Hegarty Maths (Now Sparx): Everything Teachers Need to Know

What is Hegarty Maths and how does it work?

Hegarty Maths is a problem-solving focused mathematics platform that has now merged into Sparx Maths, featuring 943 activities and 40,000+ questions across all age groups. The platform divides each mathematics topic into small parts with accompanying videos and comprehension exercises, encouraging creative and logical thinking rather than rote memorization. While no longer accepting new subscriptions, its pedagogical approach continues within Sparx Maths.

Hegarty Mathematics is a maths platform that focuses on problem-solving rather than rote learning. Instead of memorizing formulas and rules, Hegarty Maths encourages students to solve problems creatively and logically.

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This approach is based on the idea that children learn best when they are actively involved in the learning process. As a result, Hegarty Math is used in classrooms worldwide. Hegarty Maths is an online platform for all ages of students that helps pupils practice math problems and to test their math skills.

Each topic of mathematics is divided into small parts for better understanding with a video and comprehension. Hegarty Maths is a subscription-based teaching program used in UK schools.

It is occasionally used in place of general maths homework assignments. Colin Hegarty, the project's inventor, was named UK Teacher of the Year in 2015 and was nominated for the Varkey Foundation's Global Teacher Prize in 2016. HegartyMaths covers a wide range of topics and has 943 activities to accomplish. An instructive film with an explanation and examples on the topic is included in an assignment. Following that, there is a quiz to take with topic-specific questions.

The site is routinely updated and new topics are introduced to stay current with the GCSE mathematics curriculum. Students can perform projects independently, or teachers can assign these assignments to students to complete as homework or for revision purposes, and then track the students' progress.

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How did Hegarty Maths start and evolve?

Hegarty Maths began as YouTube videos created by Colin Hegarty to help students learn mathematics independently through flipped learning approaches. The platform evolved from free YouTube content into a comprehensive subscription-based teaching program used across UK schools. In 2025, HegartyMaths merged with Sparx Maths, where Colin Hegarty's teaching methods and content continue to be integrated.

The founders of this maths education platform started off by making YouTube videos for students. These instructional maths videos enabled students to access mathematical concepts in a format that was easy to understand. The founders Colin and Brian quickly realised that there was a need to build something bigger to supplement the national curriculum. Their new project, Sparx Maths, has been very well received in secondary schools around England, building on their early success.

• Colin Hegarty and Brian Arnold, co-founders and teachers, founded Hegarty Maths.
• They started making videos on YouTube in 2011 for math homework and revision.
• Because the videos were publicly available on YouTube, students from all across the country and the world began to use them as well.
• Colin earned £15,000 from the education charity SHINE in 2012 through its Let Teachers SHINE competition to create a website to host the videos and create further content.
• The original website, which went up on July 12, 2013, was called mathswebsite.com. It was created to provide free math videos to help pupils revise and is still available today.



What are the main benefits of Hegarty Maths for teachers?

Hegarty Maths saves teachers approximately 200 hours annually through automated features for setting personalised work, tracking progress, and providing targeted feedback. The platform enables flipped learning where students watch video lessons before class, allowing teachers to focus classroom time on application and problem-solving. Teachers can easily differentiate instruction and monitor individual student progress without excessive administrative burden.

There are two main types of Hegarty Maths lessons: Hegarty Maths Activities and Hegarty Maths Lessons. Both of these options provide students with a variety of activities to choose from. However, Hegarty Math Activities tend to focus more heavily on teaching specific topics, while Hegarty Math Lessons cover a broader range of subjects.

Hegarty Maths: A Time-Saving Tool for Educators

• Using the heart math tool teachers can set personalized and comprehensive work from their mark book.
• It saves 200 hours valuable time for teachers per year.
• It offers 600+ high-quality video lessons and 40,000+ bespoke questions
• After the students have attempted that work, the teacher can easily view all student's results.
• The teacher can then help the students to focus on their mistakes and misconceptions by giving them feedback to improve their math skills.

Curriculum Coverage with Hegarty Maths Online Tool

• Hegarty math is an online tool that is carefully designed for teachers and students in a sequenced and connected manner.
• It covers the curriculum of math with a number of practice exercises, quizzes, videos, and comprehension.
• So it is a comprehensive tool for teachers that they can use to improve the math skills of their students and class.
• It contains all the mathematical content with 600+ videos and 40,000+ questions which students and teachers can easily access.

Improving Results: Cognitive Science and Hegarty Maths

• Hegarty math mainly focuses on cognitive science that makes quality teaching and personalized learning possible.
• New material is explained with references to provide ease to teachers and students.
• Well-thought out maths explanations with examples
• All skills are demonstrated through minimally different and carefully scaffolded work.
• Teachers can revisit any concept and help students to get deliberate practice over time to improve working memory and confidencehttps://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2020/08/26/award-winning-maths-teacher-colin-hegarty-takes-a-leading-role-at-sparx



How does Hegarty Maths improve student performance?

