Court de Wyck Church School is a small rural school in North Somerset that has 135 pupils on roll taught in mixed age groups.
In 2018, teachers from the school benefitted from a day of free training from Classics for All which enabled them to teach the Maximum Classic course to all pupils in Years 4-6. Pupils responded really well to Latin and staff enjoyed the format of the course materials. As a result, the school submitted a second application in 2019 to introduce Ancient Greek through the Mega Greek course. Following a focused day of Greek training for staff in September 2019, pupils in the Years 4,5 and 6 classes are now studying Greek on the curriculum.
In November 2019, pupils also enjoyed a half day of Greek workshops run by the Bristol and South West Classics Network. The school now plans to keep classics as a permanent part of the Key Stage 2 curriculum an
“The children have really enjoyed being introduced to a new language in such a well-structured and engaging way. We have also found that the way the Maximum Classics and Mega Greek programmes are structured has meant that our teachers, who have no experience of language teaching prior to this, are more confident with delivering high-quality language teaching regularly.” (Jessica Paul, KS2 teacher)
St Matthew's Primary School, Cambridge
At St Matthew’s Primary School in Cambridge, Greek is taught to pupils in Key Stage 2, thanks to an arrangement between the primary school and a nearby secondary school, Parkside Community College.
Parkside Community College is a state non-selective comprehensive school for pupils from 11-19, situated in the heart of Cambridge. It has taught Latin for a number of years, but has only recently offered Ancient Greek to interested students. Currently both Latin and Greek are taught off the curriculum up to GCSE level by Angela Dix, Head of International Education and Communication.
In order to increase interest in classics before new students arrive in Year 7, Angela Dix has been running Latin taster sessions in Parkside’s feeder primary schools – a tactic that has regularly resulted in over 40 students signing up for extra-curricular Latin in Year 7. However, following the launch of Classics for All’s Electra Programme, Angela shifted the focus of her primary outreach in 2018 to Ancient Greek and trialled the new Mega Greek resources with four separate primary classes over the course of a year.
At St Matthew’s Primary, Year 6 pupils have been learning Greek with Angela during curriculum time. This film highlights the positive impact Ancient Greek is having both at St Matthew’s Primary and at Parkside Community College.
“The students’ over-riding reaction was of enjoyment, engagement and thirst to learn more. They were fascinated by the links between Greek and their own languages – and very often EAL (English as an Additional Language) students found themselves excelling through having a knowledge of a similar alphabet system or knowing cognates. Feedback questionnaires given at the end of the 12 weeks with each class were overwhelmingly positive with many students wanting to do more and even asking for homework!” (Angela Dix, Parkside Community College)