My wife, Catherine Dunster, who has died of lung embolisms aged 71, had a long career in primary school teaching that began in the East End of London and ended in Rugby in Warwickshire. As a teacher, her great strength lay in the life chances that she offered to “difficult” children, whom she was always keen to support and never to write-off.
This was particularly evident at Rokeby infants school in Rugby, where she was headteacher from 2000 until her retirement in 2007. At Rokeby, Catherine was renowned for fighting to keep children in her school no matter what behavioural problems they had, and for motivating staff to that end. Her study door was always open to stressed children, and in it she had chairs that folded into beds, for pupils whose acting-out ended in exhaustion.
She was born in Darwen, Lancashire, to Edward, a Church of England vicar, and Margaret (nee Pickup), a housewife from whom she learned her principle of valuing everyone equally. After Queen Mary school in Lytham St Annes, Catherine trained to be a teacher at Whitelands College in Putney, south London, from 1965-68, and maintained friendships with half a dozen of her fellow female students from Whitelands for the next 50 years.
She first taught at a junior school in West Ham before moving back up to Lancashire to work at Frenchwood primary school in Preston from 1969 until 1975. We married in 1975 and a move followed to Stockport, where Catherine was a supply teacher while raising our children, and where she completed a diploma in special educational needs at Didsbury college in Manchester.
In 1985 we moved to Rugby, where she first taught at Boughton Leigh primary and then became deputy head at Rokeby, moving up to be headteacher there in 2000. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2002 but kept her illness a secret from all but immediate family until the symptoms became obvious. It was typical of her personality to do so, as she never wanted to inconvenience people with worry or to be treated differently. After retiring, she became a free-spirited and valued member both of a book group run by U3A and a local choir.
Later she had lung embolisms and myeloma, and spent the last two years of her life in nursing home care, which she withstood with fortitude and quiet grace. She made strong relationships with those caring for her, offering advice and encouragement to anyone who needed it, and it could be said that she cared in return for her own care.
She is survived by me, our children, Clare and John, and a younger brother, Rob.
