HegartyMaths
Building a platform for students to succeed in maths
The big idea
An advanced online platform that combines teaching, assessment, and tracking to transform GCSE maths education for students and teachers alike.
Why it’s needed
Many students struggle with maths due to a lack of confidence or access to quality support, often feeling too embarrassed to ask questions in class. Traditional teaching methods can miss the mark for students who need more personalised or repeated explanations.
How it works
HegartyMaths was founded by Colin Hegarty, a dedicated maths teacher, who initially created a series of YouTube videos to support a student needing to keep up with schoolwork while caring for an ill parent abroad. Soon, Colin realised that his other students could also benefit from these videos, especially for homework and revision. Understanding that many students often need to hear a concept explained one more time, he began providing clear, accessible explanations online to help learners grasp challenging topics in their own time.
Over time, the idea evolved into an advanced online platform which aimed to take much of what makes a great classroom maths teacher and put it into an online format.
The resulting resource offered an invaluable way for students to revisit challenging concepts in their own time. It also allowed for tailored assessments and tracking to ensure teachers could effectively monitor and address students’ individual learning needs. By making learning more accessible, effective, and scalable, the programme helped bridge the gap for students who might otherwise fall behind.
SHINE’s involvement
Colin’s application to SHINE in 2012 stood out right from the beginning. Though the idea was in its early stages, Colin and his co-founder, Brian Arnold, had the ambition and vision to make it a reality.
With a grant from Let Teachers SHINE, the teachers built mathswebsite.com to host the videos, and the site attracted an average of about 5,000 students each day.
Following its success, SHINE backed the duo to take the idea to the next level, with HegartyMaths, a much more ambitious online teaching platform, launched in 2016.
SHINE’s continued investment, which continued through until 2019, enabled HegartyMaths to grow into a site that was used by hundreds of secondary schools across the UK.
The impact
- An evaluation in six schools showed “very strong positive correlations” between using HegartyMaths and improved SATs results for disadvantaged children.
- By 2019, HegartyMaths had grown to support over 1,200 schools, 35,000 teachers and 1 million students in the UK.
In September 2019, HegartyMaths joined forces with Sparx Maths. Together, they now serve over 2,600 schools from 24 countries, and Colin and Brian are still innovating every day.