Our Year 12 Classics Reps got last Thursday off to a lively start with a highly informative and fun assembly, showing us that Classics are indeed all around us in our everyday lives, from politics to history, from Taylor Swift lyrics to political rhetoric to the Hippocratic Oath!

The wide and varied assembly featured students’ and teachers’ favourite and least favourite Roman Emperors and Greek Deities. In politics, students highlighted the clever use of Classical language in Winston Churchill’s rousing WWII speeches, a plethora of famous Classicists (Chris Martin from Coldplay, actor Tom Hiddleston, Sigmund Freud and Boris Johnson), not to mention the Roman and Greek influence on pop, rock and classical music – notably Bastille’s Dan Smith and Taylor Swift’s State of Grace lyrics referencing Achilles’ heel.

A look back over last term showed just what a busy academic year it has been so far for our Classics Department with a wonderful Year 11/12 trip to Rome at half term, a Year 11/12 trip to Oxford to see Medea, while our Year 11 students enjoyed sharing their love of Latin with Latin classes for Year 5 pupils at North Ealing Primary School. Year 9 even performed a play entirely in Latin! 

To end the week on a high, our Classics Reps ran a fun Classics treasure hunt at lunchtime on Friday with tasty prizes for the winners (see below for the winning Years 7, 8 and 9 students).

We also held a Classics symposium on Monday 15th January when historian, author and comedian Dr Emma Southon gave a talk on the women who shaped the Roman Empire. 

Miss Bradshaw will be speaking on Herodotus at the GDST Classics Conference next week based at South Hampstead High School, while on 28th February we are also looking forward to our annual Classics Dinner.