A GIFTED teacher suffering from stress and depression hanged herself the day before a new school term was due to begin.

Caroline Jane Bailey, who had been living in Altrincham periodically before her death on September 2 2012, had previously stabbed herself in the neck on two occasions, before being found dead in Castle Hill Quarry, Bury.

During the first day of a three day inquest in Oldham, Coroner Simon Nelson described the 46-years-old Prestwich resident as an exemplary teacher.

Caroline, a former Sale Grammar School pupil, had ‘achieved a great deal during her life’ to become head of humanities at Broad Oak High School in Bury, said Mr Nelson, where she had worked since 1989.

Husband, Neal Christopher Connor, said: “The first word I would use to describe Caroline is ‘caring’. Whether for family members, myself, or her children, she would go out of her way to sort things out for others before thinking of herself.

“She had a gift as a teacher for being able to turn around even the most stubborn pupils. She was very much a loving and thoughtful person.”

Caroline, a mother of two from her previous marriage, had taken time off work before Easter 2012 after suffering with insomnia and panic attacks.

She described her return to work as a ‘week from hell’ said Mr Connor, who added that Caroline hadn’t been eating properly and avoiding certain members of staff at the school.

Following an incident of self harm and two incidents when Caroline had stabbed herself in the neck, she was admitted to Fairfield Hospital.

A police search was launched after she went missing from her unit.

Caroline was later found in Castle Hill Quarry, hanged using the chord from her hospital dressing gown.

The inquest continues.