Tragic schoolgirl Ursula Keogh handed her friend a heartbreaking letter minutes before jumping to her death from a bridge, the inquest heard.

The 11-year-old passed her friend a sealed envelope and told her not to open it until after 6pm, Bradford Coroners Court heard.

Ursula then got off the bus they were both travelling home from school on and threw herself from North Bridge into the River Calder, in Halifax.

By the time her friend opened the letter, which said 'I've finally given up, I jumped', it was too late, the court heard.

Evidence given by Ursula's head of house at Lightcliffe Academy school in Halifax, Angela Jackson, revealed how her student had had a "melt down" five days before her death.

Ursula had had an argument following a conversation with her mum and dad that upset her, it was heard.

The nature of the argument wasn't stated but Mrs Jackson said: "Nicky told me that Ursula had had a melt down."

Mrs Jackson also expressed frustration at the lack of professional medical help available to her student.

She said: "I could not understand that she was being referred [by the GP] back to us.

"We don't have the facilities, we don't have the people. I kept saying 'go to the GP because they are the medical people'."

Only five days before her death, Ursula had a meeting with a counsellor at a national charity called Relate, which her mother Ms Harlow said went well.

Ursula was booked in for another session two weeks later but never got to go.

Bradford coroner Martin Fleming, recording a verdict of suicide, said: "This is a heartbreaking case, I have heard some devastating evidence.

"It's clear that Ursula was a troubled young girl and she was dealing with stress.

"But she was not giving anyone cause to think she was harbouring suicidal thoughts.

"However, it's clear she went to that bridge with the intention of jumping."

He added: "Communications between GPs and the school could have been better."

Earlier, the inquest heard how Ursula texted her mum to say "I love you but so sorry." 

She had viewed pages on 'suicide' and developed a fascination with the bridge from which she fell from before her death.

The coroners court heard hours before when Ursula left her home to go to school she had told her mum Nicky Harlow 'I love you.'

Acclaimed author Ms Harlow told the hearing that she thought her daughter's comment had been strange at the time.

Later Ursula sent a final heartbreaking message to her mother minutes before falling 30ft into a rocky river below.

The inquest heard that weeks earlier she had been walking across the bridge with her family and seemed "fascinated" by it.

It also heard how Ursula had been struggling from low moods in the months prior and had begun self-harming.

A statement from her father David Keogh read out by coroner Martin Fleming said how he was concerned about his daughter's "addiction" to her phone.

Ms Harlow said in a statement that Ursula had been accessing "suicide pages" on the internet.

It said: "Her hormones were all over the place. She was spending more and more time in her bedroom.

"She didn't want to see her dad anymore.

"I'm not sure what had changed. I was advised that Ursula had been accessing suicide pages.

"Her phone was then confiscated, which generated tension between us.

"In November we noticed marks on her arms.

"I have since thought about things she said. She felt like her friends were in a bubble of childhood and she was not.

"Ursula seemed older than her years, very deep and sensitive.”

Ms Harlow had told how she had sought help from Ursula's GP surgery and school in the months before her daughter died.

However, Bradford Coroner's Court heard she was sent from "pillar to post" and was left feeling "fobbed off".

She had made two calls to GPs in November and December last year, but was not given a face to face appointment on either occasion.

The coroner Martin Fleming addressed Dr Steven Cleasby from Springhall Medical Practice in Halifax and said; "You're saying go to the school and the school is saying go to the GP.

"In that scenario people can fall through the net.

We've got communication difficulties that need to be ironed out."

The coroner heard that the surgery had since changed its protocol and will now offer face to face appointments as soon as reports of a child self harming are received.

A post mortem found that she died from a head injury as a result of falling from a height.

Ten scars from self harming were found on her forearm.