Sparx Maths homework is designed to be personalised, adaptive, and effective for each student's learning journey. This article explains the core concepts that make up a Sparx Maths homework.
Types of homework
Each weekly homework that a student receives comprises up to three personalised components, each serving a specific purpose.
Compulsory homework
Compulsory homework
The main weekly homework that all students need to complete
Every question must be answered correctly for the week's homework to be marked as complete.
Made up of:
'In focus' topics (around 60%) - the topics that you place into the Planner for the class
Consolidation topics (around 40%) - revision of previously covered topics
Students won't receive any compulsory homework if:
They or their class are set to receive optional-only homework
Homework is turned off for the student's class
XP Boost homework
XP Boost homework
Optional additional practice that helps to reinforce learning
Contains consolidation and revision questions from topics previously covered in homework
May also include some topics set in the Planner for the current week
Usually takes around 30 minutes to complete (increased to 60 minutes when the student or their class are set to receive optional-only homework)
If you want to prioritise one type of optional homework over another then we'd recommend students work on their XP Boost homework. This will give them further practice on the key topics that they have been learning about recently.
Our research suggests that students who spend more time working on their XP Boost homework as well as their Compulsory homework tend to make better progress in their learning, therefore we highly recommend that schools actively encourage students to complete their XP Boost homework.
Target homework
Target homework
Optional, more challenging questions that help to stretch students
Contains up to six questions based on the student's current learning
Questions are based on topics set in the Planner for the current week and topics previously covered in homework
Students are likely to need more help answering their target questions; however, it is important that students ultimately answer the questions themselves so that their work accurately reflects their ability.
Our research suggests that students who spend more time working on their Target homework as well as their Compulsory homework tend to make better progress in their learning, therefore we highly recommend that schools actively encourage students to complete their Target homework.
How homework is personalised
Homework levels
Homework levels
The objectives within each topic in Sparx Maths have a set difficulty level that describes which students are likely to be able to access its content
Students also have a homework level, which allows us to match question difficulty to the student's capability
When you add a class to Sparx Maths, you need to choose an initial homework level for the class (see Getting a class ready for its first homework for more information).
We'll use this class level to personalise early homeworks for students in the class, until we learn more about their behaviours and capabilities
As students complete homework, we adjust their individual homework level based on their:
Working speed
Accuracy
Use of support videos
Overall performance patterns
It takes around 100 questions (4-5 weeks) to establish an accurate homework level for a student
We look at compulsory, XP boost and target homework completion when calculating a student's homework level, so the more optional homework a student completes, the quicker we'll be able to calculate their homework level
Whilst a student's homework level is being determined, we will personalise their homework, but they may find that their questions are on the easy side
Once we have established a homework level for the student, this will be displayed in Student Manager
If you feel that the homework level that we've set for a student is incorrect, you can override it in Student Manager (see Changing homework for an individual student for more information).
You may also need to do this if you believe the student has had help to complete their homework (in which case, we may estimate their capability to be higher than it actually is).
Homework content
Homework content
Compulsory Homework is made up of in focus topics (around 60%) and consolidation topics (around 40%).
In focus topics
In focus topics
The topics that a student sees in the their homework are almost always driven by the topics that are added to the Planner for the student's class
If all the topics in the Planner are new (i.e. they haven’t been seen by the student before), then:
We will work through these topics in the order that they appear in the Planner
We'll deliver questions from the first objective in each topic before cycling back around again if there are any topics with more than one objective within them.
If any supporting topics are required (where we think the student would find the questions for an in focus topic too challenging without additional support), questions from the supporting topic will appear before questions from the in focus topic that they are designed to support.
For example, if rounding to the nearest whole number is set as a homework topic, weaker students may get rounding to the nearest 100 and stronger students may get questions on rounding to 1 or 2 decimal places.
If there are more topics than we can fit into the student's compulsory homework, then these topics will be delivered in XP Boost homework
If any topics are still not seen by the student, then we will aim to include them in the consolidation section of compulsory homework in future weeks.
If topics in the Planner have been seen by the student before, we will follow a similar process but will prioritise the topics which the student has not attempted or has made the least progress on in the past, meaning the topics may not be delivered in the same order as shown in the homework planner.
If no topics are added to the Planner for the week, then the whole homework will contain topics from consolidation.
In some rare examples early in the year where a class won't have seen many topics in previous weeks, then we will use introductory content from the appropriate curriculum (e.g. KS3 or GCSE).
Consolidation topics
Consolidation topics
Consolidation covers topics that the student saw in previous weeks (including from previous academic years)
Leveraging spaced retrieval principles, we'll choose topics that the student saw around 3 weeks and 10 weeks ago (excluding holiday/no homework weeks)
We'll include topics that the student hasn't yet mastered and revision on topics they haven't seen recently
The consolidation questions are generated the first time that the student opens a homework, so we can't show you in advance what questions each student will get in their homework
When the student first starts using Sparx Maths, they won't get any consolidation homework as they won't have any historical topics for us to draw from. In this case, a majority of their homework will be comprised of in-focus topics.
