British Museum Day
We were sorry to have to cancel our planned Minimus day at the British Museum owing to lack of support. We would much appreciate feedback on why more of you were not able to come. Did we choose an unfortunate date? Is it the cost of coach travel? Is it the hassle of Health & Safety regulations these days? Or are you just too busy? Please do let us know as we may well investigate trying again next year if we feel there is enough demand.
Meanwhile the routine work of the Primary Latin Project continues. Apart from writing new materials and reporting what we are doing, my main job is to provide training for all those who wish to use Minimus. Increasingly, these are primary teachers who know no Latin themselves, but whose Headteachers have seen the advantage of Latin and Minimus as their designated language. With the help of initial training and on-going support many non-specialist primary teachers are delivering Minimus very successfully. We now have a group of 12 experienced Minimus Trainers whom I have trained to share the workload of training others. Our thanks to Elena Theodorakopoulos who has hosted two very successful training days at the University of Birmingham and especially to Classics for All and Hilary Hodgson who, with their sponsorship, have made it possible for us to train even small numbers.
Please note that we no longer have official Minimus Training Days such as we had at James Allen's Girls' School in London in the past. If you are thinking of using Minimus, either in your school or as a home-schooler and would like some training please get in touch initially with me and we will see what can be arranged.
The current Minimus Trainers are:
-
• Michele Anderson – Hertfordshire
-
• Sue Balmer – Newcastle
-
• Barbara Bell – Bristol
-
• Kate Eaton – London (SE)
-
• Jo Hartley – Southampton
-
• Cathy Hudspith – Surrey / Berkshire
-
• Catherine Jarvis – Cumbria
-
• Jane Maguire – Norfolk
-
• Caroline Ostler - London (SW)
-
• Shona Shahryar – Hertfordshire
-
• Linda Soames – Oxford
-
• Jayne Treasure - Wales
It is my intention to extend the group of trainers to cover more parts of the country. In the last year they have done an excellent job in their localities but they are also willing to travel.
PGCE Teaching
Once again this summer term I have had the pleasure of training PGCE Students from Bristol University Department of Education to teach Minimus. These are not Classicists; there have been a total of 30 students, 16 modern linguists and 14 English students over a course of five weeks. Each student has had a total of 10 hours of teaching and each has received a certificate. This is another string to their bow when applying for jobs and their delight in learning a new language (many of them were beginners or revisiting Latin from school days) has made the sessions very pleasurable.
Pupils' Workbooks
The Minimus illustrator Helen Forte and I enjoyed collaborating last summer in creating a pupils' workbook. This bargain book (priced only £1) contains 2 pages of grammar practice for each chapter of Minimus. It is printed in Bristol, by Whitehall Printers, and sold through our business Minimus et Cetera. Teachers report that pupils ‘love their grammar books’. With Helen's wonderful illustrations it hardly looks like a grammar book and yet there are plenty of rigorous practice exercises as well as space for pupils' own illustrations, colouring, word searches, quizzes, etc. The books are flying off the shelves so if you think you would like to order these don't leave it too late!
Pre-Minimus
Minimus was designed for children aged seven to ten, but I have been aware for some time that children much younger than seven are using it and enjoying it, so Helen Forte and I are planning another collaborative project this summer. In August we will be writing material designed for children aged three to six, which for the moment we are calling Pre-Minimus. We have had some useful feedback from those who teach very young children as to what they would like to see in this booklet. If you are a homeschooler or an infant teacher of children aged three to six, we would love to hear from you at any time as to how you feel your children could benefit from Minimus and what sort of activities you would like to see.
If you would like further details of any aspect of the work of the Primary Latin Project, please contact me as detailed below.
