CLASSICS
Boys learn Latin from Year 5 onwards, beginning with the gentle and colourful cartoons of the Minimus course.
We take a different tack through the Pompeian world of the Cambridge Course in Year 6 and in Years 7 and 8 the study of the language is aimed more particularly towards the requirements of Common Entrance and Scholarship. We believe it is worthwhile for everyone to have some knowledge of Latin, and moreover its study can provide a useful foundation for linguistic learning. No boy can be sure which language he may need in later life, but he will find its learning easier if he has studied elementary Latin.
In tandem with Latin the riches of the classical world will be explored, particularly Greek mythology. A few, for whom the Latin language proves too exhausting a challenge, will follow a course in Classical Civilisation, with the possibility of taking the new Classical Civilisation Common Entrance paper; it is to be hoped that most boys will offer this paper in the future.
"'Before, I would ask him what he’d done at school that day and he’d say, ‘nothing’, but now (after joining CCCS) he comes home babbling about Latin!’", says a parent in disbelief‘"
Good schools guide 2023.
Just as a proficient musician will learn more than one instrument so a keen classicist will want to learn a little Greek – for which there is an after-school club offered to Years 7 & 8.
Parents often say that their child loves Greek mythology but finds Latin a slog; for Classics teachers this is as much news as hearing that children prefer ice cream and chocolate to broccoli and French beans. Latin can be hard, but studied with application it should be absorbing and beneficial, and there are many ways to sweeten and enliven the process of learning. As someone once wrote: omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci.
