The headteacher of Epsom College said she was looking forward to an "exciting future" in a poignant interview published just a week before her death.
Emma Pattison, 45, told an education magazine of her ambitions for the prestigious school, of which she became its first female head in September last year.
She said: "We want pupils to find things that are going to matter to them for the rest of their lives, and nothing could matter more to them than the person they are going to become."
