Berkshire


<p>It&#8217;s official! Mathew Jones started his role at Reading&#8217;s St Joseph&#8217;s College as College Deputy Head (Prep) this January and he&#8217;s off to a flying start. With a fantastic educational resumé and four years at St Joseph&#8217;s already under his belt, Mat is fizzing with enthusiasm for the new gig.</p>



<p>Inheriting a Prep School already in shipshape, Mat is not here to tinker for the sake of it, but to lead with purpose. Values sit firmly at the heart of his approach, paired with a sharp eye on the future. From artificial intelligence to digital literacy, he is determined the curriculum stays ahead of the curve rather than chasing it, preparing pupils for a world that is evolving at speed. Central to that vision, he is passionate about creating a culture where children feel confident to speak up and believes there is no such thing as being too young to have an opinion worth hearing. Firmly applauds. We caught up with the new head of Prep to talk hiding school reports from his mum, growing up in Wales, and sing offs with students.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-006.jpg" alt="Mathew Jones, St Joseph's College reading head of prep" class="wp-image-84941" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-006.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-006-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-006-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-006-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-30-second-elevator-pitch-for-your-school-sell-it-nbsp">30-second elevator pitch for your school – sell it!&nbsp;</h3>



<p>St. Joseph&#8217;s Prep is a warm, inviting small school. There&#8217;s one form entry from pre-reception to Year 6, so we pride ourselves on knowing our students really well and our pastoral care is excellent. We&#8217;re a Catholic school which means we&#8217;re a school for students of all faiths and none but we take our responsibility of sharing Gospel Values and the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching seriously. So, at the centre of that it’s about service, it’s about compassion, it’s about respect, and being part of a diverse and inclusive community. That’s what we pride ourselves on. We’re academically aspirational as well. And I think that’s something we want to be focusing on in terms of how can we be as ambitious as possible for our students.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-who-would-you-like-to-star-as-you-in-the-movie-nbsp">Who would you like to star as you in the movie?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>In my life, I&#8217;ve had so many random look-alike comparisons. I&#8217;ve had everything from Marty McFly to Elon Musk. But you know what, I think I&#8217;m going down the Welsh route as Martin Sheen tends to be someone who gets all these Welsh roles. So, if Martin Sheen&#8217;s playing me in a film, I&#8217;ve done something pretty spectacular.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-you-ve-been-given-a-1m-donation-for-the-school-what-will-you-spend-it-on-nbsp">You’ve been given a £1m donation for the school, what will you spend it on?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>I would transform our top field into an all-year round 5G sports field because we&#8217;ve got a lovely space there for Prep fixtures and Prep games, but when house tug of war comes out, especially at this time of the year, it can get a bit turned up with the mud.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-describe-your-own-childhood-school-days">Describe your own childhood school days </h3>



<p>I had a fantastic childhood in southwest Wales, in what I think is God&#8217;s country. I played a lot of sports, rugby in particular, and music was big in my life as well. Guitar was the instrument I fell in love with. What I tend to say to parents is we all know you don&#8217;t remember everything you learn in school, but you remember how school made you feel and it&#8217;s about the memories you take from school that are as important as any qualifications. I had a fantastic experience at school with great friends, opportunities, brilliant teachers, and that set me up as an open-minded, but motivated young person. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-was-the-common-theme-of-your-school-reports-nbsp">What was the common theme of your school reports?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>I remember I hid one report. It came through the letterbox, and it stayed under my bed for about a year until my mother found it. So that probably tells you enough. I think the common theme would be, Mathew does well, Mathew could do better. I think I was a very typical boy who maybe loved spending more time kicking the football about than getting his head in the books. But I think the older I got, when I got to 16, 17, 18 years old, I pulled my socks up a bit. So maybe a late bloomer would be one way to describe it.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-favourite-teacher-at-your-childhood-school-and-why-nbsp">Favourite teacher at your childhood school and why?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>I think the best teacher I had was Mr. Morgan. He was the deputy head. Everyone was scared of him and he taught me maths, but he was just a fantastic teacher. I started out in set two when I was in secondary school in maths, and he was the reason why I got into top set because he was fantastic. Just his expectations, his teaching was really clear. I had other teachers who maybe I had a stronger rapport with, but I always remember him for just how good he was as a teacher. He was that example of what students need as good teachers, they don&#8217;t need friends. They have their own.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-best-and-worst-subject-at-school-nbsp">Best and worst subject at school?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>My best subjects were maths, music and PE. My worst subjects were biology and geography. I just remember learning about rocks and limestone, and cabbages and broad beans. It didn&#8217;t really spark my interest.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-001.jpg" alt="Mathew Jones, St Joseph's College reading head of prep" class="wp-image-84938" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-001.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-001-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-001-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-001-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-did-you-go-to-uni-what-did-you-study-and-your-high-and-low-of-student-life-nbsp">Where did you go to uni, what did you study – and your high and low of student life&nbsp;</h3>



