Year 10 Classicists End the Year with a Cultural Feast of Museums, Plays and Masterclasses
By Eleanor P, Year 10 Journalist Lead
This half term may be the last one of the year but that is no reason to assume that the NHEHS Classics Department begins to wind down in the summer months – if anything, quite the opposite happens! Over the last few weeks, students of Latin and Greek in Year 10 have been treated to not one, not two, but three outings and events – a talk from an Oxford academic and trips to the British Museum and KCL’s Greek Play – to conclude what has been a fabulous first GCSE year for everyone.
By the end of our exam week, most Year 10 Latinists had probably gone about a fortnight without thinking once about the language, since our assessment in it was before the break. Nevertheless, the Classics Department got its hands on us as soon as it could, whisking us away the moment our last exam ended on Friday evening to the wonderful British Museum (oh, the joys of the Elizabeth line! After-school central London trips!) Here, instead of the usual ‘We’ve come to look at x, here’s your booklet’ that one gets on school trips, we spent time discussing what museums are, how this has changed over time, and where they are going, looking at the Enlightenment Gallery and discussing controversial items like the Parthenon sculptures, which are going to be redisplayed soon. We also, as it was a Classics trip, went to look at the Roman Britain collections (not without a quick history tangent about Sutton Hoo by Ms Neilson!), each picking out a favourite object to tell the group about. After a couple of hours at the museum, we crossed the road to a very conveniently located Pizza Express for some dinner to end the day. If I had to choose a favourite part, however, it actually wouldn’t be the food(!); I much preferred Mrs Tollit teaching us how to read Roman tombstones, as not only is it a bit like a code (and I do love a code) but it also connects you to a person who lived thousands of years ago, which is a very powerful feeling.
Before long it was time for the Greek class’ trip to the KCL Greek Play, which has been performed annually since 1953, always at least partially in classical Greek. Another after-school escapade, we again dined at a restaurant to celebrate our efforts in the subject, before heading round the corner to the university’s theatre. An engaging talk about vengeance in Greek drama was the equivalent of a warm-up act, one which was surprisingly cross-curricular as we have been studying A View from the Bridge in English recently and it prompted much interesting thought about not only Electra but also Eddie Carbone and tragedy as a form. As well as just talking about vengeance, it also discussed the place of women in ancient societies, which was very interesting. Then came the play, which judging by buzzing conversations on the Tube afterwards impressed everyone. (Earlier in the year the school went to see another production of Electra’s story so we thought it would be interesting to compare the two, but they were so different it was almost difficult to do so.) It’s always fun to see stories brought to life on stage, but hearing Greek words that we recognised (φυλακες (guards) was one!) really elevated the experience!
Finally, last Friday we had a virtual visit from Oxford’s Dr Tom Nelson, to celebrate the final Classics Masterclass session of the term. Although we didn’t have long, he gave us an introduction to the wider political setting in which Greek drama was performed, which was fascinating, as we normally discuss the content of the plays rather than also considering Athens as a whole. He also touched on the link between Dionysus and drama, and why the two are connected, before sending us away with a ‘goodie bag’ (his words) of sources and wider reading to sink our teeth into over the summer!
This last term (and the whole year) has been full of so many events that have broadened our studies of Latin and Greek beyond just the languages or the set texts. Great thanks are owed to the wonderful Classics department for their relentless efforts to expose us to the whole classical world and give us interesting experiences and things to talk about!
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