The UK’s oldest school has appointed its first female head in its 1,425-year history.

The King’s School in Canterbury - founded in 597 by the first archbishop of Canterbury, St Augustine, and boasting Christopher Marlowe among its former pupils - announced that Jude Lowson would become head of the school in September 2023.

She currently serves as acting head of King’s College School, Wimbledon, and has also held the post of deputy head, academic at Putney High School.

It marks a rapid ascent in the education world for Lowson, who only started her career in education in 2010 after working in advertising for four years in London. She holds an MA in history from the University of Cambridge. 

Commenting on her appointment, Lowson told Tes she was ”enormously excited” by the opportunity ahead of her and to be chosen as the first female head to lead the school.

“It is such an honour to have been selected as the first female head of King’s Canterbury,” she said.

“The school has an unmatched heritage, but equally is forward thinking and outward looking. Meeting staff and pupils, I was struck by their ambition for the future, as well as the powerful sense of community, which is enhanced by the school’s unique setting and its close connections with the cathedral.”

The current headmaster at King’s, Peter Roberts, will retire in the summer and said he was delighted the governors had chosen Lowson to lead the school forward into a new era.

“I have every confidence that she will act to enhance the lives of the communities and families that make King’s’ precious three schools what they are today, building on the incredible achievements of the many over the last decade during which time I have had the privilege to lead this unique school”.

In the interim period, the school will be run by the current senior deputy head, Liz Worthington.

Pay gaps and famous alumni

Despite the historic nature of the appointment, the school’s most recent gender pay gap report shows that women at the King’s School are paid 83p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay - something Lowson may want to address when in post. 

The school was a single-sex-only intake for most of its history but began admitting girls in 1970 before becoming fully co-educational in 1990.

Other notable alumni from the school include author Sir Michael Morpurgo, Oscar-winning set designer Anna Pinnock, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery (better known as Monty) and novelist W. Somerset Maugham.

The King’s School is also regarded as the oldest school in Europe - but comes second in the list of oldest schools in the world by around another 750 years to Shishi High School in China, which is believed to have been founded in 143-141 BC.