Engaging parents/carers

Engaging parents in their child's homework makes a huge difference to homework completion. It also impacts your workload - having them onside and motivating students will save you time and making sure they understand Sparx Reader from the start will stop you from needing to answer lots of queries throughout the year.

Communicate the Importance of Sparx Reader

Direct parents to information provided by Sparx

We have a page on our website with helpful video resources that explain why Sparx Reader exists, and aims to explain some of the principles around how it works for both students and teachers, as well as the ongoing messaging and support we provide to parents. This page can be found here

Send home a letter, email or text

At the start of the school year, consider sending a letter to parents explaining why homework is important for their child's progress and how Sparx Reader ensures that books given to students are personalised to their level. Highlight the positive impact it can have on their child's outcomes and the confidence they can gain from completing all of their reading each week.

Below is a two template letter you are able to edit and send out to parents. 

Versions 1 can be printed as it contains a QR code. Version 2 can be used as an email. 

Run an assembly, presentation or a stand at parents' evenings

At the start of the year, you could invite new parents to a presentation and allow them to ask questions about Sparx Reader. Explain why it's important, how it will be implemented in your school, and how they can best support their child (providing a quiet space for them to read, asking them about the book they're reading and praising and engaging with their child's homework completion etc.)

During year 6 transition evenings or mid-year parents' evenings, why not run a short presentation or set up a stand to showcase the impact of Sparx Reader on student outcomes? Have a member of the team there to talk to parents about Sparx and encourage understanding and enthusiasm.

Involve parents in your rewards system

Create a rewards system that involves parents and encourages them to support their child in completing their homework. This could include postcards or phone calls home, a shout-out to the student on the school's social media or in a newsletter, or using the downloadable reports to identify and praise positive learning behaviours at parents' evenings.

Have a look at this article for different reward system ideas: Creating a homework rewards system

Provide Support for Parents

Address their concerns

Parents may have some concerns about Sparx Reader but these can be alleviated with some information. Here are some of the key points to communicate:

• Let parents know what support is available in school for their child - do you have a computer room or library where students have access to a device or a quiet space to read and complete their homework? Is there a homework club they could attend?
• Remind parents that the books given to students are personalised to their child's attainment level 
• Remind parents that students are able to swap books out if they are not enjoying them or are finding them difficult
• Let parents know that students can complete their Sparx Reader homework over multiple sittings and do not need to complete all of their reading in one go. Early completion is encouraged so students have a chance to raise any questions with their teacher if necessary. 

How Sparx Reader supports parents

Welcome email

Once students have completed their onboarding, we will send a welcome email to parents which gives an overview of Sparx Reader, as well as information about parent portal, and homework completion data that will be available on a weekly basis.

Parent portal

Parents of children using Sparx Maths will currently receive a weekly email that updates them on their child's homework progress that week. The email is sent 3 days before the hand-in date of their Maths homework.

There is also a callout in this email which mentions that Reading homework information is also available to view. 

If parents click on the link in this email, they will get taken to our parent portal, where they can choose to view homework progress for any Sparx learning system their child is using. For Sparx Reader, parents can see progress with the current and previous homework, and browse books that their child has been reading as part of their current homework. 

Please note that each email contains a unique link to Parent Portal, and this link will expire 7 days after the email was sent.

Book completion email

Each time their child completes a book on Sparx Reader, we email their parents or carers a celebratory email. This shows them some information about the book, including how many points they've earned, and suggesting some questions to try and prompt some discussion about their reading.

This email is not sent for books completed on Gold Reader, we may look to add a parent email to celebrate Gold Reader progress in the future.