Joy Cornthwaite

Personal statement

Joy Cornthwaite is the Secondary Programme Lead and Senior Lecturer on the PGDE. She also works as a tutor on the Secondary Maths PGCE programme, and is the Module Co-Lead on the MA Educational Leadership programme.

After completing her undergraduate degree, Joy worked in finance and accounting before finding herself drawn to education through her work with student organisations at Oxford University.

Joy completed her PGCE at Oxford and spent the first two years of her teaching career in the county, before taking on a head of department role at a school in Southampton.

It was during this time that Joy developed an interest in supporting both trainee and experienced teachers through CPD and mentoring as she worked as a career coach and mentor on several Department for Education initiatives.

Following a move to Bristol in 2012, Joy worked in a local school as a pastoral lead and SEND and maths teacher before moving to Bath Spa as a lecturer on the Maths PGDE programme in 2018.

In addition to teacher training and development, Joy contributes to the evaluation, development, and revision of KS4 qualifications through her ongoing work with exam boards.

Academic qualifications

• BA (Hons) History
• PGCE Secondary History
• MSc Conservation
• Mathematics Development Programme for Teachers
• Certificate in Education for Democratic Citizenship
• NCSL Leading from the Middle
• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education
• Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Professional memberships

• Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Other external roles

Joy works for both Pearson and OCR exam boards, on the assessment of GCSEs. She has also been a principal examiner on the Functional Skills maths qualifications and contributed to the ICGSE and development of the curriculum and assessment for the Nile School’s Egypt programme.

Joy has worked on CPD and teacher retention initiatives for the DfE and as a career development mentor for colleagues in school and across the South West.

Areas of expertise

• Education
• Mathematics Education
• Assessment
• SEND