Sian Squire lets us see how she runs a highly successful Classical Civilisation A level course in a state sector further education college
In the summer of 2024 the Council of University Classics Departments produced a report which noted a small downward trend in entries for ancient languages at GCSE and A level in UK schools and colleges, but an increase in the number of students who are taking either Ancient History (up by 24.4%) or Classical Civilisation (up by 12.5%), and I have seen this trend in my own state sector college in the Shrewsbury Colleges Group. This is to be celebrated; languages and culture are part of a family who both promote a deeper understanding of the Ancient World. This year at our college, I have 110 students enrolled for A level Classical Civilisation across a 5-block timetable and have seen an upward trend in numbers for a few years.
People ask me what the magic formula is, but I am not quite sure if there is one. Firstly, I had a well-established course before I arrived at the college in 2005. Alan Potter, my predecessor, was a wonderful advocate for the subject and examined for AQA for many years. Prior to that, Martin Thorpe, first Principal of Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, once served as the President of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers. I am always aware that I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. I was educated in a state sixth form myself in Wrexham, Wales. Latin was taught there alongside a choice of different periods of History, and I chose Greek and Roman because I was jaded with modern. Students are still offered a choice of types of history in our own college— Classical Civilisation, Medieval History and C20th. Our current Principal, James Staniforth, is a Cambridge educated Historian who is a great advocate for History both Ancient and Modern. Despite running a college across 3 campuses and with over 10,000 students, the Principal keeps his hand in by meeting with students regularly and helping prepare them for Oxbridge entrance. This year 30% of my Classical Civilisation second year students have left their A level course to study a related subject at university, two to Cambridge and one to Durham. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of teaching students who have gone on to gain their PhD in Classics, become actors with the RSC, managing directors of football clubs and even jewellers. Natasha Hershaw who makes classically inspired jewellery with her company “Plato’s fire” was one of my first students when I moved from Coleg Cambria in Wrexham to teach here.
In terms of advertising, the college has a media team and an educational outreach team who go into local schools to talk about the college and advise on subjects. I have a taster day on a Saturday in November, and two open evenings. In the summer, year 11 pupils come from their schools for a transition day to their new environment. In terms of advertising, I’ve always found the Homeric method better – word of mouth and reputation! I have developed our own subject twitter (X) account and YouTube channel with the name “Classical Civilisation Shrewsbury”, and my students have their own podcast on Spotify – ‘Titan Talks SCG’ - which was set up with funds from Classics for All. It meets weekly, involving any student who wants to be involved, and some of these are not (yet) studying Classical Civilisation.
Most of my A level students have never studied the Ancient World before they arrive at the college and many never had the opportunity to study it at GCSE. They come from miles around to study the subject: recently I had a student who travelled by train daily from the North Welsh coast 70 miles away, who left the college with a grade A. In our end of year ‘student voice’ survey this year, one student said, “I’m really glad Classical Civilisation is available to learn at college, it is different and interesting, something that I’ve always enjoyed.”
The fact that they are coming to the subject fresh can be an advantage—they generally arrive with a huge amount of enthusiasm and a real curiosity. In their summer transition day, they are taught the names of the Greek and Roman gods and asked to produce a piece of work based around them: students have produced crochet Poseidon, Athene and Hera, papier mâché Greek vases with pictures of the gods on them, mug coasters with mythological themes, cake in the shape of the temple of Hercules Victor in Rome and lots of Minecraft temples, and this is a QR link to a video of some of the things my students have created. The URL is https://tinyurl.com/ClassicsSCG
Trusting and harnessing student creativity is, in my experience, vital and as far as is possible I try to be creative in my teaching. I have taught Cleisthenes’ democratic reforms using bread wraps, jam and skittles and created chocolate coins of Augustus – edible lessons are the best. I have regular seasonal activities as well – Teddies in Togas is an annual event, where students dress their teddy bears up and raise money for ‘Children in Need’, I have a Classics Pumpkin competition, and I have used Trojan paper figures from Greek Myth Comix as decorations on our Christmas tree last year. One student made Classics Monopoly using the adventures of Odysseus as the place names, tiny plastic oars as houses and boats as hotels – Lego figures of Medusa and Leonidas can easily be moved around the game board. These ideas come entirely from the students – recently, some students used a 3D printer to reproduce the Statue of Prima Porta, Livia’s head and some coins of Augustus, presenting them to me as a birthday present. In 2021, a student meme became one of BBC Cultures “Most Striking Image of the Year”: many of you will remember this, which began life as a joke in a classroom in Shrewsbury and was retweeted over 2000 times.
In recent years, teaching has been challenged by the advent of online teaching such as the use of MS Teams to deliver courses online, and we have seen more recently the advent of AI. Teachers need to see these as opportunities. My use of Teams has altered over the last few years—I no longer use it for day-to-day lessons as I did over the Covid period but still use it to post day to day assignments and revision guides in side channels. It has also proved invaluable in connecting our students to classrooms or universities miles away. Some academics have been brave enough to allow me to record their talks so that future students can watch them. Interactive whiteboards have brought more activities too, such as sequencing of dates on a timeline or demonstrating the annotating of texts. In Shrewsbury, I’ve used AI in a number of different ways such as creating quizzes, mind maps, chat bots for the Odyssey and Aeneid, speed reading, summarising articles, making AI podcasts by creating a script and getting a programme such as eleven labs to create vocals. We can utilise and harness these new technologies as teachers have done for centuries – I’m old enough to remember when there was a fear that videos were going to take over the role of the individual teacher! Students enjoy creating word clouds to summarise ideas, use film-making software such as clip champ to create short videos or render visual PowerPoints of pictures of the myth of Medea into a film format. The possibilities are endless and I think the students teach me more about classroom delivery every day. My Classical Civilisation students have partnered with Digital Games students and have been on a trip to a Roman fort. The digital games students are utilising software such as Polygon Ancient Worlds software to create computerised Roman Worlds.
