HegartyMaths explained

HegartyMaths
Dissolved:Since October 2023
Successor:Sparx Maths
Area Served:United Kingdom
Industry:Education
Services:Subscription
Owner:Colin Hegarty
Website Type:Online tutoring
Language:English
Advertising:Yes
Launch Date:12 July 2013
Current Status:Closed
Commercial:Yes
Registration:Required

HegartyMaths was an educational subscription tool used by schools in the United Kingdom. It was sometimes used as a replacement for general mathematics homework tasks.[1] Its creator, Colin Hegarty, was the UK Teacher of the Year in 2015 and shortlisted for the Varkey Foundation's Global Teacher Prize in 2016.[2]

Usage

HegartyMaths covered a variety of topics and had 943 tasks to complete.[3] A task included an educational video with an explanation and examples on the topic. Afterwards, there was a quiz to complete, containing topic specific questions. The site was regularly updated and more topics were added to keep up with the General Certificate of Secondary Education mathematics curriculum. Students could complete tasks by themselves, or teachers could assign these tasks to students to complete as homework or for revision purposes and then track the student's progress.[4]

History

HegartyMaths was created by co-founders and teachers Colin Hegarty and Brian Arnold. In 2011 they started to make maths videos on YouTube to support their own classes with maths homework and revision. Since the videos were freely available on YouTube, students from all over the country and the world started using the videos too. In 2012 Colin won £15,000 of funding from education charity SHINE, through its Let Teachers SHINE competition, to make a website to host the videos and make more content. The original website, launched on 12 July 2013, was called mathswebsite.com. It was built to contain free maths videos to assist students in revision and is still accessible today.

In February 2016, a new site was launched: HegartyMaths.com. In 2019, Colin Hegarty sold HegartyMaths to Sparx Learning (a company selling revision General Certificate of Secondary Education packages), then Sparx Maths, for an undisclosed sum. Colin became part of the leadership team for Sparx and continued to lead development on HegartyMaths.[5] [6] [7]

In an unknown time period since 1 October 2023 Hegarty Maths was shut down, and now redirects to Sparx Maths. The Sparx Learning website claims this happened in 2022, after "incorporating its best features and learnings into Sparx Maths"[8]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Colin Hegarty – world's best maths teacher?. Irish Examiner. 20 February 2016.
  2. Web site: Colin Hegarty: Maths teacher could become millionaire after being shortlisted for annual award. 17 February 2016. The Independent.
  3. Web site: HegartyMaths Homepage . HegartyMaths . 18 February 2021.
  4. https://www.novahreodacademy.org.uk/teaching-learning-blog/using-hegarty-maths novahreodacademy.org.uk
  5. Web site: Entrepreneur teacher sells online maths business. Tes.
  6. Web site: Case study: HegartyMaths. SHINE. 23 January 2020.
  7. Web site: The story of HegartyMaths. HegartyMaths. 23 January 2020.
  8. Web site: Sparx Learning 'Our story so far' . 11 November 2023 . Sparx Learning.