In Year 6, there is little in the way of new learning with addition and subtraction as much of this has been learnt lower down the school. The numbers we work with become bigger (or involve decimals) but the concepts remain the same.
We encourage pupils to look for opportunities to apply mental calculation strategies rather than automatically going for written calculation methods.
An efficient method for subtraction of larger numbers is the column subtraction method. This video shows what happens within subtraction (making use of Base 10 equipment) and how this can be presented within a written calculation.
Things can start to get a little trickier when there are lots of zeros in the "top number". This video shows exactly what to do in situations like this.
Subtraction "Hack"
If you were doing the calculation 30,000 - 342 there would be a lot of zeros involved in the calculation and the written column method may not be the most efficient method.
Instead, think about the two numbers on a number line and you are asked to find the difference (the gap) between those two numbers. So, just move both the numbers by one place back down the number line.
The calculation now becomes the difference between 29,999 and 341 which is much easier to carry out with a column subtraction!
