Sparx Maths provides several tools to help you monitor your students' homework completion and progress. This article explains the different ways you can track homework completion, from whole-school down to individual student level.
Get a quick overview of current homework completion for all of your classes via the Dashboard
Get a quick overview of current homework completion for all of your classes via the Dashboard
When you log in to your Sparx Maths site, you'll be taken to the Dashboard
The 'Homework hand-in' section on the Dashboard shows how many student have completed, partially completed or not started their homework for every class that you're linked to in Class Manager.
See Getting a class ready for its first homework for information on how to link teachers for classes.
See live homework completion data via the Hand-in page
See live homework completion data via the Hand-in page
For your chosen class, the Hand-in page shows each student's homework completion progress for the current week and information that can help you to identify when students might be struggling, or due praise.
Access the Hand-in page from the main menu
Choose the class that you want to work with, from the class selector in the header
The Completion bar against each student shows how much of their compulsory homework they've completed
Green sections show the proportion of questions answered correctly
Red sections show the proportion of questions answered incorrectly
Blue sections show the proportion of questions where the support video was watched, but the student still hasn't answered the question correctly
Grey sections show the proportion of questions not yet answered
Working time shows you approximately how much time each student has spent completing their homework
Completion day tells you whether and when each student completed their homework (relative to the hand-in day). You may also see 'Not opened' where the student didn't access this week's homework, or 'Late' when the student completed the homework after the hand-in date and time.
The Answers link takes you to the answer history for a student, giving you a deeper insight into how the student has performed on each question in their homework.
The Previous Compulsory column gives you an at-a-glance view of up to 6 weeks' previous compulsory homework for each student (a green tick signifying 100% completion and a percentage indicating incomplete homework). You can also see all of the above information for previous weeks, using the week tabs at the top of the page.
See the question and answer history for a specific student
See the question and answer history for a specific student
For a given student and homework week, the Student Answer History page allows you to see detailed information about the student's activity in Sparx Maths. From the Hand-in Page, click on the student's completion bar.
You'll find summary statistics at the top of the screen.
You'll see a breakdown of questions included in the student's homework on the left-hand side
Each question in the student's homework is represented by a coloured square, which you can click on to view more detail about the student's attempts at the question
Green squares indicate that the student answered the question correctly (if a previous attempt was incorrect but they ultimately answered correctly, you'll see a green square)
Red squares indicate that the student has attempted the question but all attempts so far have been incorrect
Blank grey squares indicate that the student hasn't yet looked at the question
Grey squares with an eye icon indicate that the student has looked at the question but not attempted to answer it
The numbers in each square show how many attempts the student has made at the question
Some squares may have flags against them to help you to identify questions where the student may have struggle
A black video icon indicates that the student chose to watch the support video for this question (suggesting that they may have needed some additional guidance to help them to answer the question)
Get updates about planned homework via email
Get updates about planned homework via email
In Class Manager, you can link teachers to classes. See Getting a class ready for its first homework for more information on how to do this.
Planned homework email
Planned homework email
Sent 2 days before homework is set
Subject: Homework topics are about to be set for
Includes a reminder of topics included
Link to Planner page to make any changes before homework is set
Frequently asked questions
Why do the working times displayed differ from the time that my students tell me they spent on their homework, or from the homework length that I set for the class/student?
Why do the working times displayed differ from the time that my students tell me they spent on their homework, or from the homework length that I set for the class/student?
The working time shown in Sparx represents active time spent on homework:
It only counts time spent answering questions or watching videos
It excludes idle time or time spent on other activities
For a 60-minute homework, expect around 45-50 minutes of working time
Whilst there may be fluctuations in homework length from week to week, over the course of the year all students should on average spend the expected amount of time on their homework.
You can see how long a student has spent on their compulsory homework each week, and their average working time for the current academic year, on the Student Summary page.
We set homework assuming that the student will be fully focussed while working. If a student is distracted or not working in a focussed way then they may take longer than expected to complete their homework.
Can I see the time at which a student completed their homework?
Can I see the time at which a student completed their homework?
We don't explicitly show students' homework completion times in Sparx Maths, but you can do the following:
You can see the time that a student last logged in to Sparx Maths via Student Manager (under the 'Login status' column)
Why can't I see any homework completion activity for a class/student?
Why can't I see any homework completion activity for a class/student?
If you've just set up a class, you won't see activity until the first homework has been handed out. Check the Planner page to see when the first homework is due to be handed out.
If you can see homework completion activity for some students in a class but not others, it's likely that students with no activity haven't started their homework.
If some students are missing, this will likely be because they haven't been added to the class in Sparx Maths, or they were added to the class after the homework was set (in which case, they won't receive homework until the next homework hand-out date for the class).
Why am I not receiving teacher emails?
Why am I not receiving teacher emails?
Please check:
That your email address is correct in Staff Manager
That the emails aren't being sent to your spam or junk email folder
That teacher emails are enabled for all of your classes in Class Manager
That your school network isn't blocking emails from @sparx.co.uk and @sparxmaths.uk domains
Why do the week numbers that are displayed throughout my Sparx Maths site not match the number of homeworks that I've set?
Why do the week numbers that are displayed throughout my Sparx Maths site not match the number of homeworks that I've set?
Week numbers correspond to the academic year calendar rather than the number of homeworks set. For most UK schools, Week 1 starts in the week containing 1st September.