Mrs Paxton

Mrs Paxton is a Cross teacher at Heathcroft High who becomes an important, if limited, advocate for Callum McGregor and the Nought pupils admitted to the school. Her significance lies in the contrast she draws between formal access to education and the unequal treatment that follows: she offers Callum practical academic support while insisting that the school itself must confront the hostility directed at Nought students.

Identity and Academic Support

Callum describes Mrs Paxton as one of the few Cross teachers who does not treat him with contempt. She recognizes his ability in mathematics and tells him he will probably move into the top mathematics stream for his year after the Crossmas holidays. She also offers extra tuition at lunchtime or before school, giving him concrete support at a moment when he is trying to make sense of a school where he otherwise feels unwelcome.

Her welcome to Persephone Hadley on returning to class is brief but attentive: she greets Persephone by name, thanks her for responding, and directs her to a seat. The scene places Mrs Paxton in the ordinary work of teaching, even as the students’ strained circumstances make that routine feel fragile.

Challenging Discrimination at Heathcroft

Mrs Paxton does not regard the mistreatment of Nought pupils as incidental. When Callum overhears her speaking with Mr Costa, the headmaster, she presses him on how long the situation is to be allowed to continue. She says Nought pupils are constantly picked on and warns that one of them may retaliate if the school does not intervene. In contrast, Mr Costa suggests that pupils who find the school difficult should go elsewhere, reducing an institutional problem to the Noughts’ supposed inability to fit in.

Mrs Paxton argues that teachers should lead by example and make clear that discriminatory behaviour will not be tolerated. Her proposed standard is not merely protection from individual incidents: she wants Heathcroft to become a sanctuary for Cross and Nought pupils alike, founded on equality of education, opportunity, and treatment. Mr Costa dismisses her concerns as exaggerated, but she maintains that it is better to overestimate the danger than to ignore it. The disagreement exposes the gap between a school’s declared openness and the willingness of its leadership to address what that openness means in practice.

Her Relationship with Callum

Mrs Paxton’s support for Callum combines academic encouragement with a frank attempt to reassure him about the school’s intentions. When he doubts that the policy admitting Nought pupils can benefit him, she places a hand under his chin and asks him to look at her directly. She tells him that the change in policy was long overdue and that neither she nor Mr Jason wants the Nought pupils to fail.

Callum challenges her assurance, asking whether Mr Jason has actually said so. Mrs Paxton answers that he did not need to. Her confidence in the school’s intentions does not erase Callum’s experience of exclusion, but the exchange shows her trying to sustain his confidence while acknowledging that the policy change carries a responsibility for the adults who implement it.

Narrative Role and Significance

Mrs Paxton represents an alternative to both open hostility and institutional complacency. She cannot, in the scenes shown, make Heathcroft safe by herself; Mr Costa’s dismissive response demonstrates the limits of her influence. Yet her actions matter precisely because they are practical and specific: she offers Callum extra tuition, recognizes his mathematical promise, and names the discrimination that school authorities would prefer to minimize.

Through her, the novel distinguishes admission from equality. Nought students may be allowed through the school’s doors, but their presence does not automatically secure fair treatment or opportunity. Mrs Paxton’s insistence that teachers set the example makes the school’s responsibility explicit, while Callum’s doubts keep her advocacy from seeming like an easy resolution. Her stance offers support without pretending that one sympathetic teacher can undo the wider hierarchy.