Help - Teachers

- Having problems registering for a free trial? Click here to use a non-secure server to register. Note: this means that personal details can be intercepted in transit over the internet. If you would rather register with us by telephone, call us on 0207 004 2606.
- Have you managed to log in from home and now can't do it from school? Click here.
- Need details of our prices and how to subscribe? Click here.
- Would you like a downloadable user's guide to the site in PDF format? Click here.
- Would you like to earn Amazon.co.uk vouchers? For details of our new Recommendation Rewards Programme -Click here.
- For a printable version of this page, click here.
- To find out how you can send in a school case study and share your experiences of using Spark Island with other teachers, click here.

If you need help finding your way around the site, or if you have specific queries about using the site, take a look at these frequently asked questions:

Getting started

How do I get to my school's page once I have registered?
You can get there automatically by typing http://www.sparkisland.com/ into your browser or by clicking on the Spark Island logo in the top left corner.

How do I get straight to activities for a particular subject?
See our 'Help in getting started' section to searching for full details on finding activities by clicking here.

Using the site

Do the activities line up with the National Curriculum?
We have designed every activity in Spark Island specifically to meet one or more National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum learning outcomes, and/or outcomes contained in the National Numeracy and Literacy Strategies, or in the Early Learning Goals. In the list of activities for any part of the curricula, you will see the learning outcomes from both the National Curriculum and any Strategies to which it relates, or the Scottish Curriculum.

Where do I find lesson suggestions for the activities?
For each activity, you are given a list of the available supplementary materials, including lesson suggestions, downloadable worksheets, and clip art. See the Help in getting started section for an example.

I'm Scottish: how do I find activities that match the Scottish Guidelines?
Click on the links for either maths, English,science and ICT on both your homepage or the navigation bar, to find links to all the curriculum areas. Click on the Scotland link to access the activities.

How do I know that the activities are suitable for my group?
We've made every effort to ensure that our activities are suitable for use in primary school classrooms in the UK. For more information on our approach to developing activities, see the Editor's Note.

How long does it take to work through each activity?
This depends from activity to activity, and on how you are using them in class. We've avoided setting a time limit on how long our activities should take. For more information on our approach to developing activities, see the Editor's Note.

How do I check my pupils' progress through the activities?
Spark Island does not track pupils' progress through activities, so you will need to do this yourself. In research, we have discovered that it is rare for pupils to do our learning games on their own in a school environment, which makes tracking individuals' progress very difficult - you never know who is behind the computer or who contributed the answer!

I want to 'bookmark' an activity, so that I can come back later with my class and find it easily - how do I do this?
You can do this in one of two ways:

Bookmark the activity using your browser (in Netscape, use the bookmarks menu, and click on "Add Bookmark"; in Internet Explorer, go to the Favorites (sic) menu and Click on "Add to Favorites"). This method has the advantage of being familiar, but means that the bookmark will only be stored on the computer that you have used.
Click on the words "Add this to your personal activity list" underneath every activity. This will make your activities available to everybody who uses a computer which has been logged in for your school via your school's start page.

I would like to save Spark Island resources to my own computer - how do I download them?
For clip art and worksheets: you will be able to view them in your browser, and then use the "Save As" command in the file menu to save the resources where you want them. For the activities: this depends on your browser and computer, and on the type of material that you are downloading. For PC users, the files are available as "exe" files which will run straight from wherever you save them. Note that these files may take several minutes to download.
NB. You will only be able to download activities to your browser, once you have become a full paying subscriber.

I know I've updated my saved lessons, and added another teacher, but I can't see them in the list. Help!

Netscape users: press Shift and the Refresh button at the same time.
PC Internet Explorer users: press Ctrl and the Refresh button at the same time.
Mac Internet Explorer users: press the Option key with Refresh at the same time.

This should bring you the latest version of the page. Sometimes browsers store old versions of pages and don't ask our computers for the latest ones: to change this, you will need to adjust the settings on your browser. Ask the person in charge of your network before doing this. (ICT administrators: browsers should be set to compare cached versions of pages with those on the network every time for this problem permanently to be avoided).

Why won't my worksheets print out the right way around?
Some of the printable resources sheets are portrait format, whilst others are landscape: you'll be able to tell which are which when you open them up. However, your computer printer may well choose portrait as its default print format. So, in order to print landscape sheets, you'll need to choose from your toolbar File/Print/Properties/Orientation, and then click on the 'landscape' button in the 'orientation' panel.
You'll need to go through this process each time you print a landscape resource sheet, unless you change your printer's default settings.

Security questions

How do I keep the pupils from wandering into other 'dodgy' sites?
Spark Island does not provide your internet connection or internet browser, so we cannot absolutely guarantee that your pupils will not wander into dodgy sites. The organization that does provide your internet connection - known as your Internet Service Provider or ISP - may offer "filtering" services which are designed to prevent children seeing unsuitable material on the internet. Most ISPs who offer services designed for schools include these services, and most LEAs who provide internet connections for their schools will be ensuring a "filtered" service. Contact your ICT Co-ordinator for details, or your ISP.

