This article explains how to adjust the weekly homework plans for your classes, to best align with your teaching and to support your students' learning.
Understanding the Planner
Understanding the Planner
The Planner shows a weekly view of the homework that's planned for your selected class. By default, the topics included in the plan will reflect the Scheme of Learning that you've set for the class.
If you want to find out more about a topic that's planned or that you're thinking about putting into the planner, click on the topic's blue 'i' icon to view a description, example questions, example support videos and any specific methods that our support videos use.
Changing the topics in a homework plan for a specific week
Changing the topics in a homework plan for a specific week
From Planner, add new topics by selecting the homework week that you want to work with, clicking 'Add topic to week x', searching for the topic that you want to add, expanding the topic's details and clicking 'Add to week x'
To help you to decide whether to include a topic, you can view example questions and support videos for each level by clicking the blue 'i' icon next to the topic
Move topics between weeks by clicking the 'Move' drop-down next to the topic and then choosing either 'Move topic into next week' or 'Move topic into week...' (and then choose the week)
Skip topics that you don't want Sparx Maths to cover by clicking 'Skip' against the relevant topic
Changing hand-out/-in dates and times for a specific week
Changing hand-out/-in dates and times for a specific week
From Planner, select the homework week that you want to work with and use the hand-out and hand-in date and time fields at the top of the plan to make changes
You can only move the hand-out date of a homework to be after the current date, and to be within the week it was originally scheduled for.
Changing homework length for a specific week
Changing homework length for a specific week
From Planner, select the homework week that you want to work with and change homework length using the 'Homework Length' dropdown (30-90 minutes)
Setting optional only (non-compulsory) homework for a specific week
Setting optional only (non-compulsory) homework for a specific week
If you don't want a class to receive compulsory homework (for example, over holidays or activity weeks), but still want them to get new XP Boost & Target homework, you can change any upcoming homework week to optional only.
From Planner, select the homework week that you want to work with and change the type drop-down to 'Optional only'.
When you do this:
Students won't see any compulsory homework for this week
If there are any topics in Planner for this week, these will be covered in students' XP Boost homework
Students won't get a late mark if they don't complete their XP Boost or Target homework
Parents won't receive homework update emails for this week
This week will be excluded from any hand-in rate calculations
Removing topics covered last academic year from future consolidation homework
Removing topics covered last academic year from future consolidation homework
At the start of a new academic year, students will bring the topics that they covered last year into the consolidation for their new class. All students in the class will be eligible to see all of these topics in their consolidation. If there have been set changes, this can mean that some topics may not be appropriate for the whole class. You can remove these topics from consolidation.
From Planner, select the homework week that you want to work with and and click on the information ('i') icon next to 'consolidation'.
Click on the the 'Topics from Previous Academic Year' tab.
Untick any topics that you want to exclude. These changes will be saved automatically.
Frequently asked questions
How many topics should I include in my homework plans per week?
How many topics should I include in my homework plans per week?
For maximum impact, we recommend:
60-minute homework: 3 topics
30-minute homework: 1-2 topics
What happens if I remove all of the topics for a week in the Planner?
What happens if I remove all of the topics for a week in the Planner?
Each week will always contain consolidation homework. If your remove all of the topics from a week, then only consolidation homework will be set. We recommend keeping the number of consolidation only weeks to a minimum, to ensure that students receive homework that's reflective of what they've been learning in class.
Can I make changes to a homework that's about to be set?
Can I make changes to a homework that's about to be set?
To ensure that any changes are included in an upcoming homework, we recommend making your changes at least 10 minutes before the homework hand out time.
I set a homework by mistake, can I cancel it?
I set a homework by mistake, can I cancel it?
While you can't completely cancel a homework, you can change it to optional only. This will mean that students won't need to complete the compulsory part of the homework.
From Planner, select the homework week that you want to change and click 'Change to optional only'.
Note that this cannot be undone and you cannot set a replacement homework in the same week.
If you don't want topics from this homework to appear in future consolidation, click on the 'Exclude from future homework' button, against each topic that's in the planner for the week.
Can I make changes to homework that's already been handed out?
Can I make changes to homework that's already been handed out?
You can only change the homework to optional only. Other changes like dates, length and topics can only be made to upcoming homework that hasn't been handed out yet.