Times tables to automaticity, fractions and decimals, and writing that holds together for Year 4, the year scholarship preparation begins for families with Year 7 entry in mind.
Start the free Year 4 Skills Check → 📞 03 9509 3293
This page is for parents of a Year 4 student (aged 9 and 10) weighing up tutoring. It covers what the curriculum expects this year, the milestones and pressure points, the topics we cover, how a Year 4 session runs, whether a small group or one-to-one suits this age, prices and a typical week. The short version: start with the free Skills Check and a tutor will call you.
Year 4 is the consolidation year, and consolidation is where children quietly fall behind. The Victorian Curriculum expects a Year 4 child to recall all multiplication facts to 10 × 10 and the related division facts, to work with numbers beyond 10,000, to add and subtract mentally and in writing, to multiply by a one-digit number, to understand equivalent fractions and place them on a number line, to meet decimals to hundredths, to use the properties of shapes and angles, and to describe chance. In English, the year is about writing that holds together: paragraphs that connect, text structures for different purposes, inference from longer texts, and a growing vocabulary.
Year 4 is also when the calendar starts to matter for some families. Scholarship tests for Year 7 entry to independent and Catholic schools are mostly sat in Year 6, but the preparation that works starts at the end of Year 4 or the beginning of Year 5, because the tests are pitched above year level in maths and reading and include reasoning and timed writing that the classroom does not teach. In New South Wales, the Opportunity Class test is sat in Year 4 itself. Either way, a child who finishes Year 4 with automatic tables, secure fractions and fluent paragraphs has the platform.
Start the free Year 4 Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Year 4 maths is built on automaticity. A child who knows 7 × 8 instantly can think about the problem in front of them; a child who has to work it out cannot. Our Year 4 sessions include a short facts sprint every week until the tables and their division facts are automatic, then use them: multiplying a two- or three-digit number by a single digit, finding factors and multiples, fractions of a collection, and the first decimals. Place value beyond 10,000 and mental strategies for addition and subtraction are practised alongside.
More on the Year 4 maths tutoring page.
Year 4 English is about texts that work as a whole. The Victorian Curriculum expects a Year 4 writer to organise a text into paragraphs that follow each other, to use structure that suits the purpose (an information report is not a story), to vary sentences, to use paragraphs and punctuation for effect, and to edit their own work. Reading expectations move to longer texts and to inference across a text rather than within a sentence. Our tutors teach the structures explicitly, read and discuss a passage every session, and set a piece of writing that is planned and edited with the tutor.
More on the Year 4 English tutoring page.
Year 4 science covers forces including friction, life cycles and living things' dependence on each other, natural and processed materials, and how the Earth's surface changes through weathering and erosion. We do not run separate Year 4 science sessions; the tutor can use the class science topic as the basis for an information report, which is both the science assessment and the Year 4 writing skill.
These are the topics our Year 4 tutors cover, by year level, drawn from the curriculum-aligned question banks that power the free Skills Check.
Year 4 sessions run for an hour, one-to-one or in a small group of up to four at the same level. A maths hour: five minutes of tables and facts, a teaching point with diagrams, guided practice, then a short set of mixed problems done alone and checked. An English hour: a passage read and discussed, a teaching point (this week: paragraph cohesion), a piece of writing planned and started in the session and edited with the tutor. A short progress note goes to you after every session with a ten-minute home task.
Small groups suit most Year 4 children and are the most popular option at this age: up to four at the same level, from $25 an hour. One-to-one ($35) is better for a child more than a year behind, a child who is well ahead and wants to be extended, or the first term of scholarship preparation. Online works well for Year 4 in both subjects; a phone camera on the page lets the tutor see the working.
For Year 4, small groups (up to four students at the same level) are from $25 an hour and one-to-one is $35 an hour. Across all year levels, small groups are from $25 an hour and one-to-one is $35 to $45 an hour, with VCE at the top of the range. Plans are monthly, you choose how many sessions a week, and you can cancel any time. The Skills Check and the consultation are free. Online and in-person sessions cost the same.
Here is a typical week for a Year 4 student doing two subjects with us. Most families run one session a week per subject; two a week is worth it in the term before NAPLAN, a scholarship or selective test, or the VCE exams.
Before or alongside tutoring, your child can try our free online practice quizzes for Year 4, built from the same curriculum-aligned question banks as the Skills Check. They are short, marked instantly, and a good way to see which topics need work.
If you are aiming at a Year 7 scholarship, the end of Year 4 or the start of Year 5 is the right time. The tests are sat in Year 6 and cover maths and reading above year level plus reasoning and timed writing. Starting in Year 4 means the curriculum work and the test work can be done without cramming.
Yes, and it is the most common Year 4 problem we see. Everything from Year 5 onwards assumes the facts are automatic. We fix it with short daily practice in families of facts, and it usually takes six to eight weeks.
We teach them with diagrams and number lines so the child sees that 3/4, 6/8 and 0.75 are the same amount. Rules come after understanding, not before.
Yes. Most of our Year 4 students are in small groups of up to four at the same level. It is cheaper and children this age work well alongside peers.
Yes. Bring the current task and the teacher's feedback and the tutor will work on that, teaching the structure and editing with the child.
Small groups from $25 an hour; one-to-one $35 an hour. The Skills Check and consultation are free, and plans are monthly with no lock-in.
Start the free Year 4 Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Year 4 by subject: Year 4 Maths tutoring · Year 4 English tutoring
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RHZ Tutoring · 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029 · 03 9509 3293 · info@rhztutoring.com.au · Prices