One thing that has been vital for me over the last few years has been partnerships. I am part of the History, Politics and RS programme area and often learn new ideas from them that can be adapted to teach Classical Civilisation. In 2019 I started to meet in person with other Sixth Form College teachers who were teaching Classical Civilisation in the state sector, Hereford, Worcester and Richard Huish College, swapping teaching ideas and resources. As our intake is similar, it has been helpful to stay in touch and as time has gone on, other Sixth Form colleges have joined us. This has meant that we can share training, expertise and guest speakers both in person and online. I have always found local universities invaluable – Warwick University has run a teacher training day which has helped to increase networking. I was privileged enough to attend the Classical Association conference at Warwick in 2024, coming away with lots of new contacts. Shrewsbury College had Dr Clare Rowan visit us with her Augustan coins in 2024 and students were able to handle the actual coins that are included in the Imperial Image module at A level. Classics 4 All has been brilliant too – as well as funding our student run podcast, they have introduced me to lots of other teachers and academics. Our local network is Birmingham and West Midlands Classics network based at Birmingham University. In 2024, Dr Elena Theodorakopoulos and Dr Hannah Cornwall visited us, and we were joined by over 100 state sixth form college students and staff from Shrewsbury, Worcester, Stoke and Wrexham. It was not a surprise to hear students leave the room saying that they hadn’t thought about studying Classical Subjects at University, but now they have met with academics, they are thinking of applying. Academics are welcome at Shrewsbury College – do get in touch!
In the local area we are glad that the independent schools have worked with us simply for the love of the subject. Shrewsbury High School and Shrewsbury School have helped prepare students for mock interviews. Shrewsbury High School (GDST) has enabled our students to meet top name speakers such as Natalie Haynes, Alice Roberts and Bettany Hughes and I have been very glad of the input, support and friendship of both Di Birt and Jo Lashly there. Paul Fitzgerald at Shrewsbury School has kindly taken some students for enrichment Latin lessons and once gave them the opportunity to take part in a production of Oedipus Rex too.
I have my own views on ways I’d like to see the A level develop in future, but I will summarise from our student voice questionnaires, as they are the consumers. They feel that there is too much content, particularly too many ancient literary sources to learn. This may be a product of the fact that I teach both the Imperial Image module and the Democracy module together, although I agree with them that there is too much content—it always feels like a race to finish all the required course material with no time to revise. Several students comment that there is too much Augustan poetry to look at, and many feel that they would like a more visual element to the course: they enjoy the coins, statues and buildings of Augustan Rome but feel that they’d like more visual elements in the Democracy paper. My students feel that there is too much essay writing to do in the exam itself (and not enough time to do it), and wonder whether a variety of different assessment methods could be used. It’s important to remember that not all A level students who take the subject want to study at university: some of our students go into the armed forces, some into leisure and tourism and some go into the financial sector or become estate agents. Recently, when Natalie Haynes visited, I was able to call on an ex-student who was a baker and she created an incredible cake in the shape of Medusa’s head. When Mary Beard visited Tanners, our local wine seller, this year, she was invited by the events manager who had an A level in Classical Civilisation. I’ll never know what many of my A level students go on to do, but I hope they will always carry something of the splendour that was Greece and the glory that was Rome with them.
I’m aware this has been mainly a good news story. The number of students being taught A level Classical Civilisation has increased in the UK in recent years, but numbers are not that different to the numbers being taught before the AS and A level qualification were decoupled. I was the sole teacher of the subject then and remain so now in spite of rising numbers. The number of students with Classical languages has declined overall in the UK, and so I rely on enrichment and collaboration to provide access to them, and the ability to access online tutoring for learning languages has been invaluable. As those who love the Ancient World, we must not be complacent and in a world where STEM subjects receive more attention and funding, we continue to battle. How do we survive? We have a subject family and we support each other: and I often find that colleagues are envious of our network. In Shrewsbury College, I have fostered partnerships with local schools, universities, and the wider classics community. I have a great team around me and managers who aim to support. I think of myself more as a facilitator who partners with students to achieve their personal goals, trying to embrace new ideas and technologies. The aim at the end of the day is for students who leave the college to be equipped for life with a lasting appreciation of the value, the pleasure and the legacy of Greece and Rome.
Sian Squire was in 2023 awarded the ‘Outstanding State Sector Initiative Award’ by the Classical Association (Teaching Awards - The Classical Association) and has in previous years given presentations to Classical Association Conferences. She was nominated for a Teaching Award by Classics for All, who described her as a ‘one-woman-wonder’. She holds a degree in the subject from Leeds University. She is happy to be contacted at [email protected] if readers would like to follow up on the ideas in this article, which began life as a talk to the Birmingham and West Midlands Teachers conference.