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Latin and Classics
Latin is a subject like no other in the College - there is a great combination of fun and hard work and I couldn’t recommend it more.
– Richard Chapman-Boon, Form 5
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Our Unique Opportunity
The ancient world is an amazing place of history, myth and wonder. Most schools do not have the opportunity to teach this extraordinary subject. Here at St Columba’s not only do we bring it gloriously to life, but here we are actually in the Roman town of Verulamium! Metres away from the Latin room are the Roman walls and mosaics – there are 2000-year-old artefacts in our display cabinet, and we can put these into the hands of our students!
Achievements
Classics students at SCC are tremendously dedicated – notably last year our Head Boy sailed into Oxford to do Classics, having won a prize in a Cambridge essay competition. The vast majority of Latin students at GCSE and A Level get A grades, and we are naturally very proud of our students’ success.
Classics Trips
Pompeii! We regularly visit the most important archaeological site in the world – on our last trip, we stood literally on the top of Mount Vesuvius and looked down on Pompeii and the stunning views of the Bay of Naples. In that incredible location we distributed Pliny’s eyewitness text and taught a lesson up there. It just doesn’t get much better than that. Added to this, we do trips to Verulamium Museum, Fishbourne Palace, and even an ancient Treasure Hunt round the British Museum in London. Archaeology, as Indiana Jones would confirm, cannot only happen in a classroom.
Classics for All
The younger they start the better – currently Latin and Classical History is taught across nine, yes nine, year groups. Columban students now start studying Latin in Prep 5 and can continue all the way through to the Upper Sixth. The advantage that this gives them over every other student in the country is significant. And I can’t deny it, teaching Prep 5 how to describe Minecraft in Latin is tremendous fun.
Classics Events
COVID-19 did not stop us, oh no. In fact, we were even busier during lockdown. For example, we arranged a Zoom call with a world expert from Cambridge University on Virgil, and on another evening, we got tickets for our students to attend a series of online-access presentations by University College London on the subject of Chariot Racing. Which was totally epic – please go and watch Ben Hur if you don’t know what I mean. Latin is an incredibly exciting subject. The teachers bring to life the literature from 2000 years ago – Hannibal crossing the Alps, Pliny governing his province in Bithynia, Aeneas escaping from burning Troy. The grammar is expertly interspersed with stories of great leaders such as Hannibal, Caesar and Horatius. Truly a remarkable subject that every student should strive to study.
– Henry Mauldridge, Form 5
Ever since my first Latin lesson I have absolutely adored the subject, and I am so glad that I will be able to continue Latin at SCC in Sixth Form next year.
– Alec Jones, Form 5 Classics Expertise
The members of the two-person team teaching Latin & Classics at SCC are both Cambridge trained. This means that as well as having a variety of contacts at the University, we can take the world class expertise from which we benefited and channel it through our individual passions to the students. There may be better qualified Classics departments out there, but not many I don’t think.
