sparx maths

[SomersetBrie]

I'm a parent of a Y10 who has recently started using sparx maths with school.
I am wondering what other parents/teachers think of it.
DS is good at maths but is struggling with the homework style in general and the difficulty in getting 100%.
I assumed it was a him problem (he has plenty of those!) but I came across some very negative comments online about sparx (mainly from students) and just wondered what others thought.
I thought it sounded great from the email we got from school, but getting more questions in your areas of difficulty and minimal help with these areas has been very frustrating for him.

Not keen here!

I am a student who uses it and I think that it is dog s**t!

Started Ok - but DO NOT recommend now.

My daughter used Sparx extensively, while attending a large state school for Year-7. It was good for her, partly because the classroom education was un-streamed, and still covering year-5 material etc (= boring). She scored the highest LP points of anyone in the year.

For Year-8, she moved to another, smaller school - that also uses Sparx. BUT it has proved impossible to transfer the file. Sparx Learning have not responded to any of my support requests. The School Maths departments have also tried, but been told - "No, it can't be done". Apparently, transferring a simple, digital file is too difficult for them.

She, she will have to start all over again, which is quite crushing for her enthusiasm ☹️.

Sparx Learning tout their "AI question-setting". This does work, but it's haphazard and slow. Certainly, it would require the student's entire progress file, and not just a current score /level. So, until it improves, their AI is of limited value.

For us the biggest problem is the complete lack of support and absence of empathy for kids /users. And the refusal to go out of their way, even a little, to help a keen user. Ours may be an "edge case" - but it indicates much deeper problems. If you have a choice, PLZ select other applications, and avoid Sparx.

@PoeticReality
That is such a shame for your daughter.
I've always found their support very good!
Having said that my current classes have lost all their data too and they are in the same school!

I hope your daughter can get back into it again. It really does help kids do well if she can manage to get past the frustration with it

I think it's difficult to get them to do the working out. I got my DS to do working out in primary. He can manipulate numbers in his head so sparx means he doesn't feel the need to write the working out (school never check the answer book!). I encourage him to do the working out but it's a battle.

The English is awful! I much prefer books.

My son used to just write the question number and the answer for the bookwork code but didn't write the working out so it's pointless really.

He actually downloaded an extension for his browser that does the bookwork check automatically so he doesn't need to write it down anymore. However, now he's getting on to harder questions that have lots of steps he's finding he has to write the working out down anyway as he can't remember what he's already done.

Thank goodness for Mumsnet - my year 7 child has been thumping the table over this for the last few weeks. I had not a clue what it was all about or what the source of frustration is. He was writing nothing down so making loads of errors as the question isn’t on the same screen as the answer page so he was managing to forget as he flicked back and forth. He claims the teacher hasn’t told them to write anything…

Absolutely awful system. Sparx in general is a "lazy" way to set homework. I understand that teachers are stressed and if you look online you can see how teachers LOVE sparx... Uhm, isn't teaching supposed to be about the kids? How's our kid's mental health these days? It must great with all these apps piling on the pressure. < sarcasm. What I want to say about Sparx I cannot write here. I have two teenage daughters. Both despise it. They are at different schools. One of those schools as them doing Sparx reader, science and maths. I'm a professional writer. I write fiction novels for living and Sparx reader infuriates tf out of me. It's awful. Completely ruins the enjoyment of reading. My youngest enjoyed maths. Not any more. Science is just absurd with the amount, and it's not even the same subjects that are covered in the classes. The whole is a travesty and shouldn't be pushed onto kids. Their behaviors are already monitored like freakin' Chinese kids every day by behavior apps. It's not mystery why so many children are self harming, contemplating suicide, have depression. The entire UK schooling system is broken. Sparx is just one example of how sh*t everything is now.

Son's schooled swapped from Hegerty Maths to Sparxs. They soon dropped it and changed to Maths Genie and Cognito.

In year 7 it isnt as bad, especially because a lot of the time they are recapping for the year. |I have a teacher friend and she confirmed it. My daughter used to love maths more than english, always did, but now really dislikes it. It isnt all sparx's doing, but having to do it every week really annoys her. A form was sent out last year, and only 2% of her year enjoyed it, with only 5% finding it helpful. Even if schools think its good, the numbers dont lie.

If I could give Sparx Maths zero stars, I would. This website is an absolute nightmare. The questions are ridiculously repetitive, the interface is painfully slow, and the amount of work it forces on students is borderline cruel.
First off, the "independent learning" is a joke. It’s just the same boring, tedious problems over and over again, with no real explanation when you get things wrong. And don't even think about trying to skip a question—you have to do every single one or you’re stuck in Sparx hell forever.
The worst part? The “bookwork checks.” You have to write down every answer and reference it, like some kind of medieval punishment. What year are we in? 2025 or 1825? This is just busy work disguised as education.
Teachers love it because they don’t have to do anything, but for students, it’s a never-ending nightmare of frustration and wasted time. Avoid at all costs unless you enjoy suffering.

Not all teachers love it.

I am a teacher and I hate it. We don’t use it at my school.

I was doing Sparx one day and then I did a question, keep in mind I most of the time do Sparx perfectly with some minor corrections to my work, I knew I did it correctly and even checked with 4 AIs and they all said the same as me, but when I checked the cover for the video, I knew what they wanted me to do, even though it was wrong, I am now furious at Sparx and because it is a terrible platform anyway, I really hate it and now its giving us wrong information. Please change Sparx

Sparx is the worst, I agree. I didn't rate it or it would just make the rate better, google, please let us put zero stars on horrible things like Sparx
Please

My dd (yr 10, top set maths) has managed to circumvent actually working out the sparx maths homework. She takes a screenshot of the question, puts it into AI maths solver and gives the answer to Sparx.

Which means she isn't actually learning anything but as she's still scoring highly in her actual classroom maths assessments I've decided this is one parenting battle I'm not going to fight.

My child is autistic. I have endured today's predictable Sparx meltdown and have just emailed his teacher and senco to ask them to just give him a worksheet. FFS.

Anyone else with an autistic child finding this platform a struggle? He's really good at maths. Worried this is putting him off.

Same...

My kids are constantly complaining about Sparx maths. My eldest in year 9 is absolutely livid with the fact that there homework curriculum had changed for maths. Honestly ive never seen a hole in the wall before starting to use sparx. 🤗

Same in our house- both boys loved maths- top set- but hate Sparx maths- so not loving maths as much now.. they used to do extra Maths for fun- not anymore sadly.

They don’t find it challenging- they say they don t learn anything, it’s just boring

So does DS, I’m relieved TBH 😂🙈.

Hater here. School introduced mandatory detention if you don’t get 100%so the kids started using AI. School called out they were clearly using AI humiliated a few kids in assembly so ds started watching a film them putting in an answer every x minutes. This is a child who used to like maths