My partner Claire Widgery, who has died aged 70, was for most of her life an exemplary teacher of drama, most recently to students at the Islington Sixth Form Centre in north London. She was also a feminist and an early innovator in a classroom approach to challenging gender norms.
Claire trained on the teaching course at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, from which she emerged in 1973 with a distinction and a teaching post at Clissold Park school in Hackney. Within a year she was the youngest head of department in the Inner London Education Authority (Ilea). She quickly became an expert in the role-based approach to drama teaching espoused by Dorothy Heathcote, in which children were empowered to make their own decisions and find their own stories. She later promoted this immersive vision of drama teaching across the Ilea.
