Key details
Suzy Hails
Senior Teaching Fellow in Primary Education
Suzy is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Primary Education at the University of Greenwich, where she has taught since April 2023. She works across the Primary Education with QTS, Primary Education Studies, and Primary PGCE programmes, and holds the role of Year 3 Lead for the BA (Hons) Primary Education with QTS. She also leads on Employability and ECT Transition for the Primary cohorts, helping students navigate the move from training into their first teaching roles.
Her specialist areas are early reading, phonics, and music education, with a particular interest in the connections between children's mental health and their development as readers and writers.
Suzy's route into education began as a Teaching Assistant in primary schools, where she worked closely with children with SEND. Alongside this, she completed a BA in Early Years Education at the University of Greenwich before training as a primary teacher through a School Direct programme.
She spent the majority of her classroom career in Key Stage 1 at a large primary school in Kent, teaching across all phases and holding a range of leadership responsibilities - including phonics and early reading, science, and staff wellbeing. Through these roles she contributed to whole-school improvements in teaching quality, learning culture, and pastoral provision.
Suzy holds an MA in Primary Education from UCL, where her dissertation examined parental perspectives on early literacy and the home practices that shape children's reading development. She also holds a Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling - a qualification that reflects her longstanding interest in mental health, wellbeing, and the role both play in how children and adults learn.
Posts held previously
- 2023 - 2014 Class teacher (including phonics and early reading lead, science lead)
- 2014 - 2009 Teaching Assistant in Kent primary schools
Responsibilities within the university
- School Experience tutor on the PGCE and other QTS programme routes
- Teaching on Primary Education with QTS
- Primary Education Studies
- Primary PGCE courses
Research / Scholarly interests
Suzy's teaching and research interests span early reading and phonics, music education, and the relationship between children's mental health and their early educational experiences. She is committed to supporting student teachers in developing practice that is evidence-informed, inclusive, and attentive to wellbeing - for the children they'll teach and for themselves as beginning professionals.
She is currently completing an executive coaching qualification and is an active member of the University of Greenwich coaching network, offering professional support and development to colleagues across the institution.