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Many
thousands of parents have bought and used Bond's Papers
with their children over the years. Some will no doubt
remember using them as children themselves! If you are
looking to help children at home with their education
Bond's Papers are an ideal aid.
Here
we have answered some of the questions commonly asked
by parents about Bond's Papers.
What
do Bond's Papers cover?
They cover all the key skills of maths, English and
reasoning for 7-11 year olds, carefully and progressively.
In English this means skills such as comprehension,
spelling, punctuation and grammar. In maths all the
content of the National Curriculum is included: the
full range of number and calculation skills, as well
as those to do with measuring, shape, space and data
handling. Reasoning covers general thinking skills which
are widely set in 11+ and similar selective exams. You
will find more details about the content of each subject
by clicking on the subject buttons below.
How
can Bond's Papers help my child?
You will find these books invaluable for:
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practising,
catching up or getting ahead with the key skills
of English, Maths and Reasoning. |
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practising
general exam skills such as working to set timings. |
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preparing
for particular exams such as the 11+ and the National
Tests. |
As
Bond provides continuous graded practice from 7 through
to 11 the series is able to provide unique support for
home learning.
How
can I choose the right book for my child?
The ages given on the front of the books will provide
a general guide. They indicate the level which would
be appropriate for the majority of children at any one
age and are intended to be reasonably challenging. Your
child might find the content a little too easy, or feel
that s/he needs to tackle an earlier book. You can use
the free papers on this site to get a clearer idea of
the book suitable for your child. (Click on the covers
at the bottom of this page.) Putting an age on the cover
is unavoidable in order to give some guidance on which
book to choose, but we are aware that it can cause problems
for children who may need to be on an earlier book.
One of the great values of Bond is that it does help
children to catch up - and some will be best helped
by starting with a book below their actual age. In this
case, explain to your child that the book chosen will
help them to catch up with some things that they find
difficult.
How
should I use these books with my child?
Obviously the way of using the paper will depend on
the purpose. Our suggestions are;
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Always
do the papers in order, as they are graded in difficulty. |
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Times
are given for completion of the papers - if you
want to work under test conditions. Our advice would
be to ignore the timings to begin with so that your
child can build up confidence in doing the papers.
Although the papers are all designed to be manageable
within the attention span of children of the age,
our advice is initially only to do as much as the
child feels comfortable with at a sitting. |
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Be
encouraging at all times. Ensure that your child
is relaxed and rested before trying a paper. This
usually means not straight after the end of the
school day! |
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Motivate
your child to do well. You can build in a game element
to using the books by encouraging children to record
their scores on the chart at the back of the book.
Children often respond enthusiastically to the challenge
of beating their last score! |
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If
you child cannot do certain questions it is best
to mark them and pass on. One of the aims of the
Papers is to reveal areas of difficulty for children
which can be identified and addressed. You will
find a list of key words at the front of Maths and
English books which can serve as a prompt to help
your child with unfamiliar concepts. Particular
areas of difficulty should be discussed with your
child's teacher. |
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If
your child is preparing for an exam, help them to
develop successful strategies. Make sure they have
access to a watch to keep an eye on time. If they
get 'stuck' on a question, encourage them not to
spend too long on it. It is best to mark it in the
margin and return if there is time at the end of
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My
child is sitting 11+ exams. How can Bond help?
It is the fourth book in each series which is really
the 11+ book, although earlier books will of course
be valuable preparation for a longer run in. Find out
exactly what exams your child is sitting. 11+ exams
vary hugely throughout the country but the most common
papers are:
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Reasoning
- this can be either verbal or non-verbal reasoning
(sometimes both!). You can find an explanation of
the difference between these two by clicking on
the Reasoning button below. We now produce an extra
book in the Reasoning series called 'How to do verbal
reasoning' which will help your child prepare for
11+ verbal reasoning exams. |
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English |
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Maths |
You
can use Bond to practise for all these exams. Unfortunately
it is impossible to know exactly what kind of questions
will come up in any one year as past papers are not
available. The key is to practise a very wide range
of question types and to build up confidence and exam
technique so that your child is well equipped to cope
with the unexpected. Bond's Papers cover all the essentials
of a subject at the correct level for 11+ exams at Book
4, with the exception of non-verbal reasoning. (We have
a book in preparation for this for next year.) The value
of Bond is that it will challenge your child to think
quite hard, it will practise a very broad range of relevant
skills and question types and the tests can be timed
to give practice at working to set lengths of time.
Because each book contains a large number of papers,
they provide the opportunity for repeated but varied
practice.
It
is better to have a reasonable length of 'run-in' to
the 11+, practising at a relaxed pace over the months
leading up to the exam, rather than cramming at the
last moment. Many parents like to familiarise their
children with the whole exam experience by introducing
their children to formal test situations over a longer
period using earlier books in the series.
How
do these books fit the National Curriculum? And will
they prepare my child for the National Tests?
Reasoning is not, of course, a National Curriculum subject
but Maths and English are closely matched to the National
Curriculum, particularly to the daily maths and English
lessons - the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies.
The 'Key words' listed at the front of each book are
ones that children are now being taught as part of the
National Curriculum. Although the style of Bond's Papers
does not closely match that of the actual National Test
papers they do cover nearly all the content and will
be invaluable in developing the skills needed to do
well. We suggest that your child should also do some
National Test practice papers as part of the final preparation
for these exams.
Click
here to find out about:
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