Katy Barrett, an inspirational teacher at the Gateway school in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, and latterly at the High March school in Beaconsfield, has died of cancer aged 54. She was also known for co-founding the Blue Door Cinema club in Great Missenden with her friend Jane in 2012.
Teaching career and dedication
Barrett pursued everything she did in life with relentless vigour, often working late into the night to perfect her lesson plans so that each child was catered for. Her pupils showed their appreciation in cards they made when she was unwell; one wrote that they were looking forward to Mrs Barrett returning so they could finish reading Street Child, another that they remembered her help with bar graphs.
In recent months, Barrett recreated the Louvre robbery in the school gym using ladders and jewellery to teach her class about scale. At the end of each school year, she would wrap a personally chosen book for each child she taught.
Blue Door Cinema and community spirit
In 2012, Barrett and her friend Jane established the Blue Door Cinema in Great Missenden, aiming to start an activity that families could walk to together, rather than going to the pub. They made 100 blue cushions for the chairs, and every showing involved homemade snack-plates, sweet or savoury, with items handbaked by Barrett. A BFI short film about the project can still be found online.
Early life and education
Born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Barrett was the daughter of Jane, a secretary, and John Richards, an insurance broker. She grew up in Great Missenden, attending local primary and grammar schools, then won a scholarship to Bryanston, a private school in Dorset. She read English at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she was described as a bright star: astute, sociable, welcoming, hospitable, and loved by all.
At Oxford, she organised memorable themed parties, often involving hiring large items such as pub game-machines and casino equipment. Each guest had to bring a specific bottle of spirits or liqueur so that elaborate cocktails could be created in vats.
Legal career and family
After university, Barrett trained with the law firm Withers in London, specialising in family law and dealing with divorces of high-net-worth individuals. Her intelligence, both emotional and intellectual, proved invaluable in persuasion and dealing with awkward behaviour. She left Withers in 2008 to raise her family, later training as a primary school teacher and joining the Gateway school in 2012.
In 1998, she met Brian Barrett, and they married three years later. She described their two children, Eva and John, as her “life’s work – what I’m most proud of”. She is survived by Brian, Eva, John, her mother, and her brother, Mark.
