Sparx-greater depth

[Hopebridge]

Hi. The secondary school I'm looking at uses Sparx maths. Those with greater depth learners have you found this offers a good platform for them? The school will be mixed ability in a year 7.

Hate Sparx but it seems to be universal here. So laborious..:

The theory is that sparkxs adapts to the level the child is working at. Our school recently switched to it (they obviously have a v good sales team and I wonder who owns them and how much they donate to the Tory party, but I digress...)
My v capable, set 1 maths, child finds it boring to have to write out the sums because apparently he can just do them in his head. Which is the point, it gets them into the habit of writing it out which is so important in exams and as things get harder. It I am not convinced it is 'adapting' to his level. The kids preferred mathswatch, but I think they could work around that much more easily.
Is your child currently year 6?
Maths really steps up very steeply in secondary- another child of mine who breezed through primary and got very high greater depth etc then found the change quite difficult and only in year 10 caught up and is back to working at a higher level.
So in summary, don't worry about it - your kid will find their path through the curriculum.

And they all use some kind of online maths program. Chose the right school for your child, don't base it on whether they use sparks would be my advice

I'm not basing it on Sparx. He doesn't want to go to grammar unfortunately. I just wanted to see how others found it as he's currently going through the Year 7 work as he's done the Year 6 syllabus already.

He is in Year 6.

He's thankfully got used to writing things out as always did working in his head as well. It took time for him to understand the importance.

I just worry about him getting bored and wondered how others found it. Thanks for the comments.

In terms of the compulsory homework - no.

It seems to revert to very easy questions as revision.
However you can select ks3 or gcse and topic and level 1-4 so for revision it can be good. Our teacher lists the codes before tests of relevvant topics.

But.. Im finding the stretch on the school set tests higher than relevant sparx topics.

My school recently looked at the maths websites for homework.

Sparx was very expensive. It's supposed to adapt to how the child does which it does a bit.

We preferred Hegarty which now doesn't exist (sold to Sparx). We now use DrFrost.

Other schools that use Sparx were ambivalent about it - from a school perspective it cuts marking but the student experience isn't great.

Don't choose a school based on their maths homework website though!

If you are looking for things to keep him interested in maths consider parallel, they do maths circles.

parallel.org.uk

Parallel and the maths challanges are the only thing that stretches my decent mathematician.
He hates sparks - but part of that is whoever sets it not getting it right each time. I'm not sure how the adaptation works, because he gets frequent screenshots from his mates asking how to do a question, and it feels like he knows - or maybe he just works it out for them??
The bookwork checks are also a PITA.

His primary school they are great concerning stretching him. They do some independent learning and have a group that do some higher level maths. He's really enjoying the work.

I'm just trying to get my head around what to expect for him and what questions to ask. The idea of lessons on computer is very different to what he does now.

Thank you for the links I will have a look.

DS is at a grammar school that uses Sparx. At parents evening, even his maths teacher said it’s a nightmare!

We just used a whiteboard and pen and paper at school. I assume they think this is a better way of teaching I guess time will tell.

My child in year 9 has started using Sparx this year and hates it - mostly because of the book-writing stuff they have to do alongside it. But the reality is that all schools use some system, this just seems to be the latest trend.

There's another thread on this board about Sparx somewhere, most kids and parents on there dislike it for various reasons. At parents evening recently, I spoke to dd's maths teacher about Sparx, he said the staff aren't keen on it at all. They've only been using it for 2 years but are discussing ditching it now!

Sparx isn’t the teaching. It’s just the homework. It’s rubbish but dc is resigned to it now and in the routine. The actual maths teaching they get in lessons is good and they don’t use Sparx / computers in the lessons.

In contrast my ds (top set) likes it. It’s a bit like kumon in that it reinforces questions over and over and quickly uncovers if they don’t understand something. It’s only got homework, not the teaching, and means the teachers don’t need to mark hundreds of books while getting the same info about who is struggling