Ann Maguire · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 13th May 2014 an investigation was commenced into the death of Ann Maguire aged 61 years. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 22nd November 2017. The conclusion of the Inquest was that she was unlawfully killed. She died from (1)(a) Shock and haemorrhage due to (1)(b) Stab wound to the neck severing jugular vein

On 28th April Ann Maguire was stabbed by a 15 year old pupil as she taught Spanish at Corpus Christi Catholic School, Leeds. She sustained some 7 stab wounds and died within two hours at Leeds General Infirmary. The boy who carried out the attack, ████████ subsequently pleaded guilty to murder and is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years.

Prior to the attack, ████████ informed other children in his class of his intention to kill three teachers and showed some of them the large kitchen knife he had taken from home to use as a weapon. None of the 10 children concerned informed a teacher or other adult of his intention or that he was in possession of a knife.

The need to prevent weapons such as knives being brought into schools in the UK is axiomatic. How schools perceive the risks associated with weapons and manage them, appears to be the subject of widespread variation.

The Inquest heard evidence from an OFSTED Inspector who visited the school in June 2013, some 10 months before the murder took place. Over the two days of the inspection, the team of Inspectors inevitably had to prioritise those aspects of the school they would scrutinise. No indication was given to them from teachers, pupils or parents that knives were a problem in that school; indeed the OFSTED report commented students felt ‘very safe’.

OFSTED inspections already consider the issue of safety. In order to give greater prominence to the need to control any weapon being brought into a school, OFSTED are asked to consider making it mandatory for their Inspectors to review and report on the way a school manages the safety of its pupils and staff and protects them from the risk of violent attack. In this way OFSTED may be able to contribute to the dissemination of good practice, for example, by publishing a prohibited items list and reinforcing the need for children to report anything untoward to a teacher.