Jude Lowson

The King’s School, Canterbury has appointed Jude Lowson as its first female head, taking up the post in September, The Daily Mail has reported.

The Kent school, which was established in 597, is a co-educational boarding school catering to pupils aged 13 to 19.

Lowson grew up in South London and attended local state primary schools before her parents moved to Belgium. On returning to the UK aged 13, she boarded at Sevenoaks School before studying history at the University of Cambridge. On graduating she worked in advertising at agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

She began her teaching career at Whitgift School in Croydon and was later appointed deputy head at Putney High.

Lowson stated that she is keen on forging links with the local community, saying: “I would love us to be doing more of these programmes, involving more schools to feel they can work with King’s and for us to feel we are having a positive impact on our local community. That is of crucial importance for me and I see so many benefits of that kind of work.

“I am sometimes saddened by the debate surrounding independent schools. It seeks to pit the two parts of the sector against each other but there is much we can learn from each other. I think there are myths about how independent schools operate. For example, independent schools do an awful lot of sharing their resources with local communities.

“For so many schools, that desire to be accessible and to bring pupils in who will benefit from that education is a core element of what so many independent schools are trying to do.”