Can I set homework over the summer?

Things to consider when setting homework in the summer:

• Homework data is linked to an academic year so you will need to download any reports on whether students completed any summer homework before you reset your Sparx Maths site for the new year. After your new academic year starts, you will not be able to access this data.

• If you have included holiday dates in your Schemes of Learning, these weeks will be blank so you will need to add some additional homework topics, either to the SoL or to the individual class planners.

Here are some options available in Sparx for setting summer homework:

1. Set a personalised weekly Compulsory Homework

In either your Scheme of Learning or Planner, you will need to turn homework on for each week and add topics. This will mean students will continue to receive weekly homework, as they do during term-time.

Notes to consider:

• You could choose to only set homework every other week, or change the length of each homework (between 30 and 90 mins)

• If you would like students to have more choice over when these tasks are completed, you could change the due date for each homework to the end of the summer rather than having a weekly deadline

• If you have parent emails turned on, parents will continue to receive update emails 3 days before the due date of each homework

2. Set a weekly Optional Only homework

Topics can be added to weeks over the summer as above, but to avoid setting deadlines during the summer, you could change these homeworks to Optional Only.

Notes to consider:

• Students will not see tasks in the Compulsory section of their homework, but will still be set personalised XP Boost and Target homework each week based on the topics you have added to the Planner

• Parents will not receive emails about any Optional homework

3. Direct students to use Independent Learning

You could share topic codes with students ahead of the summer break, and students can access Independent Learning to work through these at their own pace.

Notes to consider:

• Unlike setting weekly homework, individuals could work on different topics depending on their target areas

• Individual students’ activity can be tracked using the Independent Learning page, however, there is no class overview available