Hegarty Maths boosts student grades by building independent learners through cognitive science principles and active problem-solving rather than memorization. Students prepare for lessons by watching explanatory videos at home, arriving in class ready to apply concepts with teacher support. The platform's structured approach with immediate feedback helps students build confidence and mathematical understanding progressively.

This tool helps the student to boost their grades as this tool provides personalized intelligent practice. Teachers can use this tool to improve the math skills of their class and thus help them to boost their grades. Hegarty Maths can also be used to assist 'flipped learning,' allowing students. It helps to improve their abilities in preparation for a class test. The teacher can also offer a lesson to support students in applying those skills to application questions and problems.

Achieve Personalization with Algorithms from Hegarty Maths

• This program includes individualized and personalized algorithms that assist and challenge all children.
• This tool also saves teachers time and, most importantly, allows teachers to maintain control.



How can teachers track student progress in Hegarty Maths?

Teachers can monitor student progress through real-time dashboards that show completion rates, accuracy scores, and time spent on each topic. The platform automatically identifies struggling students and knowledge gaps, allowing teachers to provide targeted interventions. Progress reports can be generated for individual students, classes, or specific topics to inform teaching decisions.

Tracking student progress for teachers and parents is straightforward in Hegarty maths. Parents receive notifications when the children are engaged in an activity, and this helps everyone keep to deadlines. Class students can use the platform to complete homework assignments and engage in retrieval practice exercises.

Ensuring Success: Videos and Quizzes on Hegarty Maths

• Watching the videos and attempting the quiz ensures that your student and class will do well on the quiz and feel confident about their learning and math.
• This tool doesn't let your students feel isolated at home, and the videos will provide you with the assistance they require when their class teacher is unavailable.

Aids Memory: Utilizing Modelled Examples on Hegarty Maths

• Copying down modelled examples assists your student and class in remembering their math and storing it in their long-term memory.

Method Marks: Improve Arithmetic Lay Out with Hegarty Maths

• Copying down modelled examples allows your student and class to practice how to properly lay out their arithmetic
• And help them get maths questions right and extra method marks in exams even when they make mistakes.

Thorough Revision: Perfecting Problems on Hegarty Maths

• This tool provides help in the revision of a number of mathematical problems.
• When revising, one must sometimes go over stuff that they already know, this is just as important as learning new things because keeping old learning solid prevents pupils from losing things.

Building Independent Learners with Hegarty Maths Tool

• It is a vital tool since it promotes independence in your child.
• Incorporating regular arithmetic practice at home can be an effective way to help your child develop their math skills and become more independent in their learning. By establishing healthy habits and using effective strategies, you can support your child as they learn and grow.



What curriculum content does Hegarty Maths cover?

Hegarty Maths covers the complete UK National Curriculum for mathematics across all key stages, with content aligned to GCSE specifications. The platform includes 943 distinct activities covering topics from basic numeracy to advanced algebra and statistics. Each curriculum area is broken down into manageable chunks with supporting videos and practice questions.

All of the materials are aligned to the national curriculum which makes studying for GCSE maths a lot more manageable. All importantly, the video lesson tutorials created by Hegarty Maths are based on the UK National Curriculum. Students studying at Key Stage 3, GCSE, and A-Level are able to use the website as a supplement to the coursework they cover in school, which is one of the main reasons for the website's success.

If students are having trouble with maths in school, they can get extra help from Hegarty Maths for homework.

The maths video tutorials are also useful for students who may have been off sick and missed a few weeks of school. Because Hegarty Maths covers all topics within the National Curriculum, students can easily catch up on missed work in the evening or at weekends thanks to the website's resources.

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How does Hegarty Maths support differentiated learning?

Hegarty Maths enables teachers to assign different tasks to students based on their individual ability levels and learning needs. The platform automatically adjusts question difficulty based on student performance, providing easier or harder problems as appropriate. Teachers can create custom assignments targeting specific skills gaps identified through the progress tracking system.

One of the key challenges for a maths teacher is delivering successful teaching to students of varying abilities. Hegarty Maths offers a range of tools that enable maths departments to differentiate and personalize learning for their students.

The Hegarty Maths student dashboard provides real-time data on student progress, allowing teachers to monitor performance and adjust instruction as needed. The platform includes an extensive library of explanation videos, which help students to reinforce key concepts and build their understanding.

Hegarty Maths also offers bespoke questions that can be tailored to the needs of individual students, allowing them to practice at their own level and pace. This approach helps to reduce the effects of proactive interference, which can hinder students' ability to learn and retain new information.

