Sue Burkill Educator and lover of travel
S
ue Burkill’s life falls pretty neatly into two parts. Born in Singapore, she spent her early childhood in the Far East and by the time she was 21, had moved house around 30 times! ‘Until I went to university, I’d been to five primary schools and four secondary schools, which was pretty unusual by any standards,’ said Sue. The extensive travelling was due to the fact her father, an officer in the Gurkhas, was adamant his two daughters should not be packed off to boarding school until absolutely necessary. Although these days a ‘colonial’ lifestyle might be frowned upon, Sue remembered growing up with Cambridge University where she studied geography. She great fondness: ‘It was a stunning life really, you lived subsequently trained as a teacher in Bristol, then taught in the most beautiful places, we went swimming nearly in Southampton, where her husband Peter, whom she every holiday on beaches with no-one on them, we had met while doing her A-levels, was doing his PhD. gardens with banana trees - it was wonderful.’ A job offer for Peter at Plymouth Marine Laboratory Her earliest days were spent in a Kampong (the Malay bought the couple to Plymouth and a council flat in word for little village) house on the river, with the water Whitleigh, before their final move to Shaugh Prior, and a flowing underneath the stilted building. The family near derelict barn that she and Peter have restored. They lived in a variety of places in Malaya, each posting brought up their two sons there and have lived happily interspersed with a six month period back in the UK, for the last 40 years in the quiet Dartmoor village that’s a making the journey by troopship. Then came Thailand million miles from the sights and sounds of the Far East. and Hong Kong, before a major move to Canada. As for Sue’s school teaching ‘That was a magical time,’ career, this took a slightly different said Sue, who experienced the It was a stunning life really, you path when she was head-hunted thrill of skiing every weekend lived in the most beautiful places, by the college now known as in winter, and extended we went swimming nearly every Marjon and became involved in summer trips travelling from Canada through the United holiday on beaches with no-one on teacher training, work she found deeply satisfying. States to Mexico - before the them, we had gardens with banana ‘One of the things I really loved next posting back to Borneo. trees - it was wonderful. was building people’s self esteem. Sue’s lifestyle was brought Many students there felt they were down to earth with a bump failures because they hadn’t got into the big universities, when she attended a girls’ boarding school in the UK to and a lot were mature women with kids, who had little study for A-levels. confidence in their academic abilities - it was very ‘We had these horrendous uniforms, and these awful rewarding.’ hockey skirts that showed off your red knees because Sue later became head of educational development it was so cold - I just got my head down and worked,’ at Plymouth University and finally retired after a time said Sue, recalling the ‘lollipop’ flights back to the Far leading the staff development unit at Exeter University East twice a year, when the savvy children of military personnel would make life miserable for the air hostesses - following which she completed a PhD in educational leadership, attaining her doctorate in 2017. assigned to look after them. While Sue may be retired, she’s certainly not taking a ‘Some of these kids had been doing these flights since rest after a busy professional life. A dog lover with two they were six - the hostesses must have hated it!’ beautiful Springer spaniels, Pilot and Humbug, she Sue’s hard work paid off and she was offered a place at
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