To set homework with Sparx Maths, several setup steps are required, these are detailed on the Getting Started Steps page in your Sparx Maths site. Alternatively, you can follow the steps outlined in the second half of this page.
This article is intended for schools that import their classes and students from their MIS (see this article if your school uses CSV import).
Using the Getting Started Steps page
The Getting Started Steps page in your Sparx Maths site provides a detailed overview of the setup steps that need to be completed, customised to your school. You'll likely find it easiest to use this to guide you through the setup process.
When you first start using Sparx Maths, you'll see a link to the Getting Started Steps page on your dashboard.
If you dismiss this, or need to refer to the Getting Started Steps page later on in the school year, you can also access it via the 'Getting Started' option under your user menu.
This page lists the steps that need to be completed, the status of each of these steps for your school, and guidance on how to complete the steps. Click on a step to expand it and view more detail.
Steps to complete
Alternatively, you can follow the steps listed below.
Essential steps
Ask your school's IT contact to approve our access to your school's MIS
Ask your school's IT contact to approve our access to your school's MIS
Before you can import your classes from your school's MIS into Sparx Maths, we need to have permission to access the data in the MIS - your school's IT contact will usually be responsible for granting this permission.
See Connecting Sparx Maths to your school's MIS for more information.
Import your classes and students from your school's MIS, into Sparx Maths
Import your classes and students from your school's MIS, into Sparx Maths
You'll need to tell us which classes we should import from your school's MIS, into Sparx Maths. When you import classes, all students in those classes will be imported too.
See Adding classes and students for more information.
Set up your school holidays dates
Set up your school holidays dates
If you don't want to set homework during the school holidays, setting up your school holiday dates makes this easier.
See Setting up your school holidays for more information.
Set up your schemes of learning
Set up your schemes of learning
In order for Sparx Maths to set homework automatically with minimal teacher intervention, you'll need to set up the schemes of learning that your classes will follow.
See Managing Schemes of Learning for more information.
Set up teacher accounts
Set up teacher accounts
To enable your colleagues to use Sparx Maths, you'll need to set up Sparx Maths accounts for them.
See Adding, updating and removing staff members more information.
Get your team to complete their Sparx Maths training
Get your team to complete their Sparx Maths training
It's important that all teaching staff understand how to use Sparx Maths in order that it's working the best that it can for your school. We provide a short training programme which helps users to familiarise with all of the key features of Sparx Maths.
See Helping your team to make the most of Sparx Maths for more information.
Tell us about your key contacts
Tell us about your key contacts
It's important that you tell us about certain key contacts in your school (e.g. your finance contact, your IT contact etc.) so that we can ensure that important communications get sent to the right person.
See Adding, updating and removing key contacts for more information.
Show your students how to use Sparx Maths and get them logged in for the first time
Show your students how to use Sparx Maths and get them logged in for the first time
To ensure that your students hit the ground running when they receive their first Sparx Maths homework, we strongly recommend that you show them how Sparx Maths works, and verify that they can all log in, before you set their first homework.
See Getting students started for more information.
Complete your class setup and turn homework on
Complete your class setup and turn homework on
There are some final setup steps that you'll need to complete before turning on homework for your classes, so we know for example when to set the homework, when it's due to be handed in and what topics to put into the homework.
See Getting a class ready for its first homework for more information.
Recommended steps
Set up Single Sign-On (login with Google or Microsoft)
Set up Single Sign-On (login with Google or Microsoft)
If your school provides Google or Microsoft accounts for your staff and students, we recommend enabling single sign-on so that they can use these accounts to sign in to Sparx Maths.
This reduces the likelihood of forgotten passwords (which can in turn result in delayed homework hand-ins for students).
See Setting up single Sign-On (login with Google/Microsoft) for more information.
You might want to ask your school's IT contact to help you to set this up, in which case you can create a teacher account for them, so they can log in to your Sparx Maths site. See Adding, updating and removing staff members more information.
Turn on parent emails
Turn on parent emails
Our data shows that turning on parent emails has a significant impact on homework completion. If parent emails are turned on when students are set their first homework, they will automatically be sent an email explaining Sparx Maths.
See Why and how we engage parents with Sparx Maths for more information.