<p>So, I went to University of Westminster for my undergrad, and I studied music. After that, I did a master&#8217;s at Goldsmiths in music, before I did my PGCE at Cambridge. My highs were the people I met. I say to Sixth Formers, if you&#8217;re the same person going into uni as you are coming out, something&#8217;s gone wrong. I met such a diverse range of people at university coming from a small village in Wales. My eyes were opened to what the rest of the world is like. The lows were living on a student diet. My metabolism did not thank me for that.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-if-you-weren-t-a-deputy-head-what-would-you-be-nbsp">If you weren’t a deputy head, what would you be?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>Obviously, I would love to be playing number 10 for Wales rugby and scoring the winning drop goal against England in Cardiff. But actually, in my first year of teaching, I also worked in a kitchen at a restaurant in Cambridge because I just wanted to know what it felt like to work in a kitchen. I did enjoy it, but working a full day of teaching and then doing a shift there and coming home smelling of fish and chips wasn&#8217;t great for the long run. So maybe I&#8217;d work in food of some sort.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-describe-what-s-on-your-work-desk-and-what-s-in-the-top-drawer">Describe what’s on your work desk (and what’s in the top drawer)</h3>



<p>I try to be as much of a paperless person as I can. I have about five name tags spare for events that I keep forgetting to take off my different suits when I go home. I have a book on Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols that one of the girls in the kitchen has lent me. Honestly, it&#8217;s not the most exciting drawer. Oh, and there&#8217;s a lot of house coloured bow ties, because part of my job now is to coordinate all things to do with the house system, and these are what other house captains wear whenever they host formal events. It is a very random mix of things.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-funniest-story-from-your-teaching-career-nbsp">Funniest story from your teaching career&nbsp;</h3>



<p>It&#8217;s a fairly tame one but at St. Joseph&#8217;s, every two years we go on a choir tour, usually to Italy. We once had a student who had a very low voice. He was a fantastic bass singer, and I was always quite envious of his range as he could sing lower than me. So basically, we made a bet who could sing the lowest, and said I bet he couldn&#8217;t sing a low F sharp. He won that bet and could totally out sing me, so I had to go and buy him an ice cream and of course he chose the most expensive Michelin star gelato shop in the city of Rome.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-your-favourite-books-childhood-and-now-nbsp">Your favourite books, childhood and now&nbsp;</h3>



<p>When I was a child in school, I was more interested in non-fiction than fiction and liked reading about famous people that inspired me. When I was in sixth form, I got fascinated with a biography of Gandhi by Louis Fischer which sparked a big passion of mine in world affairs and history. Then after that, I read a lot of dystopian literature because I was young and had all these opinions about the world, so would read George Orwell and Huxley. My favourite now? I guess it&#8217;s hard to beat <em>Animal Farm</em>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-003.jpg" alt="who is head of st josephs college  is st josephs college a good school" class="wp-image-84939" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-003.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-003-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-003-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/12/St-Josephs-College-2-Dec-2025-003-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-book-and-film-should-be-on-every-child-s-cultural-bucket-list-nbsp">What book and film should be on every child’s cultural bucket list?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>I think everyone at a Prep age should read the stories of <em>Winnie the Pooh</em>. I&#8217;m reading that now with my daughter and there are a lot of life lessons in that. When they get older, I certainly think a book like <em>Animal Farm</em> is great because it has a lot about the world and politics. For films, <em>The Lion King</em> would come out on top.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-if-you-want-to-hide-from-the-kids-and-staff-for-half-an-hour-where-do-you-go-nbsp">If you want to hide from the kids and staff for half an hour, where do you go? &nbsp;</h3>



<p>Not in my office, because that&#8217;s where everyone comes. Probably the music practice room as at least there&#8217;s a piano there where I can take my mind off things.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-song-you-sing-at-full-volume-when-everyone-s-gone-home-nbsp">The song you sing at full volume when everyone’s gone home?&nbsp;</h3>



<p><em>I Want to Break Free</em>, <em>I&#8217;m Still Standing</em> &#8211; these are the songs I tend to play at the end of assemblies whenever it&#8217;s very long. But truthfully there&#8217;s nothing I really belt out when everyone&#8217;s going home. No, it&#8217;s more of a quiet sigh. And then the kettle goes on.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-advice-you-d-give-your-younger-self-and-your-current-students-nbsp">Advice you’d give your younger self – and your current students?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>You don&#8217;t know what you don&#8217;t know, and that&#8217;s okay. What you need to do is go and find out what you don&#8217;t know. I think when you&#8217;re young, particularly with students doing GCSEs, A-Levels and degrees, your focus is always what&#8217;s in front of you immediately, like a test. But there&#8217;s so much more to learn after that. I&#8217;m passionate about doing more in schools about character development, about how to connect with people, get people to say yes, and just getting a load of skills in understanding people and empathy. That is going to be as important in life than qualifications.</p>



<p><em><strong>Want to hear more about Mathew Jones&#8217; role as College Deputy Head (Prep)? Read our review of St Joseph&#8217;s College (Prep) <a href="https://berkshire.muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/school-reviews/st-josephs-college-prep-reading/">here</a>.</strong></em></p>


Meet the Deputy Head: Mathew Jones, St Joseph’s College (Prep)

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