Archive for the Classics category

The Year 8s have been looking at life in Pompeii throughout this year. Sadly, a day trip to Pompeii is unrealistic; instead, we took them to the Roman town of Corinium (a.k.a. Cirencester). The girls were able to learn about what the Romans ate, wore and were interested in by exploring the museum and attending a session led by the museum’s education specialist. We had a fantastic day and look forward to seeing their project work!

On the first day back after half term the Classics Department took nearly fifty Year 10s for a day of discovering what ancient artefacts the British Museum had to offer. Their brief: to be set-designers finishing the film set for the scenario they had been assigned. By means of drawings, descriptions, photos they had to establish the collection of artefacts and ideas they had put together from their visit.

The girls enjoyed having a different sort of work challenge and produced beautiful displays.

During half-term Miss Derrick, Miss Stewart and Mr & Mrs Bennett accompanied thirty girls on a wonderful tour of the Greek sites of Sicily. Our days were very busy – our courier Mario could not believe how much we planned to do, and did!

Our itinerary, from Friday to Thursday, was: Catania and Acireale (very Sicilian and baroque); Etna (it erupted obligingly, just a little); Taormina (the theatre); Syracuse, including Epipolae (Thucydides and Archimedes) as well as Ortygia (Arethusa, gelato!) and the archaeological park (stone quarries, theatre); Morgantina (ruined Greek town, amazing); Villa del Casale at Piazza Armerina (bikini girls); Agrigento (temple upon temple, the excellent museum and the Hellenistic town); Eraclea Minoa (new but it was raining); Selinunte (massive Greek site but massive rain storm spoiled it); Segesta (weather now improving for the extra-ordinary temple); then on to Erice (up and up the mountain through the clouds and onto the cobbled streets!); and finally Monreale, the cathedral of Palermo (beautiful and golden, full of mosaics).

It was a fantastic week, a cultural feast. The evenings were filled with activity too: a walk into Acireale centre in the dark, a quiz (very competitive!), a show with sketches and songs from the girls, plenty of chatting and eating.

Next year – the south of Italy and the area around Naples and Vesuvius.

Welcome to Pompeii! Girls in Year 8 have been rehearsing plays from the Cambridge Latin Course. We have had an angry barber, a talented painter and a dishonest Greek merchant – all speaking with beautiful Latin accents. Sheets added the final ‘authentic’ touch as they performed in the beautiful new drama studio.

The Year 9s are studying Roman Britain this term in Latin and so we travelled down to the south coast to visit the palace of our very own King Cogidubnus. Fishbourne palace is a valuable site as many mosaics remain and part of the garden has been replanted in the way that archaeologists thought it would have been. Girls sketched the mosaics, archaeological finds and the herbs in the garden to use as illustrations for their mini projects. We also visited Portchester castle – originally a Roman fort, then a medieval castle and finally a prison – to see how it differed to forts up at Hadrian’s Wall. The girls were wonderful and remained focused and enthusiastic throughout the day.

This year the Year 12 Greek students are studying Xenophon’s Anabasis, an account of the Ten Thousand Greek mercenary soldiers and their travels and battles into and then out of Persia. Westerners invading Iraq? How could a classical text be more relevant! In Oxford we are lucky enough to have one of the authorities on the subject – Tim Rood of St Hugh’s College – and we travelled to MCS to hear him speak about the author and his work.

This year we marched (or bussed) a century of Year 8s up to Hadrian’s Wall for our week long cross curricular study trip. Despite the larger than usual number of girls, there was a tremendous sense of harmony and happiness. Several girls were overheard saying that they liked things and wanted to stay longer! – ‘it’s only a weekend – can’t we go back on Monday?’

It’s not surprising.when else can you live with your friends in a castle (or tent), sing songs round the campfire, get to know the Y12s who come too, dress up like Roman soldier, sail round the Farne Islands avoiding being pecked by birds, walk a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall, explore Roman forts, study the volcanic rock formation of the Whinsill, write poems and stories about life on the Wall and generally have a fun time away from home?

At the end of the Spring term we invited Year 11 Greek students from Abingdon School to join us in celebrating the excitement of studying Greek! Fifteen boys came to team up with our girls and compete in a quiz written by the teachers at Abingdon School

At the end of the Spring term we invited Year 11 Greek students from Abingdon School to join us in celebrating the excitement of studying Greek! Fifteen boys came to team up with our girls and compete in a quiz written by the teachers at Abingdon School. The Classicists did well at answering cryptic crossword style questions and showed they knew their set texts thoroughly. After a feast the mixed teams had fun acting out passages of Herodotus and Homer in the style of things such as Star Trek, Jane Austen, The Simpsons…

On a sunny day in March one hundred Year Eights set off for the Roman town of Corinium (Cirencester). We have never taken so many girls to the museum before and were allowed the museum to ourselves!

The girls were wonderful – they marched straight into the museum and settled down to sketching the mosaics and artefacts with amazing focus. They enjoyed dressing up as Romans and finding out about life in Roman Britain. The mini projects produced – diaries, letters and town plans – were detailed and informative and displayed their enjoyment of the experience effectively. We’re now looking forward to the Hadrian’s Wall trip in the summer!

This March, as in most years, the Classics Department took more than 40 girls to compete in the Oxford Classical Reading Competition, in which students from a variety of Oxfordshire schools recite Latin and Greek to a board of judges from the University.

We enjoyed a stroll through North Oxford to the University Parks where many of our girls performed their passages while we waited for the event to start. Finally we made our way to Magdalen College to meet up with the other schools. There were fantastic recitations from many students including our girls which ensured an enjoyable event. We were very pleased with the number of our girls who gained prizes!

The Year 10 Latin and Greek students visited the British Museum in January 2011 to get inspiration for their film-set projectsThis year’s trip to the British Museum did not have an auspicious start – the radio announced that it was officially the most depressing day of the year, and the driving rain seemed to back up that point. However, the spirits of the Year 10s were high, excited at the thought of being let loose in the British Museum! Their brief was to design a film set for a certain scenario using drawings of the artefacts they came across. The girls took the activity very seriously and could be seen sketching vases, statues and jewellery all around the museum. The work the girls produced after the trip was fantastic!