The Iris Project's Classics centre at Cheney School is home to a large and expanding collection of original artefacts, covering a broad range of periods and regions – from Mesolithic stone tools (approximately 10,000 years old), Ancient Greek and Roman pottery, coins and glass items, to Medieval and post-Medieval pottery fragments (a few hundred years old). The collection has grown gradually out of generous donations from the public. Gradually we started to realise that in order to best collect, care for, preserve and display these items, we needed to seek professional advice and guidance. This triggered a series of projects, which have all become part of a wider vision to establish the first accredited museum within a school. During this process, we have been immensely fortunate that a sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous, has come forward to back the museum financially, in memory of Jamie Rumble, a young man who dedicated his life to the service of young people. Below I have outlined the key projects so far, before going on to explain our plans for the next two years and beyond.
Projects to date
1. Digital catalogue
The first thing we did was to launch a project aimed at cataloguing, photographing and publishing all its archaeological artefacts. The stimulus behind this project has been to create a long-term resource that makes the most of the collection's educational potential. This project is allowing students and visitors to experience heritage through workshops and artefact handling sessions. The database and photographs are also being incorporated into all Classics lessons, helping bring history to life. The digital catalogue has been completed and can be downloaded from our website.
2. Embedding artefacts into the curriculum
Our consultant archaeologist has been working with us to train Classics students to become ‘student curators’ for the collection. They have learned how to identify items, how to catalogue them, how to care for them, and how to make them accessible and interesting to the public. Students are developing projects of their own in groups to showcase the items and are able to deliver handling sessions themselves to primary school groups and other visitors. They have already presented the items to the public at the launch event in March 2015 and the Festival of Lost Cities in January. From September 2015, the artefacts have been embedded in the Year 7 Enrichment curriculum, so that every single student has the opportunity to handle and understand more about the collection and how we can learn about history using these objects. We also run archaeology clubs in several local primary schools.
Using replicas of ancient objects in Cheney School
3. Artefact Story Trails
We have designed and created of a number of murals which explore possible biographies for some of the many Roman artefacts we have on display at the centre. They are painted by artist Soham De. Most of the items we have are pieces of much larger objects, and the idea behind these mural trails is to show the story of how some of these items would have been made and used, and eventually broken, and discovered centuries later as fragments. Each trail consists of three murals which trace these stories; the artefact itself appears in a cabinet in reception. The trails are appearing all across the school campus, and there is scope for them to appear as well as in feeder schools.
Museum School
1. Museum Accreditation
The Classics Centre has been granted ‘Working towards Accreditation’ status within the Arts Council Accreditation scheme. It will take approximately two years to prepare the paperwork and put all the correct procedures of access and preservation in place in order to achieve official ‘museum’ status. This will be something unique and exciting – an accredited museum inside a state school is something that has never been done before, and something which has the opportunity to transform Cheney School for students, staff and visitors.
2. Cross-curricular plans
Working towards museum accreditation will offer opportunities to embed museum learning into not only the school curriculum but also into the building and corridors themselves. Ultimately we plan that each department might have permanent and loan items of artefacts relevant to its own area of learning, complete with murals and / or exhibition trails in corridors explaining and exploring the items. Students can be actively involved in ‘curating’ the items in each department area and designing the displays. Visitors can be regularly invited to explore the corridors and classrooms to see the artefacts. Finally, staff and students can experience training in archaeology and artefact care and collections.
3. Headington Museum
Cheney School is located in the Headington area of the city of Oxford, an area with a rich and diverse history, including a Roman settlement. We already have many local Roman items, and we are working with a museum designer to create a central striking display area within the school with a focus on Headington artefacts. Headington does not yet have its own museum, so we intend that the Rumble Museum at Cheney School can serve that function as part of its broad role within the community.
The Museum School is still in early stages, but we are very excited about the very exciting possibilities it already offers and will continue to offer for enriching the lives of Cheney students and the wider community. If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch at [email protected]
Level 1 and Level 2 Latin Certificates
The Latin Language and Latin Language with Roman Civilisation Certificates at both Level 1 and Level 2 will continue in their present format in future years. However, the Department for Education has decided that such GCSE-equivalent qualifications will not attract performance points or EBacc accreditation beyond 2017. This ruling is being actively disputed.
