Sparx maths, how is it for you?!

[MaffsMover]

DD is complaining about the new Sparx maths homework. Does anyone use it? Is it Hegarty with a deferent name? She used Hegarty before and I’m not sure why there was a change or what the difference is.

She seems to be taking hours to get to the 100 % correct answers as she finds the videos aren’t as helpful as the Hegarty ones.

Is Sparx problematic or does she just need to get used to the change?

Sparx is Hegarty under a new name and with some new features - we got quite a long letter home from school explaining the differences.

My DS has said that with Sparx you have to get 100% in each exercise wheras with Hegarty you just had to finish the exercise. I'm not sure if that's just the way that is school have set it up though?

My DD’s school used hegarty and now sparx she seems to get on better with it although now it is set every week instead of every two weeks. It does take a little while. I prefer it!

Thanks Saffy.

I assumed she had to get the Hegarty 100% correct but maybe she just had to finish it.

Yes, it’s changed to weekly here too. Interesting that your DD prefers it. Do you know what’s improved for her?

I think probably because it is weekly she gets through it a lot quicker than Hegarty and it seems easier at the moment …. although u do have to remember to write all your answers down for the checks!

We hate Sparx here and lived Hegarty previously. The videos are less helpful and it’s much less user friendly. My daughter dreads it.
Luckily my sons school still uses Hegarty so if my daughter needs to watch a video to support, she used his login and watches Mr Hegarty instead!

Thanks Down, it’s a shame you’ve got a similar story to DD. Although I’m glad it’s a Sparx issue and not a DD issue.

DD says the videos aren’t helpful and it’s difficult to use. Her class have also reported a few correct answers being marked incorrect, so it’s impossible to move on. I’m not sure how true that is, or if it’s a mass misunderstanding.

I wonder if it’s worth buying a Hegarty pack just to help with the Sparx homework! DD was told that Hegarty are no more as Sparx took them over but that can’t be right.

Hegarty completely new to me, but my kids do Sparx and all hate it. They're lucky that maths comes easily to them, but it takes forever.

My eldest has only just started secondary and is using sparx so he has only had a few weeks' homework on it so far but he is already complaining about it!

Mr Hegarty sold Hegarty maths to Sparx

The theory is that Sparx maths is intuitive and adjusts the work for the child according to their ability/progress. We were sent an email asking us not to help our children with maths because it would mask their progress.

DD2 hated Hegarty, but then hated Sparx more! The videos are not as good, IMO. I also think it's ridiculous to ask children to write down an explanation for something and then ask them to check either 'I have done this' or 'I have not done this.'

DD says everyone in her year had the same question. If a child gets an individual question wrong then they get another one. How she knows I’m not sure…
Maybe it’s too early in the term for it to be intuitive. I’ve never got involved in homework so it was a surprise to get the email telling parents to not be involved. I mean, I am involved in that she’s got a place and time to study and we will chat about it if she wants. I can’t believe I’d have anything to add to the experience anyway.

This is an extract of the email I received:

"How does Sparx homework work?
Sparx personalises each child's homework, creating a weekly set of questions tailored to their level of understanding and learning pace. The questions are designed to be achievable whilst offering the stretch that learners need to make progress.

Each week, topics are set by your child's maths teacher and will make up the majority of the homework questions. Questions from previous topics will also be included in the homework so that pupils can keep practising the skills they have learned.

How can I help my child with their homework?
We appreciate that you will of course want to support your child with their home learning but please try not to help them with a question until they've had a go first. It is really important that they complete their homework independently, and that questions are marked as correct. They can watch the support video if they need to. This way, Sparx can make sure your child continues to see homework that's at the right level for them.

Why does my child need to achieve 100% compulsory homework completion?
Sparx Homework is deliberately designed to help pupils really get to grips with and understand the concepts and skills they are learning by ensuring they cover the essential building blocks needed to make progress in maths. It is tailored to your child's ability level and your child's personal strengths and weaknesses making it achievable for all pupils. It is advised that pupils do their homework as early as possible, so they have the time to try themselves and seek help from their teacher if needed."

We are another who had Hegarty previously and now Sparks.

I am not sure how dd feels about the change, but some things we ahve noticed

1. she used to be able to do Hegarty quickly, but with Sparks, somehow they keep going until you have been working fro an hour (not sure exactly how it works) which really lowers the incentive to work quickly.
2. dd is ggod at maths, so sparks often seems ot have extension questions for her. Unfortunately she is also on the autistic spectrum, so her reaction to those is to say - BUT WE HAVEN'T DONE THIS IN CLASS. and I end up talking her through the idea that she is using same thing in new format to test her ability to apply. Good really as she wants to do A level.

It does seem to change questions according to ability. I am notsure if they are set in advance by teacher or it adjusts as you go.

But the most annoying thing is the email notifications - Jane Doe hasn't started their maths homework yet - only 3 days to go! Encourage them to start.
3 days, of course she hasn't bloody started, it is only a dealine if it is the night before!

Our secondary started with Sparx last year. My year 7 DS has never used Hegarty so is finding it OK. However, my Year 11 DD much preferred Hegarty because of this 100% completion rule and worried about not being able to complete the work. There have been a couple of times when she just couldn't answer the questions and she has e-mailed the teacher but I find it causes unnecessary stress. If it isn't 100% is looks like the student hasn't completed the work despite having spent a long time trying so I don't think it reflects the effort.

It is tailored to your child's ability level and your child's personal strengths and weaknesses making it achievable for all pupils. This is sort of correct and after the firt few times of using it DD found most of the tasks a bit easier but it still puts her off doing the homework, which she never had with Hegarty. I think the supporting videos were better on Hegarty too.

