Visual art and design teacher Suzy Reid
Suzy Reid clearly remembers the day a girl in her class splashed Indian ink across a stunning piece of nearly finished art.
With tears in her eyes, she leant over the student, said “now make magic”, and walked away. Fifteen minutes later she returned to find the blotches transformed into “a variety of amazing insects crawling across her beautiful art”.
“That student was Anna Mowbray,” she said. “A problem solver. She told me she thought of that incident when faced with a problem early on in her business career.”
Mowbray went on to co-found the Zuru toy company with her brothers Mat and Nick and become one of Aotearoa’s most successful entrepreneurs and businesswomen.
She was one of more than 22,000 Reid taught over her 30 years at Cambridge Middle School before retiring earlier this year.
The visual art and design teacher loved walking into her studio every day and watching her students blossom.
“It was a magical space to create in,” she said.
Principal Daryl Gibbs described Reid’s “passion for art and making it accessible to all students” as “truly inspiring”.
Deputy principal Bridget Watkins said she had been a “vibrant presence” who “brought creativity, care, and a deep sense of community to everything she did”.
“Her legacy will be felt in the lives of the countless students and colleagues she has worked alongside,” she said.
“I will miss her warmth, passion, and the genuine joy she brought to Cambridge Middle School.”
Between training in Christchurch as a new entrant teacher and beginning at Cambridge Middle School in 1995, Reid taught in Napier, Wairoa, Waipawa, the King Country, Matamata, Hinuera, Te Poi and Tīrau.
Also known as “Darlnk” – the name on her personalised number plate – Reid took pride in school art exhibitions and relished working with the arts team on school productions.
“I loved hearing from children, years later, who said I had made a difference to them at a challenging stage of their lives,” she said.
A major career highlight was winning a national Maths, Science and Technology study award in 2003, which paid for her Graduate Diploma in Information Technology in Education. She graduated with distinction, just one year before laptops became standard issue for New Zealand teachers.
Reid believes the public’s perception of teachers has fallen over the years.
“That’s sad because teachers give way more than they ever get paid for – often to the detriment of their own families,” she said.
Art taught life skills, she said – grit, perseverance, decision-making, problem solving.
“You need to be brave to create artworks, probably more so than any other subject, because there are no strict rights or wrongs,” she said.
“There’s so much to learn; it’s a lifelong process and that’s what makes creating art so magical. You never finish learning.”
Following her retirement this winter, Reid took a long overseas holiday. Now back in Cambridge, she is looking forward to spending more time with her family and to following and exploring her many passions, including performing arts, interior design, travel, and entertaining.
“I’ll also need a tougher exercise regimen,” she said.
“The 10-12,000 steps per day in my career has to be achieved somehow. I’ll need to learn to enjoy walking more.”
Visual art and design teacher Suzy Reid taught at Cambridge Middle School for 30 years before retiring earlier this year. Photo: Steph Bell-Jenkins