For 2018 the topics for Roman Civilisation will revert to The Roman Army and Entertainment and Leisure.
Readers might be interested to know that for Level 1 in 2015 nearly half of those gaining a certificate were in Year 9 and a further quarter in Year 10. It seems clear that schools are using this specification as a validation of their studies for those students who opt not to continue and / or as a motivator for those going on to Level 2 or the GCSE. 61% of the entries for Level 1 Latin Language gained an A*.
With the introduction of the Eduqas Latin GCSE for first examination in 2018, the Level 1 and Level 2 Literature Certificates will be withdrawn after summer 2017.
Latin GCSE (9-1)
The Eduqas specification, Sample Assessment Materials and Teacher's Guide are now available online, as are the complete texts for Components 2 and 3A (see www.eduqas.co.uk/latin). The Cambridge School Classics Project, which has now endorsed this GCSE as the preferred route for students using the Cambridge Latin Course, has a team working on the production of notes for both students and teachers. These will be available free of charge online (see www.cambridgescp.com) in plenty of time before teaching of the literature component(s) is likely to commence.
CPD sessions to support the teaching of the GCSE will be held in 2017 in London (16 January), Birmingham (19 January) and Manchester (20 January). Details are on the Eduqas website http://www.eduqas.co.uk/training Unlike for most other subjects, this GCSE will also be available to all schools in Wales and Northern Ireland.
In February this year, the Department for Education (DfE) published the new subject content for Classical Civilisation. First assessment for the new AS is summer 2018 and summer 2019 for A Level.
Studying Classical Civilisation is an excellent complement to the study of the arts, English Literature and History. Students gain an appreciation and understanding of the huge impact that the ancient Greek and Roman cultures had on the world we live in today.
The new AQA AS and A Level qualifications retain much of the content that we know teachers and students enjoy, such as Homer's Iliad, Homer's Odyssey, Greek Tragedy and Cicero.
At A Level, students will also have an opportunity to study current popular topics such as Virgil's Aeneid, Women in Lesbos, Athens & Rome and Suetonius & Tacitus.
We have included new Classical Thought and Classical Visual & Material Culture topics, These include:
-
• Classical Thought–‘Plato and Aristotle’
-
• Classical Visual & Material culture – ‘Athenian Sculpture and Architecture’ and ‘Sculpture and Architecture in Augustan Rome.’
We have created extensive supporting material for these new topics to help your teaching.
How to find out more about the new AQA qualifications
-
1. Our free launch events are an excellent way to learn more about the content, assessment objectives, assessment structure and resources for the new specifications.
You will also have the chance to ask your questions.
We are running a face to face event in London on Wednesday 14 September 2016. If you are unable to make this event we are also holding live online sessions in September, outside of school hours. You can share these with your whole department via a computer screen or projector. Book your free place at www.aqa.org.uk/classicalevents
-
2. You can view our exciting new draft AS and A Level Classical Civilisation qualifications by visiting www.aqa.org.uk/classical-civilisation
-
3. Get the latest news about our new specifications by email. Register your details to make sure you're kept up to date with support and resources www.aqa.org.uk/from-2017
Staff, students, celebrities and academics from the Classics world came together on Saturday 2nd July for a ‘Celebrating Classical Civilisation’ event hosted at King's College, London. The day was designed to serve as the launch event for a new ERC-funded initiative, spearheaded by Professor Edith Hall and Dr Henry Stead, to promote the adoption of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History both at GCSE and A Level in more state schools around the country. Currently around 4,000 students take non-linguistic classical subjects at A Level. Why shouldn't that be ten times as many? A hundred times as many? A thousand times as many?
Edith Hall introduces the discipline of Classical Civilisation
Attendees were treated to an entertaining talk from author, comedian and broadcaster Natalie Haynes on Aristotle's six principles of drama, performances from two London-based poets, Caroline Bird and Caleb Femi, who draw inspiration from their classical interests to forge modern, contemporary, urban ‘odysseys’, and a lively interactive discussion of the wondrous variety of disciplines and methodologies available to students of the ancient world from Professor Hall herself. Student participants also enjoyed the chance to work with Kings College London Classics undergraduates on the performance of short excerpts from Euripides' Bacchae and Aristophanes' Acharnians.
