Inspired by his own love of the ancient world, Andrew Shell, a History teacher at Bryntirion Comprehensive School in South Wales, has been offering classics and ancient history to a group of enthusiastic students through a lunchtime club.
The club is open to all year groups and regularly attracts over 30 students. The range, quality and ambition of the work produced by students in this club is particularly impressive. They have, for example, completed local research, presented their findings to the public, started to learn basic Latin and Ancient Greek, visited local museums and sites (such as Caerleon and Caerwent), developed basic archaeology techniques and critiqued films about the classical world.
Given their passionate commitment to learning about the classical world, it is fitting that 15 Bryntirion students were the first recipients of Classics for All’s new award, the Olympus Challenge, which has been designed specifically to recognise the achievements of those studying classics on an extra-curricular basis.
Support from Classics for All helped Andrew Shell to develop resources for the club and allowed pupils to visit the University of Bristol in September 2019. In Bristol, Dr Genevieve Lively from the Bristol Classics Hub ran a fascinating workshop on Ancient Robots & Cyborgs and presented the students with their Olympus Challenge certificates.