Latin

"Who'd want to study Latin?"

"Latin doesn't help to turn out factory-made mini-consumers fit for a globalised 21st-century society. It helps create curious, intellectually rigorous kids with a rich interior world, people who have the tools to see our world as it really is, because they have encountered and imaginatively experienced another that is so like, and so very unlike, our own."  Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian, 24.v.2009

Lower Third (Year 7)

All pupils in the Lower School (and some of the prep school) receive two Latin lessons a week. We use the Cambridge Latin Course, following the tales of a family who lived in Pompeii at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. Whilst reading the entertaining tales of Caecilius, a Pompeian business man, his wife, Metella, their son, Quintus and their much loved dog Cerberus, pupils will learn basic Latin vocabulary and structures, including the use of the nominative, accusative and dative cases, and the present, imperfect and perfect tenses.

Upper Third (Year 8)

Following the destruction of Pompeii in the volcanic eruption at the end of CLC I, Book II of the series sees the action move to Roman Britain and then Alexandria. Pupils discover who survived the tragic catastrophe in Pompeii and learn about the Roman invasion of Britain, with particular reference to King Cogidubnus of Fishbourne Palace, and the cultural hostilities in Roman Alexandria. New grammar includes the use of the relative pronoun, the genitive case, the infinitive and imperative and the pluperfect tense.

Trips and Extra-curricular

2011 saw the inaugural Lower School Classics trip, where thirty members of the third form visited the Bay of Naples. During a week of unbroken spring sunshine, the pupils enjoyed the sights and smells of Solfatara, the astonishing ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum, the breath-taking views from the top of Mount Vesuvius and the fashionable atmospheres of both Sorrento and Capri. March 2012 sees the next of our trips to Greece...

Classical Reading Competition

This year's Classical Reading Competition will take place on Tuesday 6^th March at 6pm. Please contact Becky Miller  for further details.