Educated at Wellington College, Mr James Hodgson read Classics at Durham University and, after a couple of years with Ernst and Young in London, completed his Classics PGCE at Cambridge University (where he was a cricket blue). He spent six years teaching in Sydney, before returning to the UK where, at Tonbridge School as a Boarding Housemaster and Director of Admissions, he successfully strengthened admissions and boarding recruitment. Prior to his appointment to Bedford School in September 2014, he was Usher (Senior Deputy Head) at Magdalen College School in Oxford.