Geraint Jones (educator)

Geraint Paul Jones (born 5 November 1976) is a British educator. He is Dean of the School of Education at the University of Buckingham, which, under his leadership, has become one of the largest providers of postgraduate teacher training in the United Kingdom. He also oversees the country’s most popular Master’s degree in Educational Leadership.
Prior to joining Buckingham University he was Chief Education Officer at Cognita Schools – Europe’s largest independent school chain, where he oversaw the quality of educational provision in 45 schools in the UK and abroad.
In 2008 Jones was appointed Headmaster of Quinton House School in Northampton. The school twice topped national GCSE league tables during his tenure.
A former Ofsted-accredited school inspector, he was once awarded an Innovation Prize from the Youth Sport Trust for leading the country’s first ‘Alternative School Day’ project which was funded by Sport England. As Vice Principal of St Edmund’s School and Sports College in Salisbury, Jones led the initiative which included a 7am-8pm school day with over 100 different extra-curricular activities and clubs each week for the school’s pupils.
In 2002 Jones wrote and founded the acclaimed Wake and Shake Programme – a physical activity initiative for primary aged pupils, which is now practised in schools across the world. This led to his involvement in assisting the London bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Between 1988 – 1995 Jones attended the Welsh speaking Llanharry Comprehensive School (Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari) in Rhondda Cynon Taff, South Wales.

He gained a 2:1 degree in German from Swansea University as well as a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). In 2005 he gained the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), and in 2009 a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Buckingham University.

Jones was a part-time police officer with South Wales Police during his degree studies. After gaining his PGCE he worked as a Teacher of Languages and Physical Education at Kingdown School in Warminster, Wiltshire. He then joined St Edmund’s School and Sports College in Salisbury as a Languages Teacher and Sports Co-ordinator, a position which oversaw the development of school sport in the Salisbury district. He became Director of Sport at St. Edmund’s and then the school’s Vice Principal.

He joined the Cognita School’s Group in 2008 as Head of Quinton House School in Northampton. The school’s Ofsted report of 2010 judged the school as “highly successful in fulfilling its stated aims because the passionate inspiration of the Principal engenders an ethos in which all students feel valued and nurtured.”

He became Cognita’s Chief Education Officer in late 2012.

Jones has two daughters, Erin (10) and Harriet (5) and they live in Evenley in South Northamptonshire.

Jones writes regularly on educational issues in the national press. He was close friends with the late Sir Chris Woodhead, formerly Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools, who he met at Cognita. Described as Woodhead’s “right hand man”, Jones interviewed Woodhead for the Sunday Times and broke the news of his battle with cancer. Following Woodhead’s death in 2014, Jones was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Last Word, in which he described Woodhead as having “dignified the teaching profession”.