The entire day was a resounding success with all those involved departing in a suitably buoyant and enthused frame of mind to champion these valuable subjects right around the country.
Euripides' Bacchae: chorus of Bacchants
Aristophanes' Acharnians: the agon
It was my very great pleasure to attend this conference, held in the John McIntyre Conference Centre and the surrounding buildings of Pollock Halls, Edinburgh University. I found it an enjoyable and stimulating event, containing a wealth of excellent papers, thought-provoking plenaries and interesting excursions to places such as Melrose and Abbotsford, the Rosslyn Chapel and The National Museum of Scotland. What a pity one could not do everything!
Our opening lecture by Professor Amy Richlin of Pentland, ‘Classics from below’ presented some alternative views of life in the ancient world after Alexander, heightening our awareness of the experiences of people nearer ‘the bottom of the heap’. She made many references to Graeco-Roman comedy in particular, and advocated community and street theatre as a way of getting people more connected to the life and culture of the Ancient World. It was a great start to the conference.
It is always hugely difficult to choose which panels of papers to attend, owing to their vast number. I would advise new visitors to read the ‘abstracts’ of the papers online beforehand so that they have at least some idea of their contents—although one can never be totally sure! I shall always wonder exactly what ‘Roman breast-pumps and baby bottles’ was going to be about! But there's a thrilling array of subjects, some more eclectic than others. I attended such varied papers as ‘Tangible language in ancient literary criticism of Homer’, ‘Gendered suicides: tragic women and the silence of resistance’ and ‘Nymphos and nags: the representation of women in British sitcoms set in the Roman World’ plus others, all in one morning: just the very tip of the iceberg! Reading through the list of panels and papers, you realise that Classics is about everything…
The areas I found particularly relevant to ArLT were, naturally, those linked with pedagogy. There was a ‘Living Latin’ panel, the first part of which gave ‘a theoretical perspective’. It emphasised the importance of learning through communication and was based strongly on Vygotski's Unified Theory of Human Mental Functioning. Interesting examples were given of a method of learning in which the students fully appropriate the information for themselves through various stages of communication, rather than having it handed out to them on a plate or fed them by force. (My metaphor!) A great idea with small, more mature groups, I felt. In this same panel it was good also to learn news of a regular ‘conventiculum’ in Kentucky, held entirely in Latin, involving such exercises as reading, translating and making a commentary on a text, all in Latin.
There seems to be a lot going on at Cork University as well: Jason Harris, whose main subject is Renaissance History, runs a Latin class for his second years where as much as possible is discussed and analysed directly in Latin. For the university's new MA in Renaissance Latin, he plans to start an annual Summer School in Latin: ‘optime’ is what I say!
More closely related to school teaching was a session with a link to Sophie da Silva's fairly recent ARLT talks on teaching the ‘Minimus’ course in junior schools. The ‘Classics in Communities’ project draws on support from the Iris Project, the Latin Programme and ‘Classics for All’. The teaching is seen to have a sizable effect on literacy skills over time, and helps also to develop global and cultural awareness. Pupils enjoy it and give very positive feedback to their parents. The project has a number of future events planned, including a Greek Language and Culture celebratory event this year, and several training workshops around the country in June and July.
There was also a session, ‘Project-based learning in the Latin classroom’ which informed us about ‘Fronto online’—a course which ‘puts power in the hands of the learners’ and enables pupils to write their own text commentaries.
However, the most striking pedagogical talk from a secondary school teacher's point of view had to be that of Athina Mitropoulos ([email protected]), a young teacher who has been getting to grips with teaching Ancient History so that it appeals to, and brings success for, a wide range of ability. She has surveyed pupil progress and used that information to create a course with as varied a selection of resources and useful activities as possible, in order to engage all pupils. Not only that, but she has got her pupils to evaluate the resources so that she can develop the course even more effectively.
