Jude Lowson, the new head at King’s Canterbury, on her vision for the school, Labour's VAT plans and the lack of guidance on trans issues
“That’s the route the assassins of Thomas Becket took,” Jude Lowson says, pointing through the windows of her study to where Henry II’s henchman fled in 1170 after murdering the Archbishop of Canterbury. “And somewhere in the school we have the room where Charles I consummated his marriage. There are little pockets of history all over the place.”
Right now, though, Lowson is the one making history. After more than 1,400 years of men – starting, it is said, with Augustine of Canterbury when he arrived here in Kent in 597 to convert the English to Christianity – she has just been appointed as the first ever female head of King’s Canterbury, which claims to be the oldest school in the country. The announcement promised that this former advertising executive will bring a “fresh and modern outlook” to this venerable institution where 70 per cent of the 1,250 co-educational pupils are boarders, living in the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral.
Lowson is keen, however, to avoid making too much of breaking new ground for her gender. “In my whole career as a teacher,” she reflects, “I’ve never given much thought to being a woman in schools. My experience has not been one that has been defined by that.” She pauses and then adds: “I wasn’t appointed because I was a woman.”
It quickly becomes apparent that Lowson, 39, is very much her own person, rather than a pioneer for her sex. And there are plenty of topics she is keener to talk about – like the prospect, according to the opinion polls, of a Labour government next year with a flagship policy of making schools like King’s charge parents 20 per cent VAT on fees (currently £14,830 a term for boarders).
“It worries me because I don’t like the way that the debate around education has gone,” she says. “It is setting two parts of the sector [state and independent] against each other. Politicians do love a culture war, but a policy that is seeking to trade schools off against each other is not helpful.”