Setting up classes (using the connection to your MIS)

Import your classes

Firstly, you'll need to import your classes from your MIS into Sparx Maths. Use our Adding and updating classes/students (using the connection to your MIS) article to find out how to do this.

Once you have imported your classes the MIS integration will automatically control the following:

• Class name
• Year group
• Student membership

If you want to change any of these then you will need to do this in your MIS, and these changes will be reflected in your Sparx Maths site the following day. 

Setting up your classes for the first time

Once you have imported your classes you will need to go to Class Manager to finish setting them up.

To edit an individual class click the Blue pencil icon next to the class name.

Add a Scheme of Learning

Assign the class a Scheme of Learning (SoL) from your published list.

You can leave the I don’t have a Scheme of Learning to set box if you don’t yet have any published SoLs, but if you don’t publish and link SoLs to classes before you start using Sparx Maths with students then no content will be visible in homework, meaning more manual work for teachers and a risk that students won’t get suitable homework.

Find out more about SoLs in the Creating your Schemes of Learning section.

Choose an initial homework difficulty level

Choose an initial Homework Difficulty Level for your class which will determine the level of questions new students see in their first few homeworks. This level won’t affect the homework level for students who have already used Sparx Maths before, but we ask for it in case any new students join the class that have never used Sparx Maths before.

• If you have a class who are all working at roughly the same level please select the appropriate level from the list.
• For mixed attainment classes, we recommend you select a level for the lowest-attaining students in the group.
• If you have no information about the working level of a class we recommend selecting the easiest level available.

In each case, the homework difficulty will adjust over the following weeks to each student’s individual working level. These can be viewed and changed on the Student Manager page.

Find out more about difficulty levels in Sparx Maths here: What are difficulty levels?

Add staff

• Go to Class Manager> Edit Class 
• Scroll to the Teachers section and add the correct teacher/s to the class
• Choose to Send teacher emails if you want them to receive important messages about the class homework each week:

• Be sure to click Save once you have added your teachers to the class

Complete homework hand-out and hand-in details

• Choose homework hand-out and hand-in days. See this article for advice on Choosing the best hand-in and hand-out days
• Set a hand-out and hand-in time
• By default, the length of each homework will be up to 7 days, e.g.
  • Wednesday - Tuesday will create a 6-day homework
  • Wednesday - Wednesday will create a 7-day homework
  • Wednesday - Thursday will create a 1-day homework

Choose whether to turn times tables on

Add 5 minutes of personalised times tables practice to students' homework. Find out more about here.

Before you turn homework on

Make sure students are ready to complete their homework: once a homework has been set it can’t be deleted.