CLASSICS
In Classics, girls have the opportunity to study Latin or Classical Civilisation throughout the Senior Department.
In Latin at Key Stage 3, we follow the highly acclaimed Cambridge Latin Course whose books and stories are progressively set in Pompeii, various towns in Roman Britain and the Roman provincial city of Alexandria. At GCSE, girls begin their study of ‘real’ Latin literature texts, either Verse or Prose authors such as Ovid, Martial, Pliny, Horace; this is of course in addition to the ongoing language element. The final unit involves a study of certain Roman society topics based wholly around a range of primary evidence; topics include Entertainment, Myth and Beliefs, and Roman Britain.
In Classical Civilisation we study both the culture and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome.
At Key Stage 3, the girls are exposed to a broad range of classical areas e.g. Homer’s timeless tales of the Trojan War and its heroes, the city of Athens, the role of women in ancient Greek society, gods and myths, the founding of Rome and the invasion of Britain.
At GCSE, girls take the following 2 units:
1. Myth & Religion (including topics such as the gods, heroes, temples, symbols of power, the underworld, all of which are studied in both the Greek and Roman civilisations);
2. Roman City Life (including the cultural study of family, housing, society, entertainment, and a literary study of Roman attitudes towards aspects of their culture, analysing the satires of Juvenal and Horace, as well as a number of Pliny’s Letters).
