My friend Sue Berridge, who has died aged 70, was a drama teacher of prodigious talent and energy admired for giving her all to her profession and her local community.
From 1995 until her retirement in 2014, Sue was head of drama at Coleridge community college in Cambridge, where the school’s annual shows, which she produced and directed, were spectacular. Her production of My Fair Lady in 1998 was of very high quality and was followed the next year by Like We Were Then, co-written by Sue and a parent, Mike Levy, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the college. In 1999 she helped pupils to produce a film of a mock prime minister’s questions that won the Y10 Motorola parliamentary video competition in the East Anglia region.
As an accredited examiner of her subject from 1978 to 2010, she brought an extra dimension and knowledge to her teaching, but she will also be remembered by Coleridge students for the superhuman efforts she made to save the school in 1997, when it was threatened with closure due to falling pupil numbers. Acting as the college’s press officer, she set up a campaign that involved students, parents and the local community, and which persuaded the education authority to change its mind.
Born in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, Sue was the daughter of Margaret (nee Burton), a primary school teacher, and Ken Bell, a telecommunications engineer. She attended King James grammar school in the town, where she made lasting friendships. She went on to study drama and English at Homerton College in Cambridge and began her teaching career in 1974 at Longsands school (now Longsands academy) in St Neots, Cambridgeshire.
She married Graham Berridge in 1975, and after taking a few years’ absence from teaching to raise their children, in 1985 she returned part-time to the classroom at Melbourn Village college, near to their home in Sawston, Cambridgeshire. She also became chair of the governors of Sawston primary school.
After separation from Graham (they divorced in 1997), a serendipitous meeting in a cinema queue in 1995 led to a long and happy partnership with Glenn Thwaites.
Following Sue’s retirement in 2014 she ran the weekly quizzes at her local pub – a masterclass in managing a room full of argumentative quizzers. She also joined a local walking group and volunteered as a steward. Not long before her death she qualified as a town guide in Clare, Suffolk.
She is survived by Glenn and her children, Sophi and Alex.
• This article was amended on 9 November 2023 to correct the spelling of Melbourn Village college.
