It is perhaps unsurprising that Alex Hutchinson – an Oxford chemistry graduate – has a cat, Linus, named after the Nobel prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling.
Also unsurprising is that the chemistry teacher who now leads the most historic independent girls’ school in London also believes scientists make great headteachers.
While many independent school heads are historians or English graduates, those who studied science have unique skills, she says.
“I think the skillset you have as a scientist is brilliant because we get to the point, if something doesn’t work we go back and we tweak it. We’re analytical and we’re numerate.”
Anyone working alongside Hutchinson, who has led James’ Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS) in south London since August, would no doubt recognise these traits. But it’s her energy that really stands out.
She says she gave up her beloved sport of hockey 18 months ago because “everybody else seemed to be getting a bit faster”, but it’s hard to imagine her slowing down at work.
She speaks enthusiastically of how she was drawn to the job and her ambitious plans for the school as we emerge from a year of frustrating lockdowns.
“I thought the girls were sensational and I loved the sense of community, I loved the atmosphere, I loved the diversity.”
She explains it was a year spent working as a chemistry teacher at JAGS in 2011 that first hooked her in. In the intervening years she went off to be head of sixth form at Wimbledon High School and became head at Woldingham School in Surrey, before returning to JAGS.
“JAGs had very definitely left a mark on me and I absolutely loved my year teaching chemistry here. I thought the girls were sensational and I loved the sense of community, I loved the atmosphere, I loved the diversity.
“When the headship came up, I thought there was a very small number of schools that would make me sit up and look from the headship at Woldingham and JAGS was one of them. It was a really exciting proposition.”
Of course, alongside this exciting proposition there has been a major challenge that all heads have had to face – Covid.
“I’d quite like this global pandemic to end,” she says, understatedly.
“The community has been very kind because it has been an extraordinary start to headship… I have seen the whole school together just once when the fire alarm went off unexpectedly … but otherwise I’ve been limited to seeing individual year groups.”
Moving forward, Hutchinson is now “ready to get going with the strategic plan” which launches in September. Key themes are around diversity and inclusion, sustainability and further improving access for people from different backgrounds. She is also keen to stress the importance of excellence over perfectionism and the individuality of pupils at the highly selective school.
“Becoming needs-blind is definitely a long-term goal for us.”
The school has ambitious plans to travel towards needs-blind admissions, although that target it still a way off. The school currently offers bursary places to around 20 per cent of pupils, and is hoping to expand on this.
Hutchinson says: “Becoming needs-blind is definitely a long-term goal for us. I think that fundamentally bursary provision comes from the very, very heart of our school’s ethos.”
Set up in 1741 by James Allen, a pioneer for women’s education, Alex believes the school stays true to its founding values, offering a range of bursaries to students from a broad range of backgrounds.
“What we do need to look at now is how we fundraise for that purpose so that the bursary pipeline is financially sustainable. If you look at the schools who’ve been doing this for a long time, they have a phenomenally successful but very intensive commitment to raising the funds that they need.”
Her work will also now include a response to the Everyone’s Invited aftermath where thousands of women and girls published testimonies of their experiences of so-called “rape culture” in both independent and state schools.
“The girls know that we are here to support them in all circumstances, and it is so important that they feel their voices are heard.”
She says: “That was a very challenging period of time for many schools … but an incredibly important step forward has been taken, not only for us as a school, but nationally, talking about and raising awareness of what appears to have become a normalised culture that needs to change.”
As part of a new action plan at JAGS, every form will have a “gender equity and respect rep” and these reps will meet to carry on the conversation and take action around the issue.
“The girls know that we are here to support them in all circumstances, and it is so important that they feel their voices are heard.”
As Hutchinson outlines the challenges and ambitious plans on her plate, it all feels rather exhausting.
Does she ever find a moment to switch off?
She explains that a variety of “outdoorsy” and “uncool” hobbies such as hillwalking, gardening and crosswords help her to do this, along with spending time with her “hilarious cocker spaniel”, Scrumpy.
At home, conversation can revolve around school because she is married to Chris Hutchinson, the head of Royal Russell School in Croydon. Although this has been key during the Covid crisis, she says.
“Both of us being heads is brilliant because you have someone who understands the job that you are doing.
“There’s always a risk of talking about it too much, particularly when you are both running schools in a global pandemic, but that support is wonderful and we both share the experiences.”
