Meet the Team: Lynsay Hughes

Name: Lynsay Hughes,

Company Role: PEAK PE Educator

Favourite quote: "Never, never ever give up!!"

What do you do at PEAK?

Currently my role in PEAK is to educate children in primary schools; I love to help children feel excited and enthusiastic whilst doing PE. Seeing children laughing and smiling really encourages me and fills me with pride.

What are your credentials/past experience, for working in your position?

Swimming has always been a part of my life from a young age. Whilst I was in Secondary school I worked voluntary for a small swimming school this helped me to gain confidence, experience and when I realised how much I enjoyed teaching.

During college, I also started my Level 1 and 2 swimming teacher qualification, after I qualified I started teaching in our local swimming pool on a regular basis, then teaching primary schools that came into the centre.

I first became involved in education in 2004 when I joined the PE department at Our Lady and St Bede School as a subject specific teaching assistant. This role gave me lots of experience teaching different sporting events and I absolutely loved it.

After this experience I Knew I wanted to be involved more involved in Leading PE.

What’s your Archetype?

50% Advocate.

25% Visionary.

25% Spiritual.

What do you like about working at PEAK/What are you looking forward to when working at PEAK?

As a new starter at PEAK, the structure is set up so I am entrusted to work with minimum supervision and if I have any problems i know that our management team will help and support me. This allows me to communicate well with teaching staff, as the school sees me as a lead PE Educator.

What’s your background?

After working at Our Lady and St Bede I took a short break from education and started a family. To support my role as a mother I wanted to return to the school on a part time basis however this was not possible at the time, so I decided to make a slight career change. This change led me to work as a primary school swimming teacher working for Tees Active.

My roles in education have provided me with a great deal of experience, I am able to work under pressure, I have good time management and am extremely patient and understanding of children’s needs. I have had to develop my knowledge, and skills to help me be successful in my work, I have learnt to be adaptable and creative to help me deal with situations and overcome challenges. I have developed my behaviour management strategies allowing me to effectively manage children in my care.

I have a strong work ethic, a passion for working with children and a caring and I compassionate manner. I am proactive and believe in forming good relationships with both teachers and children.

What are the values that drive you?

I enjoy Developing Students, competence and confidence to take part in a range of physical activities that become a central part of their lives both in and out of school.

Your top 3 favourite Podcasts/Books?

The Discovery of Witches.

The woman in Black.

The Beaver and the Elephant (To my children).

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

During our UK lockdowns, I took the opportunity to further my creativity and personal development and completed a fin2fit program. This is to give children/adults the opportunity to swim with a mono fin (mermaid swimming) which helps to be creative when swimming. Fin2fit is also something I believe can make a difference to a child with special needs and has massive health and fitness benefits to everyone.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing the smiles on children’s faces when they’re having fun and doing something they’ve dreamed of.

I enjoy running for charities, meeting my friends, and taking my children to their afterschool clubs.

Looking forward in to Team PEAK I’d love to support and hopefully manage our Teesside area.