Overall, the differentiation and personalization features of Hegarty Maths provide an effective way for maths teachers to engage all students in their classroom. By providing students with personalized instruction and opportunities to practice at their own pace, Hegarty Maths helps to build students' mathematical fluency and confidence.

 

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How do teachers transition from HegartyMaths to Sparx Maths?

Teachers can transition to Sparx Maths while maintaining the problem-solving approach that made HegartyMaths effective, as Colin Hegarty's content and methods are integrated into the new platform. Schools should contact Sparx Maths directly to arrange migration of student data and familiarize themselves with new features while core pedagogical principles remain the same. The transition preserves the flipped learning model and comprehensive curriculum coverage that teachers rely on.

In late 2023, HegartyMaths was acquired by Sparx Learning and integrated into their Sparx Maths platform. This means:

• Existing schools: Schools with HegartyMaths subscriptions have been transitioned to Sparx Maths
• New schools: HegartyMaths is no longer available for new subscriptions, schools should contact Sparx directly
• Colin Hegarty's content: The video lessons and teaching approach continue within the Sparx platform
• Scale: Sparx now serves over 2.2 million students across 2,600+ UK schools

Schools seeking alternatives to the original HegartyMaths experience should explore:

• , Similar video-based maths instruction
• White Rose Maths, Mastery-focused maths resources
• MyMaths, Interactive maths homework platform

What technical requirements are needed for Hegarty Maths?

Hegarty Maths requires a stable internet connection and works on any device with a modern web browser including tablets, laptops, and smartphones. The platform is cloud-based, requiring no software installation, and automatically saves student progress across devices. Schools should ensure adequate bandwidth for video streaming, especially when multiple students access content simultaneously.

Hegarty Math is mobile responsive, so it will function well on any smartphone or tablet with an up-to-date web browser. It works with PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. For maximum performance, a tablet screen size or bigger is ideal, as many of our questions include detailed images that may be difficult to read on a phone screen size.

It is also recommended to use Chrome as a web browser because it is the most compatible with our platform and HegartyMaths does not yet have an app version.

• This tool is very easy to use and class students can easily access it on an online website.
• The interface makes it easy to find what you're looking for. The design supports students students who want to solve maths problems quickly. 
• Have a look around the Hegarty Maths website for yourself and see how it can be easily accessed and well-designed.

Hegarty Maths Coverage: What Age Groups Benefit?

HegartyMaths is a program designed for KS3 and KS4 students in the UK. Students in Years 10, 11 need to complete a minimum of two tasks a week on Hegarty Maths in addition to their written homework set by their teacher. To log on, students need to know their first name, last name, and date of birth.

Exam Boards Supported by Hegarty Maths Learning Platform

Hegarty Maths supports exam boards such as AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC CBAC (for GCSE) and also IGCSE; the platform helps teach, assess and track everything a child needs to learn in school maths.

Frequently Asked Questions

What has happened to HegartyMaths and how does this affect my school?

HegartyMaths has merged with Sparx Maths in 2025, and the original platform is no longer accepting new school subscriptions. However, Colin Hegarty's teaching methods and content continue within Sparx Maths, so schools can still access similar functionality and pedagogical approaches through the new platform.

How much time can HegartyMaths or Sparx actually save teachers each year?

The platform saves teachers approximately 200 hours annually through automated features for setting personalised work, tracking student progress, and providing targeted feedback. This significant time saving comes from reduced administrative burden whilst still allowing teachers to monitor individual student progress effectively.

How does the flipped learning approach work in practice with HegartyMaths?

Students watch explanatory video lessons at home before class, which prepares them to apply mathematical concepts during classroom time. This means teachers can focus lesson time on problem-solving and application rather than initial explanation, allowing for more targeted support where students need it most.

What makes HegartyMaths different from traditional maths teaching methods?

HegartyMaths focuses on problem-solving and logical thinking rather than rote memorisation of formulas and rules. The platform uses cognitive science principles to build independent learners through 943 activities and 40,000+ questions that encourage creative mathematical thinking.

How can I track and support individual student progress using HegartyMaths?

Teachers can easily view all student results after they complete assigned work, then provide targeted feedback focusing on specific mistakes and misconceptions. The platform's comprehensive tracking system allows teachers to identify areas where individual students need additional support without excessive marking.

What curriculum coverage does HegartyMaths provide for UK schools?

The platform covers the full GCSE mathematics curriculum with over 600 high-quality video lessons and 40,000+ bespoke questions organised in a sequenced and connected manner. Content is regularly updated to stay current with curriculum requirements, making it suitable for homework assignments and revision purposes.

How do I transition my existing HegartyMaths setup to Sparx Maths?

Since HegartyMaths has merged into Sparx Maths, schools should explore Sparx Maths to continue using Colin Hegarty's proven pedagogical approach. The transition preserves the problem-solving methodology that made HegartyMaths effective whilst potentially offering enhanced features within the new platform.