If a child gets an individual question wrong then they get another one. This is true, they get another question using the same concept/type of question. But if they don't understand the concept just changing the numbers doesn't always help - and that's my DDs issue with it.

We had hegarty last year and swapped to Sparx midway through.

DC2 (Y8) hates it, preferred hegarty, takes approx 3hrs. It is absolutely not intuitive and last year I had to email in twice that the system was asking questions on topics that they hadn't even covered. The videos are rubbish, and eventually tells them to get help from a teacher.

Dc3 (y7) has no experience of hegarty but also dislikes sparx.
Takes ages, the writing answers down and going back for checks is annoying.

There's no enjoyment in it at all and the games are not aimed at teens, or not mine anyway, they don't want to collect cards of cats?

Thank you all!

Very similar reactions then. I’m peeved that Sparx thinks it’s okay to tell my child when she should be doing her homework. It’s taking her three or four hours and she doesn’t want to do that after a day at school. She leaves it until the weekend but then there isn’t time to get help from teachers when she invariably gets stuck. She could do bits each day I suppose, maybe she’ll decide that for herself.

I’m also peeved as if I wanted a computer to teach my child I wouldn’t send her to school. But I’m probably being unreasonable and didn’t care as much when Hegarty was doing it and I didn’t have to hear about it all the blooming time.

she says there are topics she hasn’t covered which is irritating for her. No idea if it’s true as no idea what they’ve covered.

Maths teacher here - I never liked Hegarty, we trialled Sparx in lockdown, I tried it with a very able group who were up for a challenge, they hated it.

Please feed back to the school, either via students or via parents, most teachers I know would not want a student spending that long on a piece of homework that should take an hour max at KS3 age. (I am not the biggest homework fan generally!)

It shouldn't be topics they haven't covered that could be due to the system setting things up weirdly - I never liked it as it was really weird to set up - not intuitive from the teacher view point at all.

We have switched to Mymaths - equally hated by my students, those who hated Hegarty are now extolling its virtues - I was a Mymaths user then Hegarty and now back to Mymaths so find it better as its what I know!

If you google Hegarty Maths and topic and video you are likely to find them on You tube - saves you paying for a supscription. Another source of good videos is Corbett Maths.

However do feedback, constructively, about Sparx - if its taking too long tell their teacher.

Interesting that most people seem to dislike it. DS1 also had Hegarty last year and he absolutely loathed it. Moved to Sparx this year and he likes it so much more. So pretty much the reverse of most people! He likes the fact that if you are fine you don’t have to watch the videos at all (they made them write notes off them last year) and if you do they are short. Also that you can do it a bit at a time as all the questions are separate.

Gosh, thanks for the useful feedback. I’ll remember that about YouTube.

ALL DDs class have fed back -moaned- to the teacher about Sparx. Th we’ve said it’s taking too long and the videos are awful. She got miffed with them and told them to stop moaning. I’ll track it for a few more weeks and then contact the teacher if things don’t improve by half term.

I think our issue is that DD struggles with maths, but the school don’t seem to have robust tracking, so assumed she was okay. IAnd yes, that’s been brought up by Ofsted. Sparx may be ok if you’re good at maths, or have been taught well. If you’re floundering like DD it just seems like a kick in the teeth. She’s not fine so she needs teaching,
. if the school can’t do it then the videos need to be able to-and they don’t.

We like it.
As there is a terrible shortage of teachers, and maths teachers in particular, it seems like a reasonable solution.
Not as good as increasing the number of teachers; but given the lack of respect teachers get (resulting in them leaving the job in droves) that seems unlikely to happen, so computer based teaching seems to be the way things are heading.

I misread it as Spanx and I got serious teenage attitude and eye rolling.

The videos on Sparx are terrible. You are best off looking for a video on YouTube and finding a teacher there that explains it in a way which works for your child.

I quite like some of the questions, which present the topic in some interesting examples and more like some of the applied exam questions. It is a shame they are mixed in with some less useful questions, though. I also like that (at least the way local schools have it set up) students have to practise previous topics regularly. I don't like that the videos show exactly how to do specific questions, rather than a more general understanding of the topic. And the bookwork codes seem tedious, and don't encourage written working out anyway, as pupils just end up with a long list of random number answers. Schools here also require 100% done, and done correctly, so I don't think the alogrithm does much to adapt, apart from possibly looking at the time it takes to do it, because students end up getting help for the difficult questions in the end if they aren't sure, so it doesn't help to tell parents not to get involved, as someone has to help!

But it's more the admin side of it that can be a pain; the actual questions I think are generally quite good, though I still preferred Mr Hegarty videos.

I find is less irritating that trying to get the right answers inputted on MyMaths or MathsWatch, and those questions really were repetitive.

At least on sparx you can leave part way and do a few each time, and there isn't a lot of copying down of questions. There is something to be said for having a required number that you have to do correctly, as with Mr Hegarty or other programs, pupils would get, say, 30% on a topic, and nothing ever happened - no follow up, no further explanation, etc. I'm not sure forcing 100% is the way to go either, as it means weaker students can just get totally stuck - there should be a way to skip somehow and let the teacher know.

After reading this thread I asked dd last night. (we changed from hegarty to sparx this year)

Her comment was interesting. Sparx is set up so that you do 1 hour homework. So they make you work for an hour.
Last year, she could whizz through her Hegarty in 15 minutes and it was a quick easy get out fo the way homework for those who were good at maths.
now those kids have to do a whole hour on Sparx.

Dds comment is that if you are good at eg English and can finish your English homework quickly, you can still do that, and those who are not good at English take a long time to do it. But with maths everyone has to spend a long time, good or bad, which makes it unfair for the good maths kids!
(I hope that makes sense)