A much-loved teacher who was knifed to death in front of pupils was just months away from retiring, the school boss revealed yesterday.

Leeds’s Corpus Christi Catholic College governors chairman Martin Dowling said Spanish teacher Ann Maguire, 61, was due to retire in September and had been working only four days a week.

A 15-year-old boy remains in custody after she was fatally stabbed at the school on Monday morning.

Speaking at a press conference outside the school, Mr Dowling said the stabbing was a “tragic but isolated incident” and there had been “no indications at all” that it would happen.

Ms Maguire’s death is thought to be the first time a teacher has been stabbed to death in a British classroom, and the first killing of a teacher in a school since the 1996 Dunblane massacre.

Detective Superintendent Simon Beldon, of West Yorkshire Police, confirmed that Mrs Maguire died from multiple stab wounds. 

He said the teenager will be questioned by officers “at some point during today.”