Other enjoyable events included a wise and thoughtful Presidential Address by Professor Robert Crawford, a fascinating lecture by Professor Ewen Bowie on Greek grammatici in the Roman Empire (an amazing bunch apparently—not unlike the audience!)—and a less mentally demanding and most entertaining session involving Lindsey Davis, Owen Dudley Edwards and Ian Rankin, titled ‘From Rome to Rebus: crime fiction from Ancient Rome to Auld Reekie’.
I have left out a lot, but I hope I will have convinced teachers that a visit to the CA Conference might well be a boost to the morale, and give the sense of being a ‘real Classicist’ again. Publishers were on hand with tempting books to buy, and I found the atmosphere friendly and supportive. Our hosts did us proud with accommodation and catering, with good coffee practically permanently on tap!
Their next conference is in Canterbury from 26th - 29th April 2017.
During July 2016 I attended the ArLT Summer School at Ratcliffe College as a condition of starting the Latin with Classics PGCE at Cambridge. The summer school involved a variety of interesting lectures and option groups relating to the classical world and teaching.
For my first option group I attended ‘Brush up your Latin’. This consisted of a series of three classes in which we went over basic grammar, such as conjugations, declensions, infinitives, and ut clauses. This was an excellent refresher of the rudimentary grammar needed for teaching Latin. Not only was it good to see various ways of layout, for example, grammar crib sheets, it was also taught with teaching in mind with mentions of hooks for pupils to use, such as ‘sassy’ and ‘pixie’ perfects. I found this especially useful as the advice clearly came from years of working out what works. Finally, we were given multiple handouts both for personal use and with classes. I feel that my Latin and my confidence with the language have greatly improved, as going through several poems by Catullus proved.
As my second option group I attended sessions of the Cambridge Latin Course (CLC). During these sessions we went through part of Book 1 of the CLC and several of the multimedia resources. I personally found this incredibly useful as I did not study the CLC myself. Discussions of the pedagogical approach of the course were both interesting and helpful in cementing my understanding of the books. Of particular help were the little pieces of information such as the fact that pupils normally take two minutes per line of written translation. Perhaps this is obvious to seasoned teachers but as someone just about to start, I certainly found this information valuable. As a result of this option group, I feel far better prepared for teaching the CLC, which is particularly useful given my limited knowledge of the course previously.
My final choice of option group was ‘Read It Right’, which focused on Latin pronunciation and metre. Before starting this, I had felt concerned that even quite young pupils would have called me up on my pronunciation. However, after these sessions I feel much more ready to speak Latin in class, help pupils with their pronunciation, and read verse to A Level students. The classes highlighted that I need to keep practising my ‘ng’ sound and stop making my ‘u’ sound English.
There were also a number of lectures on topics such as Grief in the Aeneid and Outreach in Classics, both by Helen Lovatt, and Roman Leicester with Nick Cooper. In addition to being highly interesting, these lectures exposed me to up-to-date research and topics I have not previously studied, such as the Roman history of Leicester. Of particular note was the talk on the new GCSE and A Level qualifications by Caroline Bristow, subject specialist at OCR. This lecture made me feel far better equipped to begin my teacher training in light of these changes.
Overall, the summer school has greatly improved both my knowledge and confidence not just in Classics but also in its teaching. Even the last night's entertainment, which included singing in Latin, proved helpful as it helped me practise my pronunciation and enabled me to think of similar ways to engage students with the subject. As a result of attending the ArLT Summer School I feel better prepared to start my PGCE this September.
Are you a member of JCT Facebook? It's free to sign up. Just search for The Journal of Classics Teaching on Facebook to stay in contact with news of training, CPD and exams. You can also post jobs there too for free.
Diary of events 2016-17
If you have events which you would like to tell people about, send details to The Editor, Steven Hunt, on [email protected]. Events can be publicised here and through the JCT Facebook page.
