Hundreds are mourning the loss of an “inspirational and extraordinary” head teacher who suddenly passed away.

Dr Dena Coleman, the head of Yavneh College, in Hillside Avenue, Borehamwood, was taken ill with meningitis on Sunday and never recovered.

The 60-year-old was due to retire from her role in just six weeks time and staff members had planned a special evening in her honour this evening, which has now been cancelled.

Many took to social networking site Facebook to express their shock at her sudden death, after a special group entitled RIP Dena Coleman was set up in her memory.

One user wrote: “One of the best teachers I have known and that will be her legacy. She always had a smile for everyone and that is how I will remember her.”

Messages from parents also came flooding in, with one writing: “You inspired my children to have enough determination to make every day better than yesterday. It was a lesson well learnt and will change our futures.”

Another wrote: “What an extraordinary lady Dr Coleman was. She had provided so much to the education world. She will be greatly missed.”

Mother-of-two Dr Coleman joined Yavneh when it opened in 2006, and many credited her as the woman who built the Jewish secondary school “out of nothing”.

Prior to her role at Yavneh, she was the head teacher of Bushey Meads School from 1993 to 1997, and from 1997 to 2005 she was the head teacher of Hasmonean Girls School, in Hendon.

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks also paid tribute to his friend, calling her “one of the truly great Jewish educators of our time.”

He added: “Wherever she went, she brought blessing, whatever she did, she brought success.

“That in no small measure was due to her outstanding character and personality, strong but gentle, driven yet compassionate, modest for herself, fiercely ambitious for her pupils.

“Quiet and sometimes reserved, she believed that actions spoke louder than words.”

Hertsmere MP James Clappison added: “She made an outstanding contribution to two major schools in the borough.

“She moulded the lives of so many children and young people.

“She was inspirational and an excellent head.”