MLT Student wins VC Civic Award

Joy O’Neill, currently a student in the Department of Education’s MSc Learning and Teaching course, is one of seven Oxford students who have received Vice-Chancellor’s Civic Awards in a ceremony at which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was also presented with the Freedom of the City of Oxford.

Joy is a Service wife and mother. She is also an Early Years Teacher, Associate Lecturer for The Open University and Chair of Governors at a school which has 75% Service Children on roll. She has worked to directly support Service children and their families for over 19 years, in both paid and voluntary capacities, at ground and strategic levels in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Cyprus. She has advised and delivered training across the country to schools, local authority staff and health and welfare practitioners on the specific needs of the military family.

Concerned by the increasing issues for Service Children Joy founded the Service Children Support Network which works with professionals and members of the military to support Service Children. Her first book ‘Service Children: a guide for education and welfare professionals’ was published in August 2011.

In recognition of her work Joy has been named as one of the 2012 winners of the Inspirational Women of the Year Award.

For further information see the news pages at the University of Oxford and the Ministry of Defence.

Joy discusses her work at the Department’s MLT Poster Conference in June 2012