Latin
Aims
The Latin language is the basis for many modern European languages. Study of the grammar and vocabulary of Latin is an excellent preparation for the study of any language, including our own. This work not only enables the student to acquire a familiarity with the mechanics of language in general but also, because of the flexibility within the Latin language, it involves a particularly high degree of analysis and problem-solving. Study of the language leads naturally into study of the literature of the ancient Romans. Aspects of Roman daily life, history and politics are explored. The Romans knew ambition, disappointment, joy and heartbreak just as well as any other people and copiously expressed these ideas in their writing. The ancient Roman culture is a culture which at first seems to us unfamiliar but the more one studies it, the more one grows to feel that it is a world which is very close to our own.
Key Stage 3
In Year 7 all pupils take Latin. At the end of Year 7 pupils choose whether to continue with Latin from the start of Year 8 until the end of Year 9 or whether to take a modern foreign language instead of Latin – German or French. In Key Stage 3 we study the Cambridge Latin Course which takes us to Pompeii shortly before the eruption of Vesuvius. There we follow the life of the family of Caecilius, the head of a household which included slaves. Using stories in Latin about Caecilius’ daily life, we learn not only the language but we learn also about aspects of the Roman culture in general and about Pompeii in particular. Later books in the Cambridge Latin Course take us to Roman Britain and to Egypt. At the end of Year 9 pupils sit the Level 1 exam. in Latin Language and Roman Civilisation set by the WJEC board.
GCSE
At the end of Year 9 pupils can opt to continue with Latin until GCSE. In Years 10 and 11 the GCSE course involves the continued study of the Latin language to a standard which enables the reading of literary texts. Both verse and prose texts are studied, for example the story of Aeneas, the Trojan hero, or the histories of Tacitus who writes about the emperors.
AS and A Level
In the Sixth form pupils may continue with Latin. AS and A2 work involves a more intense study of literature, once again of both verse and prose. This will result also in a greater depth of understanding of many aspects of the culture of the ancient Romans.
Facilities
The Latin teaching room has its own desktop computer with an interactive whiteboard with ActivInspire. A DVD produced by the providers of our course accompanies the first two textbooks at Key Stage 3. This DVD contains many dramatisations of the stories in the text-books as well as games which test language skills; there is, too, illustrated background information on daily life.
Extra-curricular
The school has regularly run a trip to Italy for Key Stage 3 during which we visit Rome, Ostia, Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli and Herculaneum. Perhaps the climax of the trip is the visit to Pompeii, where we see the house of Caecilius, followed by our trip to the summit of Vesuvius!
Staffing
Mr B Gilles, MA, Oxford, PGCE
