A year of highs, lows and a lot of change

2020. Where do I even start?

In January, the rumblings of COVID, lockdown and a pandemic were starting but I would never have expected that 12 months down the line there would have been 80,000+ deaths, repeated lockdowns and fundamental change in our personal and professional lives.

This has been a really tragic year – there is no doubt about it. And my thoughts and love go out to every single person that has suffered a loss, been through life-changing situations or had a tough year in general. I can’t say it’s been plain-sailing myself. 

But, with so much sombre news, I wanted to take the time to reflect on what 2020 meant for me and the Sparx Family and hopefully share some positivity. 

January (if you can remember that far back) saw the launch of the EdTech Evidence Group (EEG) at Bett. Leading UK EdTech companies formed the group with an aim of improving the quality of EdTech evidence available to schools. We were fed up of schools and teachers being persuaded to buy into EdTech solutions based on smoke and mirrors, not actual evidence. We’ve had a great year and cannot wait to see what impact we can have in years to come. 

March saw Sparx build an entire product in two weeks to help schools with remote learning – Sparx Maths Virtual Classroom. I’ll forever be proud of the team for turning this around so quickly to support teachers and learners around the world. Nearly 600 schools from across 82 countries signed up to Sparx Maths Virtual Classroom which was free to them from March until September. 

In April, we worked with BBC Bitesize on their Daily Lessons project. We wrote and shared a whole host of maths lessons, worksheets and videos to help learners get extra maths support at home when they most needed it. 

May had us create and share another new product – Numerise. As it is the Sparx Family’s first independent learning product for individual families rather than schools, we made the pilot product available completely free from May to September so we could test, learn and research what worked well and what needed improving. Then, in September we finished the pilot and launched the new and improved version of Numerise. We are still learning and developing and will never stop doing so as there is always room for improvement! Over 35,000 learners have signed up to use Numerise – I am just delighted that now we can support learners both with their schoolwork and extra practice at home.

Coming towards the end of the year, in November we were selected by the International Schools Partnership (ISP) to support schools across Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Peru, USA and Malaysia. 

I am so proud that Sparx Family, which includes HegartyMaths and Numerise, is now supporting 1,800+ schools and over 1.6 million students across 20+ countries. 

And, all of this was done with the challenges of remote working, lifestyle changes, an internal restructure and a whole new world of uncertainty. I think it’s safe to say that the Sparx Family has had an unbelievably busy and challenging year.

I hope that there were at least some positive things that came out of 2020 for you – maybe you mastered video calls, got closer to your family, learnt to slow down a bit, found a new hobby (running isn’t so bad after all…) or something else. Be proud of everything that you’ve achieved this year, no matter how small, because it’s been...difficult.

Finally, I want to say an incredibly big THANK YOU to every single member of the Sparx, Numerise and HegartyMaths teams for making everything above possible; to all of the schools, parents/carers and learners that have supported us this year; and everyone else for keeping my spirits up and helping me through 2020 on both a professional and personal level.

Season's Greetings to you and your family, and very best wishes for the New Year – wherever you are in the world. 

Here’s to 2021 – what I hope will be an amazing year filled with health, hope and positivity.