Events for 2016
- 2 September:
-
WJEC / EDUQAS. Latin GCSE (9-1) briefing. London. http://shop.wjec.co.uk/index.php?nav=13&stage=3&cID=501&langID=1
- 14 September:
-
AQA. Teaching Classical Civilisation at AS and A Level: the new specifications. London. http://www.aqa.org.uk/professionaldevelopment/coursedetails?meta_E=SCLCASAlevelClassicalCivilisationIntrotothenewspec
- 27 September:
-
Cambridge Faculty of Classics. Students' and teachers' Year 12 Classical Civilisation day. http://www.greeksromansus.classics.cam.ac.uk/events/
- 29 September:
-
Cambridge Faculty of Classics. Students' and teachers' Year 12 Set Texts Day. http://www.greeksromansus.classics.cam.ac.uk/events/
- 1 October:
-
Classical Association Teaching Board (CATB) meeting. London.
- 6 October.
-
Bloomsbury Academic and Classics for All Classics celebration. London. Venue TBA.
- 12-15 October.
-
Cambridge Greek Play. Antigone and Lysistrata. Arts Theatre Cambridge. http://www.cambridgegreekplay.com/
- 20-22 October:
-
Classical Association of the Atlantic States (CAAS) meeting. New Brunswick, NJ. http://caas-cw.org/wp/
- 17 November:
-
OCR INSET. Latin language GCSE (9-1). London. https://www.cpdhub.ocr.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?e=fjefcbdbhgnidcpindncdphpabihkmpcehicklnfcaaagkfaae
- 18 November:
-
OCR INSET. Latin language GCSE (9-1). Manchester. https://www.cpdhub.ocr.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?e=fjefcbdbhgnidcpindncdphpabihkmpcehicklnfcaaagkfaae
- 19 November:
-
Roman History at the Crossroads? An INSET day on Roman History at A Level. Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke. http://www.classicalassociation.org/ahinset.html
Events for 2017
- 5-8 January:
-
Society for Classical Studies (SCS) Annual Conference. Toronto. https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/2017-annual-meeting
- 12 January:
-
OCR INSET. Latin literature GCSE (9-1). London. https://www.cpdhub.ocr.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?e=fjefcbdbhgnidcpindncdphpabihkmpcehicklnfcaaagkfaad
- 13 January:
-
OCR INSET. Latin literature GCSE (9-1). Manchester. https://www.cpdhub.ocr.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?e=fjefcbdbhgnidcpindncdphpabihkmpcehicklnfcaaagkfaad
- 16 January:
-
WJEC / EDUQAS. Latin GCSE (9-1) next steps. London. http://shop.wjec.co.uk/index.php?nav=13&stage=3&cID=526&langID=1
- 19 January:
-
WJEC / EDUQAS. Latin GCSE (9-1) next steps. Manchester.http://shop.wjec.co.uk/index.php?nav=13&stage=3&cID=526&langID=1
- 20 January:
-
WJEC / EDUQAS. Latin GCSE (9-1) next steps. Birmingham. http://shop.wjec.co.uk/index.php?nav=13&stage=3&cID=526&langID=1
- 4 March:
-
Association for Latin Teaching (ArLT) Annual Refresher Day (INSET by teachers for teachers): Solihull School.
- 5-8 April:
-
Classical Association of the Mid-Western States (CAMWS) Annual Conference. Kitchener, Ontario. https://camws.org/meeting/index.php
- 26-29 April:
-
Classical Association Annual Conference. University of Kent at Canterbury. http://www.classicalassociation.org/events.html
- 29 June -1 July:
-
American Classical League (ACL) Institute. Pre-Institute: 28-29 June 2017. Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, US. https://www.aclclassics.org/events/2017-acl-institute
- July TBA:
-
Association for Latin Teaching (ArLT) Summer School (INSET by teachers for teachers). TBA.
- 30 September:
-
3rd Classics in Communities Conference. Oxford.
Open access
