interpreted. Websites such as ‘Stats4Schools’, the content of which is now hosted by the National Stem Centre, has a large number of ‘real’ datasets’ that children could use in other curriculum areas. ‘Census at School’ also provides a vast bank of data resources that can be utilised in the classroom.

Geographical data and information based on other regions and countries can provide a good context for statistics work.

Measurements and readings recorded in science lessons, e.g. of sound levels, temperature, plant height etc, can all be used as datasets for statistics work in mathematics.

Report of a study of Australian pre-service teachers who, because of their own personal attitudes towards statistics, failed to exploit opportunities for deep, exciting learning.

Programmes of Study statements Activities
A B C D E
interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs and use these to solve problems          
calculate and interpret the mean as an average.          

Activity A - Take your dog for a walk

An interactive activity from Nrich to explore story telling with a line graph.

Activity B - Graphing Number Patterns

Does a graph of the triangular numbers cross a graph of the six times table? If so, where? Will a graph of the square numbers cross the times table too?

Activity C - Weekly Problem 12 - 2010

This short problem from Nrich challenges children to calculate mean averages of a set of emerging data.

Activity D - The television

Issue 49 of the NCETM Primary Magazine provides information about the history of the television, and explores viewing data.

Activity E – A little bit of history (Britain since 1945)

Issue 41 of the NCETM Primary Magazine looks at how elements of everyday life, with a mathematical ‘feel’, have changed in recent years. There are lots of ideas here to get you started… why not explore how the average wage has changed throughout history. How does the average pocket money vary throughout the school?

Useful Resources

Compass, protractor, graph paper

Examples of what children should be able to do, in relation to each (boxed) Programme of Study statement

interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs and use these to solve problems

This graph shows the number of people living in a town.

Graph showing the number of people living in a town

How many people lived in the town in 1985?

In which year was the number of people the same as in 1950?

Find the year when the number of people first went below 20 000.

KS2 2008 Paper A level 5

Class 6 did a survey of the number of trees in a country park. This pie chart shows their results.

Pie charts showing types of trees

Estimate the fraction of trees in the survey that are oak trees. The children counted 60 ash trees. Use the pie chart to estimate the number of beech trees they counted.

KS2 2006 Paper A level 5

calculate and interpret the mean as an average

From a simple database, children should be able to find the most common score (mode) as well as the mean score for each test.

Scores for spelling and mental tests

Children should be able to choose their own sets of data to match given criteria, e.g. find a set of five numbers that have a mean of 5 and a range of 7.

There are currently no relevant videos to recommend.

If you would like to suggest a video to use, please email: info@ncetm.org.uk