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Important update from TheSchoolRun

For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.

What this means for subscribers:

  • Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
  • In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
  • As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.

A few changes to be aware of:

  • The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
  • The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.

*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.

What are number bonds?

Number bonds
If your child is in Key Stage 1, chances are they'll have told you they're learning 'number bonds'... but what are they? Teacher Alice Hart explains why children are taught these number pairs, and how you can help your child practise them at home.

What are number bonds?

Number bonds are also often referred to as 'number pairs'. They are simply the pairs of numbers that make up a given number.

Number bonds to 10

1 + 9, 2 + 8, 3 + 7, 4 + 6, 5 + 5

Number bonds to 20

1 + 19, 2 + 18, 3 + 17, 4 + 16, 5 + 15

Number bonds in Reception

Children start to learn about number bonds in the Foundation stage, when they might be given a number, such as 5, and then asked to select two groups of objects that will add up to that number.

Number bonds in Year 1

Children are expected to know number bonds to 10 and number bonds to 20. 

Number bonds in Year 2

Children by now need to be very confident with their number bonds to 20. They need to be able to work out number bonds to 100. They also need to be confident with the corresponding subtraction facts (for example: 20 - 13 = 7).

Number bonds in Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2, children move onto being able to work out number bonds to 1000 (e.g. 450 and 550) and number bonds to 1 (e.g. 0.8 and 0.2).

How are number bonds taught in primary school?

Teachers teach number bonds in a variety of ways. When learning number bonds to 5 or 10 in Key Stage 1 it is always good to use pictorial representation, so a teacher might show rows of blocks shaded like this to make the concept clear:

Number bonds to 10
        
It is also a good idea to show children the connection between number bonds to ten, twenty and one hundred, for example:

How to practise number bonds at home

  • Give your child ten counters (Lego bricks, past shapes, buttons, sweets) and ask them questions such as: What do you add to 3 to make 10? What do you add to 2 to make 10? Encourage them to use the counters to work it out.
  • Print out number cards and ask your child to match them up into number pairs or number bonds (this can be done as a game of Snap). 
  • Write a list of ten numbers then time your child to see how long it takes them to write down the other number that makes up each pair (2 and 18; 5 and 15; 4 and 16). 

Knowledge of number bonds is essential when it comes to harder calculations involving addition and subtraction (for example, children learn to use the bridging through 10 method to help them add numbers mentally), so it is vital children get a firm grounding in this from Years 1 to 3.