This page has been put together to help you practise and revisit some of the brilliant skills you’ve learned all through primary school.

It’s a great way to boost your confidence in Maths and get you ready for the exciting next step into Year 8!

Let's learn to make educated guesses!

In this guide, you will learn:

• how to round big numbers (like populations) to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, or million
• how to round decimals to the nearest whole number or to 2 decimal places (for money)
• how to use rounding to estimate answers (eg for measurements or shopping)
• why estimating is great for checking, but not for final answers!

Rounding helps us make big, complicated numbers simpler and easier to talk about.

If a charity raises £1,875,345, they might say in a news report, "We raised around £1.9 million!" (which is £1,900,000).

Find your place: Look at the column you are rounding to (eg the 'hundreds' column).

Look next door: Look at the digit in the column to the right.

Decide:

If the digit next door is 5 or more (5, 6, 7, 8, 9), you round up.

If the digit next door is 4 or less (4, 3, 2, 1, 0), you round down (keep the original digit as it is).

Example: Round 4,372 to the nearest hundred.

Find your place: The digit in the hundreds column is 3.

Look next door: The digit to the right is 7.

Decide: 7 is '5 or more', so you round up. The '3' becomes a '4'.

The answer is 4,400.

The same rule works for decimals! This is very important for measurements and money.

Rounding to the nearest whole number: "Dáithí ran 7.8km."

Find your place: The whole number is 7.

Look next door: The digit to the right (in the tenths column) is 8.

Decide: 8 is '5 or more', so you round up.

He ran about 8km.

Rounding for money (to 2 decimal places): Money always has two digits after the decimal point (for the pence). Sometimes, calculators show more. "A sweet costs £0.455."

Find your place: You need 2 decimal places, so look at the second digit after the point (the 5).

Look next door: The digit to the right is 5.

Decide: 5 is '5 or more', so you round up. The '45' becomes '46'.

The price is £0.46 (or 46p).

Estimating is when you round the numbers first to get a quick, rough answer. This is a key part of processes in mathematics and is fantastic for checking if your 'proper' answer is sensible.

The problem: "What is the total cost of 4 T-shirts at £2.40 each?"

The real answer: £2.40 x 4 = £9.60

How to estimate:

Round the price first. £2.40 is close to £2.50 (which is easy to multiply).

Now do the sum: £2.50 x 4 = £10.00.

Your estimate is £10.00, which is very close to the real answer of £9.60. This tells you your answer is sensible.

If your real answer was £96.00, your estimate would show you that you'd made a mistake with the decimal point!

Rounding and estimating are brilliant skills for maths and for life.

You now know:

• the rounding rule: 5 or more, round up; 4 or less, round down.
• how to round big numbers and decimals.
• how to estimate an answer by rounding first.

This is a perfect way to check your work in a maths test and to handle numbers quickly in real-life situations.

Think about these questions to stretch your thinking and sharpen your skills!

• Why is it important to estimate an answer before you do the proper calculation?

• A charity raises £4,751,200. How would you say this in three different ways, by rounding to the nearest million, hundred thousand and ten thousand?

• When would it be a bad idea to round a number? (eg a phone number, a PIN or a medicine dose).

Have a chat about your answers with a parent, teacher or your class.