Most consolidation tasks will cover multiple topics and questions are intentionally mixed to challenge students and help them to build connections between different areas of maths.
Mixed topic practice
Mixed topic practice
You may sometimes see 'mixed topic practice' tasks in a student's homework
These tasks contain questions from multiple topics
The questions are intentionally interleaved to challenge the student by 'context switching'
Mixed topic practice is typically seen in the consolidation section of homework, but can sometimes appear in 'in focus' homework
Some students could see a topic in mixed topic practice whilst others may not
Topics contain questions at three levels: Introduce, Strengthen and Deepen
Introduce questions contain the key skills that a student needs to understand. They will always be delivered together, in sequence in a homework.
If a student has previously confidently completed the Introduce questions for the topic then they could see Strengthen and Deepen questions in mixed topic practice. These are likely to be interleaved with questions from other topics.
Occasionally, if we think a student is likely to find the Introduce questions of a topic too easy, we will progress them onto the Strengthen content of the topic straight away.
You can see which topics a mixed topic practice task comprises by hovering over the 'Mixed topic practice' header on the Student Answer History screen.
Homework length
Homework length
By default, students receive approximately 60 minutes of compulsory homework per week
You can change this, but please note that research verified by Cambridge University shows that completing the recommended 60 minutes of homework per week for one whole school year on average yields a 0.24 level improvement in GCSE grades.
Homework lengths may vary slightly between students, especially whilst we learn their working speeds
Each time we set a homework, we’ll determine how many questions we need to give each student in order to fill the homework length that's been set for the student/class.
The number of questions will depend on both the student (some students work more quickly than others) and the questions set (some questions take longer to complete than others). As such, it's likely that different students in a class will see different numbers of questions in the homework.
Homework completion
Why we require 100% completion
Why we require 100% completion
Due to the way Sparx personalises homework, students are set the achievable target of answering all of their Compulsory homework questions correctly in order for homework to be counted as complete.
Each homework contains a range of questions specifically targeted at the individual to help close gaps in their learning. It is only by working through all of these questions that students will see all of the personalised work that has been set for them.
Completing their homework each week also allows Sparx Maths to learn about their working speeds and adapt future homework for them.
We provide a number of mechanisms to help students that are struggling to complete all of their homework:
Support videos, which demonstrates the skill(s) that students will need to use to answer the question
Students can swap up to three questions for an alternative once they've watched the support video for the question for at least 15 seconds
If a student significantly struggles with a question, they will be encouraged to seek help from a teacher, which will be flagged to the teacher on the hand-in page for the class
Teachers are encouraged to monitor homework completion via the hand-in pages for their classes, and provide support where it looks like students might be struggling
If students consistently struggle to answer the questions that they're being given, teachers can adjust the homework level for a student down via Student Manager
How long students have to complete their homework
How long students have to complete their homework
Compulsory homework should be completed by the hand in day and time that the teacher has set for the homework
If students don't complete their homework by the hand in day and time, they have 48 days to access and complete it, but it will be marked as late
This limit helps ensure students stay current with their work while still allowing reasonable time to catch up on recent assignments if needed
Progress is automatically saved so work can be completed across multiple sessions
Early completion is recommended to allow time for teacher support
Frequently asked questions
What should I set my classes' initial homework difficulty levels to?
What should I set my classes' initial homework difficulty levels to?
Following are the difficulty levels that we set for objectives, across the curricula that we support. You can use these as guidance when setting the initial difficulty level for a class.
Key Stage 3 levels
Suitable for students who need significant extra support
Suitable for students who need some extra support
Suitable for students who meet the expected standards for their age
Suitable for students who need more challenging material
GCSE levels
Suitable for Foundation/Core tier students who need extra support
Suitable for most Foundation/Core tier students
Suitable for students on the borderline between Foundation/Core and Higher/Extended tier papers
Suitable for most Higher/Extended tier students
Suitable for Higher/Extended tier students aiming for the highest grades
Fundamentals levels
Suitable for students who need significant extra support to access secondary material
Suitable for students who need extra support to access secondary material
Further Maths levels
Suitable for the lowest attaining students taking this course
Suitable for middle attaining students taking this course
Suitable for the highest attaining students taking this course
Why do some of my students have a homework level and others don't?
Why do some of my students have a homework level and others don't?
Whilst it takes around 100 questions for us to calculate a student's homework level, it can take some students longer to reach 100 questions than others, for example:
Where the student's compulsory homework length is shorter than 60 minutes
Where the student has a slower working speed or is getting a large number of complex questions that take longer to answer
Where a student student isn't fully completing each homework
Why do I need to set an initial difficulty level for a class that was using Sparx Maths last year?
Why do I need to set an initial difficulty level for a class that was using Sparx Maths last year?
Whilst we'll remember the homework difficulty level for students that have used Sparx Maths in a previous academic year, we still ask you to set an initial homework difficulty for all classes in case any new students join the class.