What will Spark Island do with the information they request?
All information you provide to Spark Island during the registration process will be kept confidential. We value each of our customers and we work hard to protect your privacy. We do not, now and do not plan to in the future, sell or rent information about our customers to other companies. When you register with Spark Island we request only the information that is necessary for your subscription and the ongoing optimisation of your visit. You can read our Privacy Policy by clicking here.

Technical questions

Will I need special software or programmes to read the activities and lesson plans?
To read the activities, you will need to have the Flash 6 plug-in installed. For more information on Flash, and to see if you have it installed, click here. You will not need any other special software to use the Spark Island site.

I'm getting an 'ActiveX' error message and can't access the learning activities. What's going on and how do I resolve this?
This is all to do with Internet Explorer Security Settings.
Microsoft Internet Explorer contains a feature called Security Settings. This can prevent certain sorts of Web content from being shown on your computer. Depending on how Internet Explorer is set up on your computer, Security Settings might prevent you from using our learning games.
You will know if this is happening because you will see an error message that says: 'An ActiveX control on this page is not safe. Your current security settings prohibit running unsafe controls on this page.'

To stop it happening, you need to tell Internet Explorer to allow our learning games to be shown in your computer: you can do this by adding Spark Island to your list of Trusted Sites.
Here's how:

First, start up Internet Explorer. Click on the Tools menu, then Internet Options.
Next, click on the tab marked Security (at the top of the window).
Now click on the green tick labelled Trusted Sites.
At the bottom left of the window, there is a slider that you can drag up and down. Drag it down to the bottom, so the text to the right of it says Low.
Now you need to click on the Sites button (on the right of the window, about half way down). A new window will appear.
Make sure that the box labelled Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone is not ticked.
In the box labelled Add this Web site to this zone, type this: www.sparkisland.com then press return.
Finally, click on 'OK', then 'OK' again.

Using Spark Island on RM Community Connect Networks
Spark Island Online has been tested to work on both Community Connect 2.x (including the most common, Community Connect 2.4) and Community Connect 3.x networks.

Users of Community Connect 3 networks should have no problems using Spark Island Online. If you do encounter problems and are using a Community Connect 3 network, please consult your own technical support provider, and then RM if necessary. If your problem is still not resolved, please click here to tell us about it and we will do our best to resolve it.

Some users of Community Connect 2 (CC2) networks may encounter a situation in which they and their pupils have to log in to Spark Island Online every time that they access the service. This is not the way Spark Island Online is supposed to work; however, CC2 can cause this to happen. For technical users, this happens because Spark Island relies on cookies to identify its subscribers and users. CC2 is often set to delete the cookies held in a profile at the end of every user session.

There are several ways to work around this problem, as follows (these adjustments will need to be made by a technically proficient user):
- Ensure that cookies are saved for all your profiles. All of your users will need to be logged in to Spark Island, but only once. They should automatically be able to access Spark Island thereafter.
- Create a "Spark Island" user on your network whose cookies are saved in between sessions. When you want to use Spark Island, you and your pupils should log in to your network as the Spark Island user.

If you continue to have problems, please consult your own technical support provider, and then RM if necessary. If your problem is still not resolved, please click here to tell us about it and we will do our best to resolve it.

What are the detailed technical requirements and recommendations?
The site has been tested on Internet Explorer 4.5 and Netscape 4.x and above on both PC and Macintosh platforms, at 33.6kbps via a leading consumer ISP, with 800x600 screen resolution. The Flash 6 plug-in is required for all activities and to visit the island. No other plug-ins are needed. The site may work on Netscape 4.x for Linux, but this is not a supported browser.
For schools, we recommend either:

Pentium II class computers with screen resolutions of 800x600 or higher, 64MB RAM, soundcards, Windows 95/98/Me and Internet Explorer 5.x or Netscape 4.7;
Apple Macintoshes with 64MB RAM, a 333Mhz PowerPC processor or above, and screens at 800x600 resolution or higher.
An ISDN2 or 128kbps connection to the internet.

Any improvement on these specifications will make for a better adventure!
The site is designed for access by networked computers. It can be cached and used with proxy servers, although we recommend that browsers and caches are set to not to cache pages which end ".pl" as our site contains school-level personalization in those pages.

Other formats: Our activities are all available as individual or combination SCORM packages for incorporation into Virtual or Managed Learning Environments (VLEs and MLEs). Curriculum Online compliant xml metadata is available for any activity on request. For LEAs operating wide area networks, we can provide an offline version of the site for hosting on the WAN. Contact us at info@sparklearning.com for more details.

Getting out

How do I get out of the Island - Spark Park, Sparklantis and Sparkopolis?
Click on the back button in your browser, or type in the URL www.sparkisland.com if you would like to return to the homepage.

Has your question not been answered? Email us at help@sparklearning.com