Sparx Science integrates directly with your MIS through Wonde, so your classes and students are automatically synced from your school's MIS.
Before you begin
Ensure that your MIS integration is set up and that we have approval to access the data in your MIS.
You can view your MIS integration status by clicking on the user menu → 'Getting started steps' → 'MIS Connection'
If you see any errors here, you'll need to speak to your school's technical contact.
If you have just started a new academic year, you may need to wait for your MIS administrator to set up classes. See Getting your Sparx Science site ready for a new academic year for more information.
Important considerations
Students can only belong to one class in Sparx Science.
Only students on register in your MIS can be added to Sparx Science. It is not possible to create student accounts manually.
Importing classes and students into Sparx Science
Importing classes and students into Sparx Science
When you import classes from your MIS, all students in those classes will also be imported into Sparx Science.
Go to 'Management' → 'Class Manager' → 'Import & Manage Classes'
By default, all Science classes available to import from your MIS will show on the left-hand side
If you want to add other classes (for example, registration groups), or you don't have subjects assigned to your classes in your MIS, click 'Show all subjects' and use the search bar to find other classes
Tick any classes you would like to import into to Sparx Science
Click the arrow in the middle of the screen to move your selected classes to the right-hand side (classes imported into Sparx Science)
Click 'Preview changes'
Check that you're happy with the changes that will be made. The preview will show you:
Classes to be added
New students to be added
Previous students to be reinstated
Any changes that will be made to classes and students when you sync (e.g. name changes, class moves etc.)
Click 'Sync changes' if you're happy with the preview (the sync may take a couple of minutes to complete)
Managing conflicts
Managing conflicts
Students can only belong to one class in Sparx Science
If a student belongs to multiple imported classes, you will see a warning message advising that you need to choose which class to place the student into in Sparx Science
You can view and resolve the conflicts by clicking the warning message. You will be able to assign individual students to the correct class, or assign multiple students to the same class in bulk.
Once you have resolved all conflicts, you will need to Preview Changes, check you are happy and then press Sync.
Keeping class and student data in sync with your MIS
Keeping class and student data in sync with your MIS
Once classes and students have been imported into Sparx Science, we'll automatically sync the following changes across from your MIS:
Students added to classes
Students moving classes
Student, parent/carer and class name changes
Parent/carer contact updates
When you make a change in your school's MIS, the changes won't show in Sparx Science immediately
Changes in your MIS are synced to Sparx Science via a third party service called Wonde
Wonde pulls data from your MIS roughly every 4 hours
Sparx Science pulls data from Wonde automatically overnight
As such, changes typically reflect in Sparx Science within 24 hours
For urgent changes, you can perform a manual sync (as long as it's been 4 hours since you made the change in your MIS):
Go to 'Class Manager' → 'Import & Manage Classes'
Click 'Preview changes'
Click 'Sync changes' if happy with the preview
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I see my classes to import?
Why can't I see my classes to import?
Your MIS may not be fully set up yet (especially at the start of a new school year). Check with your school's MIS administrator.
Classes may have only just been added to your MIS (allow up to 24 hours for the changes to show in Sparx Science)
Classes may not have subjects linked to them in your MIS (we only show Science classes by default and can't do this if your classes don't have subjects linked to them). Try ticking the 'Show all subjects' box on the 'Manage & import classes' screen to search from all classes available in your MIS.
There might be duplicate class names in your MIS. Check with your school's MIS administrator.
Why have some students disappeared?
Why have some students disappeared?
They may have been moved to a new class that hasn't been imported into Sparx Science (and so they've been removed from Sparx Science).
In this case, importing the student's new class into Sparx Science will reinstate the student's account and any homework progress.
They may have been removed from your MIS. Check will your school's MIS administrator.
Why aren't student names showing correctly?
Why aren't student names showing correctly?
Contact your school's MIS administrator to check that the student's information is correct in your MIS
We import 'preferred' names by default - contact us using the 'Help & Support' button in your Sparx Science site and ask to speak to a person if you need us to change this to 'legal' names for the whole school (we cannot do this for individual students).
Why aren't new students appearing in Sparx Science?
Why aren't new students appearing in Sparx Science?
Check they've been added to your MIS correctly
The student may only just have been added to your MIS (allow up to 24 hours for the changes to show in Sparx Science, or perform a manual sync, as described above)
If students are added to Sparx Science after a homework has been set for their class, they will not appear on the Hand-In page for that week, but will appear on the class list in Student Manager