Times tables will be memorised by pupils

Pupils will be expected to memorise their tables up to 12 times 12 by age nine, and be able to multiply and divide fractions by the end of primary school under a major shake-up of the national curriculum announced today.

Using decimals and basic arithmetic will be a main focus of maths lessons in the future, a move which ministers said will help to raise standards in England's schools. In science, primary school children will be taught about key concepts such as static electricity and the solar system. They will also be expected to name and classify objects in biology under the new move to broaden their horizons and knowledge.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the science curriculum has been developed to focus on scientific knowledge and language amid concerns that the current programme of study focuses too much on science in abstract terms.

The proposals, being published this week, set out the Government's new outline curricula for maths and science in primary schools.

The programmes are designed to "restore rigour in what primary school children are taught in maths and science", the DfE said.

In maths, pupils will be expected to know all their times tables up to 12 times 12 by age nine, whereas under the current system they should know their tables up to 10 times 10 by the end of primary school.

By the age of seven, children will be expected to have memorised all so-called "number bonds" - simple addition and subtraction sums such as 9+9=18 or 15-6=9 - up to 20.

And by the time they finish primary school at age 11, children will be expected to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions and decimals.

Many of these topics are not covered by the current curriculum, which means that pupils struggle when they get to secondary school and do not have the right grounding for more difficult concepts such as algebra, and as a result they lag behind pupils elsewhere the DfE said.

A spokesman for Education Secretary Michael Gove said that children had been "let down on the basics" by the current curriculum, with the UK falling behind other nations.