Independent Learning

Independent Learning is a student area in Sparx, that allows them to practice topics from our extensive content library without the teacher needing to set any additional work.

Student access to Independent Learning

When logged in to Sparx students will always be able to see the Independent Learning option on the main menu:

On desktop

On mobile

Curriculum and Default Level

Students have the option to choose both the curriculum they want to work on and the default level for the questions they will see, but when they first log in the curriculum will be the same as the Base curriculum that is set on their class’ SoL, and the level will be set to the level they are being set for their homework (whether this was chosen by the algorithm or the teacher.)

On desktop

On mobile

Finding topics to work on

Students can choose to work on any topic by:

• Typing one of the following in the Search for topics field:
  • The name of a topic
  • A keyword
  • A code given to them by their teacher. (Find out more about Topic Codes in our article on the Independent Learning Page)
• Browsing the content by clicking on one of the main Strands: 

When in a topic, students will see three sets of questions at the level set on their Independent Learning homepage (see image above) which they can choose from:

• Introduce: basics skills for this topic at this level
• Strengthen: questions to consolidate understanding
• Deepen: more problem-solving type questions to challenge

If students find questions too easy or too tricky, they can change the level of each individual topic*. This won’t affect the overall level of questions in all other topic areas so they can tailor what they see to their strengths and weaknesses.

*Some topics won’t have higher or lower levels depending on the subject chosen.

How students view their own progress

1. By a count next to each topic, and Ticks and Stars within each set of questions:

• Students will get a tick if they complete one of the tasks in the topic. This means all the basics are covered.
• Students will get a star for each subsequent task they complete.

2. Their My Activity log:

Students are able to retry questions in Independent Learning, for example they may wish to come back to a topic at a later date and revise it further.

Earning Experience Points (XP)

Using Independent Learning for Revision

Have a look at how one of our schools uses Independent Learning for revision:

Monitoring Independent Learning as a teacher

Find out how to monitor what students are doing on our Independent Learning page article

Interaction with Homework

If a student completes work in Independent Learning across topics that are subsequently added to their homework, Sparx Maths will consider the student's Independent Learning progress when creating their homework. 

For example, if the student confidently answers all of the 'introduce' questions in a topic correctly in Independent Learning, and that topic is later placed into the student's homework, they're more likely to see 'strengthen' content in their homework.

Work that students complete in Independent Learning does not influence their homework difficulty level, nor how much work they receive in their homework.

Times tables practice

Students can also access times tables practice within Independent Learning. This allows them to practice their times tables outside of their compulsory homework. 

On the Independent Learning page, teachers can see how much XP students have earned from practicing times tables within Independent Learning. Time spent practising times tables does not increase their total time spent in Independent Learning.

Find out more about how Times Tables works in our Times Tables article.