In 2017, Sarah decided to take a career break from her role as a Primary School teacher to start a PhD in education. Soon after accepting her offer, Sarah became pregnant with twin boys.

Over the next six years, Sarah went on to have another three children followed by maternity leave and is now graduating with a doctorate.  

Sarah talks about her decision to study along with starting her family: “I took a Career Break from my teaching post in 2017, after securing funding from DfE to complete my PhD in Education. The work focused on developing a home-school intervention to promote positive behaviour management strategies for teachers and parents of pre-school aged children. I never anticipated how my new working life would soon spill over into my family life!

“Soon after securing my career break I found out I was expecting twins, with three more children following over the next number of years. A three-year career break soon became five, with three years of full-time study and two years of maternity leave.

Sarah’s PhD Supervisor, Professor Sarah Miller from the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, said: “Not only did Sarah manage to do her PhD within the minimum three-year period (excluding her maternity leaves which were also minimal) but she consistently displayed incredible dedication and fortitude throughout. I was endlessly impressed by her commitment to both her studies and her family.” 

Sarah added: “My supervisors, Professor Sarah Miller and Dr Fiona Lynn were the greatest source of academic, and most importantly, human support. Through pregnancies, maternity leaves and COVID lockdowns, they never once lost faith that the end goal could be achieved.

"Although challenging at times, I really enjoyed studying while growing our family and would encourage anyone thinking about studying who has or wants a young family to go for it. 

"I loved working with families during lockdown. The main aim of the High 5! Programme that I was researching was to reduce parenting stress. To be able to make a positive difference to families during a time of unprecedented stress was by far the most worthwhile part of my studies."

Following graduation, Sarah plans to return to her role as a pre-school teacher in September and says: “I’ve really enjoyed studying and my research will be useful not only for my teaching career but also for my role as a mother to five young children.”  

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