Name: Suzanne Boyd
PK Education office: Nottingham
A passion for teaching but a growing frustration at the lack of work/life balance in a permanent teaching role led Suzanne Boyd, one of our candidates from Rolleston, Nottinghamshire, to move into supply teaching.
Suzanne is a food and textiles teaching with a career spanning more than 15 years. A family bereavement proved the catalyst to move into supply teaching in 2017.
She explained: “A family bereavement meant that the stress of teaching and the constant pressure that it brings came to a head. I didn’t want to move out of teaching because I love it.”
Supply teaching proved the solution and Suzanne registered with our Nottingham office. Suzanne added, “Supply teaching is a great middle ground for me; I get the satisfaction of teaching without the workload and constant stresses.”
Suzanne was hesitant to make the change at first but was pleasantly surprised by supply teaching. She explained, “It has been so much more than I expected. The people, the PK people and Georgina in the office especially, have been amazing.”
“It’s so nice to be really appreciated when you arrive at a school as they recognise that you’re there getting them out of a potentially awful situation in terms of staffing and loss of education for the pupils.”
The flexibility that comes with supply teaching has also been a big bonus for Suzanne. She said: “It’s so flexible around family life. My daughter competes in British showjumping and is also in the process of setting up her own business. My transition into supply teaching has allowed me to enjoy a lot of her experiences with her. Time is so valuable and supply teaching has given me the opportunity to choose how I want to spend mine.”
Suzanne’s passion and commitment to teaching has not only been recognised by PK, but also the schools she works in who nominated her for the 2018 East Midlands Supply Teacher of the Year title. She added: “I was absolutely stunned and thrilled when I was told I’d won.”
