Family, friends and hundreds of other well-wishers joined former pupils and community leaders at a memorial service today to celebrate the life of the dedicated and much-loved teacher stabbed to death in her classroom.

Ann Maguire, aged 61, was killed in front of pupils in April this year at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds in an incident that shocked and saddened the nation.

She was a hugely popular teacher and through her 40-year career had led a life filled with selfless nurturing of others. She was just a few months away from retirement when she died.

Hundreds more people gathered outside Leeds Town Hall where the service was held to watch the proceedings on a big screen.

The Yorkshire Post reported that the service opened with the powerful and popular hymn Love Divine All Loves Excelling.

Keith Wakefield, leader of Leeds Council, said: "The legacy that she will provide us will be compassion, care and commitment for the vulnerable."

Judith Blake, a councillor, said: "Through her devotion and extraordinary talent, her legacy will live on in hearts and minds across the whole of the city."

The service included a minute's silence at 12.30pm and a screening of a video in which some of the many people whose lives she touched pay tribute to her.

​The Ann Maguire Arts Education Fund, a charity set up in her memory to help under-18s develop through music, drama, language and dance, has already raised more than £24,600 on its page at justgiving.com/ann-maguire.

In an interview with the BBC her husband, Don, 62, said: "She was a beautiful, dedicated, hard working individual... Ann was a very loving dedicated wife and a natural mother and it was her natural mothering qualities that I think made Ann such a wonderful teacher."

Referring to the tributes placed outside the school by past and present pupils, he said: "I remember the very empty hollow sick feeling inside and reading those messages made us feel so comforted and so able to understand others were feeling the pain as well."

Andrew Poole, one of two nephews raised by Mrs Maguire, said: "If one message came through it was always about Ann's dedication to her students and her willingness to go the extra mile for any one individual student."

Her daughter Emma said: "I think what we took away was that we have so many of our own stories and memories of mummy and we are so grateful people chose to share theirs."

Speaking with her sister, Kerry, she added: "Mum had a special talent for developing opportunities for young people and we hope the charity will do the same.

"We really want Mummy's legacy to encompass everything she did in her work and the person she was to so many people.

"She taught for 40 years and affected thousands of pupils' lives and we feel her legacy should be something that continues this work and what she gave to people."

A 16-year-old boy is due to appear before Leeds Crown Court in November charged in connection with the teacher's death.