Sue Jeffers Susan " Sue " Jeffers ( née Mottershead ) was the Head Teacher of Weatherfield Comprehensive when Ken Barlow was a teacher there during the 1990s . Sue was born in Weatherfield and grew up next door to Fred Elliott ' s family at 24 Ashchurch Grove . In June 1990 , Deirdre Barlow saw Sue to discuss the effect on Tracy of Ken teaching at the school , as the Barlows were going through a divorce . Sue suggested that Deirdre take Tracy away for a few days , as term was nearly over and she ' d finished her exams . Sue then expressed to Ken her disappointment over his handling of the situation and asked him to keep his personal problems away from the school . Later that year , Sue arranged with Phil Jennings , via Deirdre , for PJ Leisure to sponsor the school football team and supply the new strips . Ken was against the sponsorship , ostensibly on professional grounds ( Phil owned an amusement arcade which school children were skipping school to play in ) , but Sue quashed any firm opposition on his part by pointing out the conflict of interest due to Phil ' s relationship with Deirdre . When making a stand against the sponsorship , Ken had an ally in fellow teacher Fred Duffield , who found it typical of Sue ' s practices since joining the school . In March 1991 , Sue made Andy McDonald close down a book he was running and pay back the pupils who had put bets on , after being tipped off by Ken . When she inspected the book , Sue remarked that it was impressive but when Andy thanked her she replied cuttingly , " that was an observation not a compliment " , and suggested he put his talents towards the school ' s schemes for helping the disadvantaged . A year later , Sue saw A - Level pupil Paula Maxwell about her falling grades and advised her to study more , and in December she interviewed Derek Wilton for the position of deputy school caretaker . Derek was given the job although Sue felt he was overqualified . Derek had a hard time as he worked under Harry Potts , who was a known troublemaker but when he complained about him to Sue , he was asked to spy on Harry as Sue was hoping to find an excuse to sack him . Derek wrote a damning dossier on Harry ' s activities and handed it to Sue . Derek ' s satisfaction was short - lived thanks to a glowing reference from Mrs . Jeffers , Harry got a job as caretaker at the Tech . In February 1994 , Sue suspended Derek when he fell asleep on the job , allowing the school to be broken into and £3 , 000 worth of equipment stolen . When her husband left her for another woman in September 1996 , Sue leaned on Ken for comfort and began seeing him in a new light . She arranged for them to go to a conference in Southport together . Ken had no romantic interest in Sue so when she got drunk and fell asleep in his hotel room , he slept in her room but then in the morning he discovered she ' d slipped and knocked herself unconscious in his bathroom , and she had to be carried out and taken to hospital . The embarrassment over the debacle caused Sue to back down over Ken for a while . A few months later , Sue was told by the Governors to look for redundancies at the school . Sue safeguarded Ken ' s job as she still fancied him and was jealously aware that Ken and Deirdre were on the verge of reconciling . After rowing with Deirdre , Ken had a drink with Sue and admitted he wished something had happened between them in Southport . A short time later , Deirdre let herself into the house , interrupting the pair in bed . Ken saw his evening of passion with Sue as a mistake but as he had burned his bridges with Deirdre , he gave a relationship with Sue a try although they agreed to keep it a secret because of the redundancies . Sue ' s professionalism was called into question a short time later when Jean Crabtree , wife of Ray - one of the teachers made redundant - complained to Alf Roberts that Sue had protected Ken as they were having an affair . While strictly speaking their affair had not started until after the redundancies were decided , Sue was still heavily criticised when the school governors found out and she immediately resigned , admitting full responsibility . Ken wasn ' t punished but lost his job anyway as more redundancies were announced later that year .