A TEACHER was stabbed to death by a 15-year-old pupil yesterday in front of her terrified class.
Pupils leave Corpus Christi Catholic College where teacher Anne Maguire was stabbed[PA]Anne Maguire, 61, was delivering a lesson when the boy left his desk and thrust a knife repeatedly into her back.
The screams of pupils alerted other teachers who raced to the classroom and wrestled the attacker to the ground.
Tributes to the “devoted” Spanish and Religious Education teacher were led by the Prime Minister. Mrs Maguire is believed to be the first teacher to have been killed in a British classroom. Last night a 15-year-old pupil, who minutes before the attack had been brandishing a kitchen knife, was being quizzed by detectives over the killing of the married mother of two.
The incident happened at 11.48am at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds where Mrs Maguire was in her final term of teaching before her planned retirement in July.
She was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Mrs Maguire’s devastated husband Donald, 62, and their daughters Kerry, 32, and Emma, 31, were being comforted by police liaison officers at the smart semi-detached family home in north Leeds.
The victim was named locally as 61-year-old Anne Maguire [ROSSPARRY.CO.UK]I don't know anyone who didn't like her. She was spot on. You couldn't ask for a better teacher
The elder girl is a former ballet dancer who now works as a trainee osteopath in York while her younger sister is one of Britain’s top dancers, performing for the Royal Ballet in London.
Her husband is a former teacher who now runs his own landscape gardening business.
Her youngest daughter Emma entered the Royal Ballet School at the age of 11 and was promoted to soloist in 2011.
With the Royal Ballet she has performed in productions of The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Tales of Beatrix Potter and The Sleeping Beauty.
Mrs Maguire had taught at the school for 40 years and writing on the website RateMyTeachers.com, one former pupil said: “She’s like the school’s own mother! Can be very strict but if you’re nice to her she will always be there for you, a great woman!”
Her husband is a former teacher who now runs his own landscape gardening business.
Her youngest daughter Emma entered the Royal Ballet School at the age of 11 and was promoted to soloist in 2011.
With the Royal Ballet she has performed in productions of The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Tales of Beatrix Potter and The Sleeping Beauty.
Mrs Maguire had taught at the school for 40 years and writing on the website RateMyTeachers.com, one former pupil said: “She’s like the school’s own mother! Can be very strict but if you’re nice to her she will always be there for you, a great woman!”
Emma Maguire, the youngest daughter of stabbed teacher Anne, in a production on stage [ELLIOTT FRANKS]Police confirmed the teacher had died from “multiple stab wounds” and said that they had recovered a knife from the school building following the attack.
Last night, hundreds of pupils, former students and their parents crammed into the pews of the Corpus Christi church.
There was no formal service but teenagers hugged each and some lit candles as they wept.
Outside, scores more youngsters gathered around a floral memorial to Mrs Maguire which grew to more than 100 bunches of flowers in just two hours.
Some teenagers pinned photographs to the railings, with teddies and other memorabilia. One message read: “To a special teacher. I will never forget you.”
A note said: “You inspired countless generations. You taught four generations of our family and you were simply a totally fantastic teacher, always caring and always there to make us smile (even if you were speaking Spanish).”
Laying flowers at the school gates, a 17-year-old girl, said: “It’s more like losing a family member than losing a teacher.
“As long as we were happy, she was happy. She would do anything for you. She helped me personally a lot. She’s going to be such a loss to the school. Hers were one of those lessons you didn’t want to miss. She was just lovely. She was wonderful. I am devastated.”
Flowers are left outside Corpus Christi Catholic College after the death of Anne Maguire [PA]The arrested boy, whose Facebook profile picture is an image of the Grim Reaper, cannot be named because of his age.
The long-haired heavy metal fan was described by one fellow pupil as being “a real loner despite being really, really clever”.
Following the attack the school remained open but at the end of the day hundreds of parents arrived to collect their clearly distressed children.
The Prime Minister joined pupils in paying tribute. David Cameron said: “My thoughts are with the family of Ann Maguire, as well as the staff and pupils of Corpus Christi school.”
One pupil, 17, said of Mrs Maguire: “She was just lovely. She was helpful and caring and you could have a laugh with her.
“She was always there for you, even if she didn’t know you very well. No one had a bad word for her – I mean no one.”
Former pupil Peter Masefield, 18, said: “I just can’t understand why her. Of all people. She was the school’s figurehead.” Teaching unions described the incident as “awful” and “appalling”.
Tributes poured in on social networking sites after the death of Anne Maguire [MERCURY]There are nearly 1,000 pupils on the school roll, aged between 11 and 16.
Corpus Christi’s last Ofsted report demanded that improvements needed to be made as recent results at GCSE displayed “a lack of consistency” with attainment by significantly below average. However, the report, from October last year, went on to claim that attainment in Spanish – which Mrs Maguire - taught was “significantly above average”.
An aerial view of Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds where a teacher was stabbed today [SWNS]Hilary Benn, Labour MP for Leeds Central, described the incident as “profoundly saddening” but said he was not in favour of stringent security measures that would keep pupils “behind high fences”.
He added: “This is not representative of the college, of the community that surrounds it, the families that send their children to school and the city itself.”
Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “This is an appalling tragedy. My deepest thoughts go to the victim’s family, her colleagues and the pupils at Corpus Christi Catholic College.”
The school was judged as "good" in its Ofsted report earlier this year and has nearly 1,000 pupils [EXPRESS]Residents on the quiet cul-desac in Leeds where he lives painted a picture of a shy, troubled boy.
The brooding, dark-haired teenager is described as an "Emo" - a fan of alternative music, often with tortured lyrics.
He is said to have few friends, and to have refused to talk or even make eye contact with neighbours. He is a devotee of thrash metal band Bring Me The Horizon, noted for their "deathcore style".
One of the band's albums features a masked man holding a knife on the cover.
He shares his home with his quiet 19-year-old brother and his respected mother aged 47 who works in the rail industry.
They have lived in the three-bedroom semi for 12 years.
His father, a 50-year-old council worker, lives six miles away with a son from a new relationship. One neighbour of the boy and his mother said: "He was a loner and strange. He walked with his head down all the time so you couldn't see his face.
"He never smiled, he never looked at you but I thought he was harmless."
Rebecca Hardy, 21, said: "If you said hello he wouldn't say hello back.
"I used to think he was a bit weird. But he had a girlfriend who used to walk up the close. I don't think he had many other friends "He would never look at anybody and would walk face down to the ground."
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