It might be a frosty afternoon in the depths of winter, but Emily Grimes is in her wetsuit, catching some post-work waves in the North Sea, just a short drive from Monkseaton high school, a comprehensive in Whitley Bay, where she teaches maths.
“Even during the last week of school in December, I managed to fit in surfing, despite the very short days,” she says. “When I surf before or after school I tend to go anywhere between Tynemouth and Blyth, because it’s the closest. Over the weekend, or if I have more time, I’ll go up to Bamburgh [in Northumberland] maybe.”
The 26-year-old, who grew up in Blaydon, near Gateshead, a town featured in the 19th-century Geordie folk song Blaydon Races, has always loved the outdoors and grew up riding horses. But it wasn’t until a post-university trip to Australia in her early 20s that she caught the surfing bug.
“I remember thinking: ‘I don’t get the point,’ after seeing people paddle out and then get pushed back towards the beach,” she laughs. “But once you start surfing, you begin to see nature and the weather in such a different way. It has definitely made me feel more connected to the natural world.”
Grimes says that the skills she learned as a surf instructor transfer seamlessly into the classroom
For Grimes, surfing is a mental exercise as much as a physical one – something she’s valued more than ever as she’s navigated her first year of teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I feel so lucky that I’ve still been able to surf during lockdown. It’s provided a real stress release and escapism.
“When you’re on a board on a wave you can’t think of anything else. It’s a flowing sort of state, which I hadn’t experienced before,” she says. “When you’re on a horse you aren’t totally immersed in what you are doing, not like when you’re in the water.”
Grimes always excelled at maths, and for a time it seemed she was destined for a career in the City. But an office job was never something that really appealed, and after graduating with a 2:1 in economics and finance from Newcastle University, she spent two years travelling around the US and Australia, before returning to her native north-east to train as a teacher.
See Grimes in action in this short documentary from Channel 4, which is working in partnership with Guardian Labs
While surfing might be a relatively new hobby, teaching is an option that Grimes has long had in mind. After university, she came to realise that it was a career she would find immensely rewarding – and one that would allow her to continue her outdoorsy lifestyle.
“Even back in sixth form, I would learn by helping my friends and teaching them. I also tutored pupils taking economics A-level while I was studying it at university. When I was in Australia, as well as leading horseback tours I taught at a riding school and worked as a surf instructor.”
Working by the coast gives Grimes her ideal work-life balance
For Grimes, teaching on the north-east coast has provided the perfect work-life balance, allowing her to not only pursue, but actually combine, her passions for teaching and surfing.
“I think the skills of teaching surfing and teaching in school are totally transferable,” she says. “In both cases I’m sharing my skills and passions. Obviously teaching maths is a lot more formal, but whether I’m on the beach or in the classroom it’s about building collaborative relationships.”
Fortunately for Grimes, she’s found a school with an outlook that matches her surfer’s spirit. “What I like about Monkseaton high is that its ethos is based on equality, positivity and mutual respect. You can feel that in a school. It’s welcoming.”
‘I like it when pupils find out that I surf,’ says Grimes
That’s not to say that her students aren’t sometimes a little taken aback when they discover that their new maths teacher likes to ride waves in her spare time. On discovering Grimes’s hobby, a rather perplexed year 10 student remarked: “I didn’t even realise teachers had lives!”
Grimes smiles: “I like it when pupils find out that I surf. They’ll see the surfboards on top of my car, and see me heading off after school when the surf is good, and ask about it, which I love. I want to make sure they see me as approachable and know there is mutual respect.”
In fact, it’s exactly these kind of exchanges that have led Grimes to love her career in teaching. “It’s the relationships that you build with the pupils, and the interaction,” she says. “I get so much out of it when I see pupils progress. People may think that teaching or helping people is a selfless act, but it actually makes me feel so good. It’s a really unbeatable feeling.”
In teaching every day is different, and so is every teacher. Discover 100 teachers across the country, shaping lives. And if you’d like to know how you can bring your individual passions to a job in teaching, head to Get Into Teaching to find out more.
